Murder clues hunt goes global

From the archive, first published Tuesday 31st Jan 2006.

The hunt for the killer of Dr Barbara Johnston went worldwide last night, with police calling for friends and colleagues in New Zealand to get in touch by email.

Acting Det Supt Steve Tolmie appealed for anyone in New Zealand who knew the murdered Oxford academic to contact police to help build up a picture of the medical researcher. A special email address -- see bottom of page -- has been set up for people who knew her to contact police.

Dr Johnston, 55, was found stabbed 49 times and strangled with her own jumper in her flat in Woodstock Close, North Oxford, last Thursday. She was last heard from three days before, when she spoke to her parents by phone. On Saturday, Michael Humphries, a 42-year-old from Faringdon, was arrested and questioned in connection with the brutal murder. He is still being held as a suspect, but no charges have been brought.

Magistrates have given detectives until 10pm tonight to continue questioning Humphries.

Mr Tolmie said: "We are making a fresh appeal for public help at home and abroad. We want to hear from her friends and acquaintances over the years she was living and working in New Zealand.

"We still don't know much about her lifestyle and have heard nothing from New Zealand. We want to find out about her personality, her interests and how she lived her life.

"For a three-day period we cannot account for her movements."

Mr Tolmie said he had made appeals on New Zealand radio stations and spoken to journalists from one of the country's television channels last night.

He said police would be investigating her Internet use, email and phone calls, but officers had not spoken to the contractors who were working on the block of flats where she lived.

He said that Dr Johnston had not been drugged, was not drunk and had not been sexually assaulted. Any link between her death and animal rights activists was ruled out. Dr Johnston's mother Valerie, 79, and father Anthony, 80, from Walsall, West Midlands, were with Mr Tolmie at the John Radcliffe Hospital to identify her body yesterday. Her brother Patrick was expected to arrive in Oxford today.

Mr Tolmie said: "Her family are very traumatised. They have told us she was a private person, determined and a strong character."

"It may have been one person or more who killed her. She was stabbed more than 40 times, it was a horrendous attack on a lady in her own bedroom, in her own flat."

He said he was disappointed that so few people had come forward so far.

More than 50 officers are working on the case, carrying out forensic investigations, house to house inquiries and searching the Woodstock Close area.

Call police on 08458 505505, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.

EMAIL: drjohnstonmurderappeal@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

'Newly home from USA'

The man being held by detectives over the murder of Dr Barbara Johnston was yesterday described as a private man who had only recently returned to Britain from America.

Michael Humphries was last night still being quizzed by detectives over the killing of Dr Johnston last week.

Mr Humphries, 42, was arrested by detectives on Saturday at his family's home in Ferndale Street, Faringdon. Magistrates yesterday morning gave police until 10am today (Tuesday) to hold him for questioning.

Yesterday, friends and neighbours of Mr Humphries described the former Faringdon Community College pupil as a private man who tended to keep himself to himself.

A glazier by trade, it is believed Mr Humphries only returned to England just before Christmas after spending more than a decade working in the United States.

A friend, who asked not to be named, said Mr Humphries used to babysit him when he was younger.

He added: "Before Christmas I was sat having a pint with him up the Folly (pub in Faringdon) and he was the nicest person in the world. "I'd been away in France for two years and it was nice to see him. He told me his missus was coming over to see him next month. He's not a ladies' man, but not shy around women either."

He said that the 42-year-old divorcee, who grew up in Faringdon and has a son from a previous marriage, was a huge Elvis fan who had a tattoo of 'The King' on his arm.

It is thought Mr Humphries decided to move back to England after his mother Elsie died last year.

Yesterday, neither his sister Diane nor his brother Steven, who are both registered as living at Mr Humphries' home address in Ferndale Street, were at home.

Neighbour Jane Thurgood said Mr Humphries kept himself to himself. She said: "I have lived here a year and I have only seen him a couple of times.

"It's unusual because we know most people on the street, but for some reason we've never really seen him about.

"You could say he was somebody who tended to keep themselves to themselves."

Having spent most of Sunday carrying out a fingertip seach of the house and gardens in Ferndale Street, police were preventing people from approaching the property yesterday.

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