Elizabeth Chau

Status:

Open

Missing From:

West Ealing, England, United Kingdom

Summary:

Elizabeth Chau, age 19, was a computer studies student at Thames Valley University who disappeared on 16 April 1999 from West Ealing, England. She was last seen walking down Uxbridge Road toward her home and her image was captured by a closed-circuit TV camera outside the local police station. When she disappeared, she left behind her clothes and all her possessions, including her passport, and since her disappearance, no money has been withdrawn from her bank account. The case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

Elizabeth Chau left her home in West Ealing at noon to attend Thames Valley University, which has a campus in that area, where she was on a computer studies course. She left college at around 5pm that day to return to her home in West Ealing and was seen by a friend on Ealing Broadway half an hour later; the last sighting of her was close to Ealing Police Station on Uxbridge Road at 6pm. She was last seen walking down Uxbridge Road toward her home in West Ealing. She was only about five minutes from home where she lived with her parents, but after she went out of shot on the CCTV she was never seen again.

Additional Details:

Police believed her to have been killed by serial sex offender and suspected serial killer Andrzej Kunowski, who murdered a 12-year-old girl nearby in 1997 and was the prime suspect in the murder of Elizabeth Chau, but Kunowski was questioned over her disappearance and no concrete evidence was found to link him to it before he died in prison in 2009. In May 2023, Scotland Yard detectives visited serial killer Levi Bellfield for a face-to-face interview at Frankland prison, and it is alleged he told them he had killed Elizabeth Chau and told them where he had hidden her body. Bellfield marked a spot on a map where he claimed he ditched Elizabeth's body after he wrote a signed confession claiming to have abducted her in Ealing, West London, 24 years ago. However, detectives later said serial killer Levi Bellfield was lying when he made repeated sworn confessions to the murder of the computer studies student. All relevant lines of inquiry have been exhausted and the decision was taken to close the investigation after a number of inconsistencies and discrepancies were uncovered which led police to believe the confession is false and this individual is not connected to Elizabeth's disappearance. Ms Chau's family told The Guardian newspaper they are disappointed with the decision and still want the dig to go ahead.

Case Last Updated:

Oct 23, 2026