Hacked body found in UK canal

Scotland Yard detectives investigating the murder of a young black woman whose torso was found in a suitcase in a north London canal have appealed for help in identifying her,  reports The Guardian.

A group of teenagers made the discovery on Saturday afternoon when they pulled the suitcase out of Regent's Canal in Islington, the paper said. 

According to the report, 'pathologists have established that the woman was 5ft 3in and slim, and that she was probably killed on Thursday. But they have yet to determine her cause of death and forensic tests are still being carried out.' 

Scotland Yard 'refused to comment on how the woman's head and limbs had been severed from her body or whether there were any signs of ritual or sexual abuse. Police divers are still searching the canal in an attempt to find the rest of her body and any other evidence,' the paper said. 

According to the report, the dismembered corpse of Paula Fields, 31, a prostitute, was found in the same stretch of waterway in 2000. 'Her body had been cut into six pieces and put in a holdall. Her head has never been found and her murderer never caught."

And in September 2001, it said, "the torso of a boy, aged five or six and named Adam by the police, was discovered near Tower Bridge in east London. Forensic scientists established from minerals in his bones that he was from west Africa, and detectives think he was kidnapped and smuggled to Britain for a ritual African killing."