IMAGE: Murder victim Yiannoulla Yianni]
Detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command have arrested a man for the rape and murder of a teenage girl which took place in Hampstead over 30 years ago.
A murder enquiry was launched by the Met on Friday, 13 August 1982, after the parents of 17-year old Yiannoulla Yianni, found their daughter’s body at their family home in Belsize Road in Hampstead.
Yiannoulla had been raped and strangled.
On Tuesday, 12 January 2016 a 56-year old man was arrested at an address in Golders Green on suspicion of rape and murder.
The arrest follows a match being made on the National DNA Database following the arrest of the man for an unrelated matter.
Yiannoulla’s family have been informed of this development.
On the day that she died, Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother. At approximately 12:30hrs they walked to the family’s shop near to their home to take lunch to Yiannoulla’s father and brother.
At 13:30hrs, Yiannoulla returned home to prepare dinner while her mother stayed at the shop. That was the last time her family saw her alive. Her parents found Yiannoulla’s body when they returned home at approximately 15:00hrs that day.
Yiannoulla attended Quintin Kynaston School, in St John’s Wood, and worked part-time at Woolworths in Finchley Road, NW8.
Since her murder the Met have made a number of public appeals for information, including local and national media appeals as well as offering a significant financial reward for information. Over 1,000 witness statements have been taken and developing forensic techniques explored but despite these extensive enquiries no arrests were made.
Detective Inspector Julie Willats, of the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command, said:
“The Met never close unsolved murders and regardless of the passage of time cases can and will be reviewed, for any new opportunities to develop previously unknown lines of enquiry, and follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us.
“Yiannoulla’s family – who understandably are still devastated by the loss of their beloved daughter and sister more than three decades ago – have been fully informed of this new development.”
The man arrested remains in police custody at a north London police station at this time.