Patsy Morris

Status:

Open

Offense Location:

Feltham, London

Summary:

Patricia Joyce 'Patsy' Morris was a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Feltham, London, murdered by strangulation on 16 June 1980. She disappeared during her school lunch break and was found dead two days later in undergrowth on Hounslow Heath, strangled with a ligature made from her own tights. Despite extensive police investigations and reviews, including a 2015–2016 Scotland Yard inquiry into links with serial killer Levi Bellfield, her murder remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On 16 June 1980, 14‑year‑old Patricia Joyce "Patsy" Morris disappeared from Feltham in west London during her school's lunch break and was found dead two days later in undergrowth on Hounslow Heath, roughly a quarter of a mile from her home. It was believed Morris left school because she had forgotten her raincoat that morning, choosing to return home to change into dry clothes. A witness recalled seeing Morris soon after noon near her home. Another witness recalled seeing a girl who may have been Morris crouching at a bus stop on the Hounslow Heath side of Staines Road, just west of the Hussar public house between 12:20 p.m. and 12:40 p.m. These were the last sightings of her alive. Two days later, on 18 June, her body was discovered by a police dog handler on Hounslow Heath, just a quarter of a mile from her home. She was found face down in a small wood, half naked with her underwear pulled down to her ankles, and her hands were tied. She had been raped before being strangled with one leg of her tights.

Additional Details:

Despite extensive police appeals and inquiries, her murder has never been solved. The initial investigation in 1980 included house‑to‑house inquiries and appeals for witnesses, including a mysterious driver of a blue van seen near her home at the time of her disappearance. After she was reported missing a large search operation was launched to find her, involving hundreds of police officers, helicopters and members of the public who had volunteered to help. On 22 June, four days after she was found dead, a detective on the investigative team told the press that they felt another youngster playing truant could hold key information on the murder. Soon after Morris was found dead, her father received a phoned death threat from an unidentified teenage boy. The call was from a local caller who seemed to have a local accent. In December 1980, the police appealed for a mysterious driver of a blue van with a radio telephone to come forward. The man was seen using a telephone handset in his van near the home of Morris around the time of her murder, and detectives said that he could have seen something that would help the investigation. The murder was brought to public attention again in 2008, when it was discovered that she had been a childhood girlfriend of west London serial killer Levi Bellfield, known for being the murderer of Surrey teenager Milly Dowler in 2002. Police investigated links between her murder and Bellfield, but he was never formally charged over her death. Bellfield, who had attended the same school as Morris and had been obsessed with her murder, was a prime suspect but was only known to have been 12 years old at the time of the killing. The investigation into his possible involvement was based on a confession he allegedly made to a cellmate while in prison, though no definitive evidence connected him to the crime. While specific DNA from Morris's scene has been re-examined multiple times since 2008—yielding profiles used to eliminate other suspects like Levi Bellfield—no evidence has linked it to Sutcliffe, effectively ruling him out. Following the initial investigation, Patsy's parents, George and Marjorie Morris, made public appeals for information about their daughter's murder, with Marjorie directly addressing the perpetrator in media interviews shortly after the body was discovered. The family continued to seek justice through ongoing engagement with police, including George Morris's support for renewed inquiries decades later. The Metropolitan Police told MyLondon that the investigation is no longer active, but should new information come to light the investigation would be revived.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 14, 2026