Murdered man’s daughter seeks ‘cold case’ witnesses
A WOMAN who discovered her father collapsed at home with a fatal stab wound 32 years ago issued an emotional plea today to help trace his killer.
Dawn Gibbons was 16 when she found her father John Gibbons, 49, at their Putney flat on Sunday March 17, 1985. The former London Transport engineer had been stabbed in the heart and his throat had been slashed.
Ms Gibbons, 48, said: “This year I am coming up to the age that Dad was when he was killed. The pain of what happened only gets worse as I grow older and remember what my father and I did together, especially as I now have my own daughter.
“My father meant the world to me and his death has had a massive impact on my whole life. I have to live with the grief that a person I loved is not here.
“The fact that my father’s killer still walks the streets of London has been extremely difficult to deal with over the past 32 years.” She spoke out as the Met’s cold case homicide team launched a new inquiry into the murder.
Detectives say Mr Gibbons, originally from British Guiana, often socialised in pubs close to his home at Huntingford House in Horne Way.
Known as a popular and generous figure, he would lend money to friends and family, and some had urged him to be more cautious.
A 28-year-old man was charged with murder but the case was discontinued. There have been no further arrests.
Anyone with any information should call 020 7230 7963 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.