Missing limbs of murdered father in double slaying still not recovered

The grisly details of the double murder of Noel and Marie Brown were laid bare by the Met and displayed the difficulties they faced solving the case as well as the traumatic way in which the Browns were killed.

Noel Brown was found strangled to death by his own sock bandage in his flat in New Butt Lane, Deptford in December 2017 and his daughter Marie met the same demise when she went to check on him on December 2, 2017.

Police believe that Marie, a 41-year-old single mother and nursery worker, may have entered the flat when Henry was sawing her father’s limbs off and was also strangled with a sock bandage.

Mr Brown’s corpse was missing parts of both arms and one leg – the missing limbs were never recovered.

A meticulous trawl of CCTV footage over many months showed Henry travelling to and from Noel Brown’s flat over a period of days.

DNA linked Henry to a spot of blood on a pillow and two Tubigrips at the crime scene that officers believe were used as ligatures to strangle Noel and Marie.

Henry’s DNA profile was called ‘Unknown 7’ – and was later found to match the DNA profile of an unidentified suspect from a burglary in Hounslow, west London in 2011.

This profile was linked by experts after repeated testing to DNA already on the database belonging to a close relative of Henry.

National Crime Agency expert Lee Rainbow led the work on familial DNA that enabled the team to identify ‘Unknown 7’ as Nathaniel Henry.

Detective Chief Inspector Harding said: “Now that all the inquest proceedings have concluded, we felt it was important for us to go into as much detail as we could in a public forum about an investigation that was painstaking and very challenging.

“We wanted to set out our rationale for identifying Henry as our significant suspect and demonstrate that we left no stone unturned in the lines of enquiry we pursued in a bid to bring justice for the family of Noel and Marie.

“In the course of this lengthy enquiry, we gathered extensive CCTV footage and forensic evidence that we would have wanted to be tested in court.

“Although we will never know for sure, we believe the motive to have been revenge for one of the previous crimes that Noel Brown was convicted of.”

DCI Harding added: “While there can be no court proceedings in this case, we can say that we would have presented a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to ask for double homicide charges -– and we are not looking for anyone else.

“We have kept the Brown family appraised at every stage of our findings, and I would like to thank them for their assistance throughout.”