Man pleads guilty to murder of woman missing since 1998
A man has pleaded guilty in England to murdering a 33-year-old woman who vanished in 1998 and whose body has never been found. He will be sentenced in November.
A nearly three-decade-old missing persons case has moved toward resolution after a man admitted killing the woman at the centre of it. Trevor Dunkley, 66, entered guilty pleas to murder and to preventing a lawful burial during a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday.
The victim, Patricia Lashley, was last seen in September 1998 near her home on Hall Street in Dudley, when she was 33 years old. West Midlands Police have said Lashley moved to Dudley during the 1990s and that she and Dunkley were understood to have known each other.
Her remains have never been recovered. In 2017, her family issued a renewed public appeal for information to help find her.
Police noted that Lashley had connections to London, Newcastle, Wales and Scotland. Locally she was known by the names Pat or Jade, while she also went by Vanessa and Tricia, as well as the surname Bradford.
Dunkley was remanded in custody following the hearing and is due to be sentenced at the same court on 6 November.
