Double killer John Sweeney dies without revealing ‘where his victims’ heads are’
John Sweeney was convicted of the murder of two former girlfriends, and attempting to kill Delia Balmer with an axe (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
A convicted killer who murdered two women and threw their body parts in canals has died without confessing what he did to their remains.
Depraved killer John Sweeney, 69, was jailed for the murder of ex-girlfriends Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead in 2011.
Some of their remains were discovered in a canal in London and Rotterdam, Netherlands, but it took years before Sweeney was linked to the murders and brought to justice.
He is believed to have died at HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire, on August 14, while serving his whole-life sentence, with The Times reporting he succumbed to cancer.
Paula Fields’ family described her as a loving mother whom they never got to say goodbye to (Picture: PA)
The torso of Ms Halstead, 33, an American model, was found in the Rotterdam canal in 1990, but it took another 18 years and DNA testing to identify her.
Body parts belonging to Paula Fields, 31, were found stuffed inside six bags floating in Regent’s Canal in Camden in 2001.
Melissa Halstead’s family said the ‘intelligent and very attractive young woman’ had left her home in the US to ‘seek her fortune’ in Europe
Both of the women’s heads and hands and Ms Fields’ feet are still missing.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘These were horrific crimes and our thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones.
‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating, and it would be inappropriate to comment further before the conclusion of its findings.’
One of the duffel bags which contained parts of Paula Fields’ body (Picture: PA)
The police cordon along Regent’s Canal in Camden, London, in March 2001 where several bags were found floating (Picture: PA)
Detectives investigating the murders committed by the carpenter feared he might have had more victims as the police were unable to find some other women linked to Sweeney who had not been seen for years.
By the time the ‘Canal Killer’ was caught, he was already in prison for trying to kill nurse Delia Balmer with an axe in 1994.
She was saved from becoming Sweeney’s next victim by a neighbour, who barged in with a baseball bat.
Delia Balmer came close to being killed by John Sweeney, whom she met in the 1990s without knowing about his past (Picture: Penguin Random House)
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