Man admits murder of woman missing for 28 years

A man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a woman who went missing 28 years ago, after telling police he disposed of her decomposed body months after he killed her.

Patricia Lashley, who was 33 at the time, was last seen near her home on Hall Street, Dudley, in September 1998.

Trevor Dunkley, 66, pleaded guilty to her murder and a separate count of preventing her lawful burial at a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday.

Dunkley's barrister Balbir Singh told Judge Michael Chambers KC that Lashley's body had never been found, and had decomposed after initially being put in the cellar.

"When he was moving about nine months to a year later, the skeleton was disposed of into the bins," Singh added.

Dunkley, of Himley Road, Dudley, showed no emotion in the dock as his barrister told the court that the charges had been brought based on a police interview.

He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced at the same court on 6 November.

Both charges covered a time period between 22 September and 28 September 1998, the court heard.

Several members of Lashley's family were present in the public gallery to see Dunkley enter his pleas.

West Midlands Police previously said Lashley, a mother of seven, moved to Dudley in the 1990s.

The force said the pair met while Lashley was pregnant and living in Dudley, and soon after, she moved into Dunkley's flat in Hall Street.

She was reported missing by her sister in June 1999 and there followed regular police appeals to trace her.

Her case was still being investigated when West Midlands Police officers recently went to speak to Dunkley.

During this visit, he told them "I killed her - I'm sorry", the force said.

At the time of the murder he had taken her child to social services and told them she had left him.

But, confessing his crime, he said he had returned home after a night shift and had attacked her while she was in bed - saying the "red mist" had descended.

He said he later covered her body with bedding and took her down to the cellar, where her body lay for about a year, before he disposed of her remains in household waste over several weeks.

The police said as a result, it was unlikely her remains would ever be found.

He said he decided to confess after nearly 30 years because he thought police were "on to him".

Addressing Dunkley at the end of the short hearing, Judge Chambers ordered a pre-sentence report and remanded him in custody.

"You have had the courage to plead guilty to these matters and will get appropriate credit in due course," he told him.

"As you are aware, the sentence for murder is life imprisonment.

"I am going to order a pre-sentence report. It's in your interests to co-operate with the preparation of that report.

"In the meantime you must remain in custody."

Speaking afterwards, Det Insp Michelle Cordell said it had been a "truly harrowing case".

She said: "Trevor Dunkley is the only living person who truly knows what happened that day."

His actions after the murder were "unspeakably cruel" she said, adding: "It is difficult for anyone to comprehend how he could live for so long, knowing what he had done and within the same location he had deposited her body."

His plan to dispose of her body was "calculated and sophisticated", Cordell said, and it had "robbed her family of the opportunity to lay her to rest" and left them not knowing if she would one day return.

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