Student Researching Bacteria That Create Ethanol Stabbed 47 Times
July 3rd, 2008Update: Laptop Computer Stolen from Apartment Six Days Before Murders
Via: Times Online:
One of the two French research students found dead in a burnt-out London flat had been stabbed 196 times, the detective leading the murder investigation said today. His friend had 47 separate injuries.
The deaths of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both aged 23, came as a massive shock to their families and fellow students at the Polytech in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where both studied bio-engineering and where Mr Bonomo had recently been student president.
The horrific nature of the attack against them shocked even experienced detectives. “I have never seen injuries inflicted to bodies like this before,” Detective Chief Inspector Mick Duthie told a press conference at Scotland Yard.
Mr Duthie told The Times that the two men had been playing a computer game before the attack in the flat at Sterling Gardens, New Cross, which had been rented by Mr Bonomo.
Bound up by their attacker or attackers, they received multiple stab wounds in the head, neck, back and torso.
Mr Bonomo was stabbed 196 times, Mr Duthie said. Almost 100 of those wounds were inflicted to his back after his death. Mr Ferez was stabbed 47 times.
The two were talented and committed students on a three-month research placement at Imperial College, London, who had impressed colleagues with their maturity. They were enrolled on the university’s research opportunities programme, which allows students who have not yet graduated from their Masters degrees to take part in research.
An Imperial College spokesman said that Mr Bonomo was studying a parasite which can spread from cats to human foetuses. Mr Ferez’s research was into bacteria which create ethanol for use as fuel.
I’m sure they’re having a memorial service for him over at ADM.
I’ve been reading Little Brother, I recommend it. Then I read this. Fucking spooky. I’m going to start training in self-defense measures.
They hadn’t been in London long, it figures.
French students’ murder: Victims were ‘two of the brightest students of their generation’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2241458/French-students-murder-Victims-were-two-of-the-brightest-students-of-their-generation.html
French students bound and stabbed in ‘horrific’ murder
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2240506/French-students-bound-and-stabbed-in-%27horrific%27-murder.html
On line of inquiry that detectives believe may be significant is that their flat in New Cross was broken into six days before and a laptop was stolen. It is also possible that they were victims of mistaken identity.