Seeds could be link in Mellory murder

To date, since the previous release last Thursday, no person has come forward telling us that it was them that was at Dallington Terrace around 11 pm on the evening of 18 December 2008 or accounting for the large splash sound that was heard by two witnesses. It may well be that they have not picked this up through new releases so we ask that the media once again pushes that sighting this week.

The time frame for this occurrence certainly does fit closely with when we believe Mallory could have entered the water, the time on her watch when we found her, our river tests, and interim post mortem reports. If this was actually just someone down there legitimately then they should have no fear about coming forward.

One of the interesting aspects to this case is that ESR have recovered a range of grass seeds from Mellory's clothing with some of the seeds being over 2cm long. This seed was embedded in both of her cardigans and skirts and was on both the front and the back. She had clearly been lying on some weedy type grass prior to entry in the water and it is very likely this was either a direct result of her attack or as she was placed into the water.

Attached is a photograph of the seeds. We are currently talking with pastoral experts to confirm the exact type of grass. We have recovered similar type seeds from grasses close to the river. It does not appear to match anything at either the Caledonian Hotel car park or Chester Street East car park where we knew she went that night. On both of those occasions she did not get out of the vehicle. Photographs taken of Mellory at Peterborough Street in November 2008 clearly show that she was an immaculate about her clothing and was well presented.

If this grass seed has got on Mellory when she was being attacked then there is a good chance that the person responsible could well have also turned up that evening with a significant amount of grass seed stuck on their clothing and this might jog someone's memory. It is the sort of grass seed that gets stuck in your clothing and is very hard to get out.

Detective Inspector Greg Williams

O/C Op Dallington