Bellfield was born in Isleworth, Greater London, on May 17, 1968. His dad died from leukemia when Bellfield was just ten years old. As an adult, he fathered 11 kids with three women. His first crime was in 1981 for burglary, and in 1990 he was convicted of assaulting a police officer, driving offenses, and theft. By 2002 he had spent nearly a year in prison. He ran a wheel-clamping business in the West Drayton area in west London, where he lived and where the murders took place.
Bellfields first victim was Amanda Jane “Milly” Dowler, thirteen years old, missing. She was last seen leaving a train station on March 21, 2002. Her body was discovered six months later in Yateley Heath Woods.
In February 2003, Marsha Louise McDonnell was only nineteen when she was beaten in the head with a blunt instrument and died two days later. She was attacked in Hampton, London, near her home after getting off the bus.
Kate Sheedy, eighteen, crossed the road by an industrial estate in Isleworth on May 28, 2004, and got run over by a car. Surprisingly, she survived after weeks in the hospital.
The final known victim was Amelie Delagrange, twenty-two, who was visiting the country and, on August 19, 2004, was found with terrible head injuries and died in the hospital.
The trial led to life imprisonment for Bellfield for the murders of McDonald and Delagrange and attempt of murder of Sheedy in 2008. In 2016 Bellfield admitted to some unsolved murder and rape cases, but there wasn’t enough evidence for him to be charged.
All my information is from “The Big Book of Serial Killers” by Jack Rosewood.
Like Alyssa noted, the pattern of Bellfield killing young girls is particularly distressing. I think it speaks to the increasing awareness and activism against targeting young women, specifically with violence or sexual violence. The fact that Bellfield had 11 children is also particularly upsetting because his targets were often children.
So happy I get to read your blog again this semester! What really stands out to me is how young these victims were. It’s so sad to see how often young girls are targets of these crimes. It is also interesting that he didn’t have a signature way of committing the crimes– he did it all different ways. I wonder what his motive was.