This week, we go back to 1831 and the Croydon Canal, where two empty boats were found drifting on still water. A week later, the body of a pregnant woman surfaced. Her name, or at least the name history gives us, was Mary Clarke.

Mary had been seen days earlier preparing to meet the father of her unborn child. She was dressed in a fine cotton gown, a black silk cloak and a white straw bonnet, with a small key in her pocket that remains one of the most frustrating details of the case. But despite her injuries, despite the missing companion who vanished from the record, and despite the two unnamed men last seen with her, the inquest returned a verdict of “found drowned”.

Nearly 200 years later, we’re left with a woman no one claimed, a canal that no longer exists, and a question that still hasn’t been answered: who put Mary Clarke in the water?

This episode includes discussion of pregnancy, suicide, violence against women, murder, drowning and historical attitudes towards unmarried pregnant women.

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Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

This week, after a truly chaotic opening involving a pork pie-related road traffic incident, pocket hummus at the Palladium, Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Mondays, and the questionable social etiquette of bringing a meze board into a theatre, we turn to the heart breaking unsolved murder of 16-year-old Andrea Troupe.

In May 1983, Andrea was found dead in Warwick Gardens, Peckham. She had been stabbed more than 12 times and was later revealed to have been pregnant, something her family had not known. More than 40 years later, nobody has ever been charged with her murder.

Andrea’s case sits against the backdrop of 1980s South London, a time of deep mistrust between Black communities and the police, following the New Cross house fire and the Brixton uprising. It also becomes tangled in the disturbing story of convicted double murderer Michelle Smithyman, whose reported confessions raised even more questions than they answered.

This is a story about a young girl whose life was brutally taken, a family left without answers, and a case that still deserves attention.

Sources include:

https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/brother-pleads-for-help-to-find-killer-of-sister-37-years-ago/

http://www.blackkalendar.nl/c/4016/John%20Michael%20Smithyman

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34712868

https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/murderer-confesses-part-fire-killed-22027197

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/double-murderer-confessed-killing-girl-25561274

https://crimeimmemorial.com/2024/09/11/andrea-troupe/

http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=8371&termRef=Andrea+Troupe

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/13944316.michael-smithyman-who-murdered-the-mother-of-his-child-in-meopham-may-have-killed-13-others-according-to-bbc-report/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_03_03_97.txt

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-13324293/Double-murderer-hold-key-solving-1981-New-Cross-fire-Killer-serving-life-told-cops-mystery-teen-started-house-blaze-killed-13-black-partygoers-Britains-notorious-unsolved-mass-murder.html

https://www.meopham-pc.gov.uk/content/meopham-chronology-0

http://www.tmg-uk.org/did-met-police-halt-new-cross-fire-investigation/

https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/uk-news/2017/03/01/new-cross-fire-victims-cousin-demands-new-enquiry/

https://www.newsdons.com/2021/10/31/double-murderer-confesses-part-in-unsolved-new-cross-fire/

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)

Welcome back, Trevors! It's season four and we are BACK, although you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise given the chaos of recording this one (third intro, second go at the case, Hannah's suitcase touring Luton solo). Stick with us.

This week, Hannah takes us to a quiet Wednesday night in October 1993, when a 44 year old former maths teacher turned beat bobby cycled onto Cato Road in Clapham. PC Patrick Dunne never made it home. Neither did his neighbour William Danso, a Ghanaian doorman and father of five, gunned down in his own hallway for being good at his job.

The man who pulled the trigger was Gary Lloyd Nelson, a 24 year old gangster nicknamed Tyson, with a fuse so short he'd fired five shots at a van driver for overtaking him. The evidence was staggering. The CPS dropped it anyway. What followed was a 12 year fight by two families who refused to let the system forget.

Settle in.

Sources for this case include:

https://thepolicememorialtrust.org/pc-patrick-dunne/

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/feb/18/ukguns.rosiecowan

https://www.londonremembers.com/subjects/pc-patrick-dunne

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4717168.stm

https://x.com/metpoliceuk/status/1065279526656241664

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/52225/pc-patrick-dunne

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1510792/Gangster-who-gunned-down-Pc-is-sent-to-jail-for-35-years.html

https://murderpedia.org/male.N/n/nelson-gary-lloyd.htm#google_vignette

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/roadrage-driver-gets-eight-years-for-gun-attacks-1596553.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/gangster-jailed-for-pc-death-may-have-killed-four-others-a3293531.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hijVRJrS9VA

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kQCD9LFV2Qs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4703356.stm

Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you loved diving into the dark corners of South London with us, don't forget to hit that subscribe button to never miss an episode of "Sinister South."

Also, follow us on Instagram @SinisterSouthPodcast for sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes content, and more cheeky banter, or www.sinistersouthpod.co.uk. Remember, every crime tells a story... and South is the best side of the river...

Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)