Man who killed partner, hid body in cellar and got away with murder for 28 years until shock confession jailed

A Dudley man who killed a mother-of-seven as she lay in bed then hid her body in the cellar and successfully got away with murder for nearly 30 years has today been jailed for life.

Patricia Lashley’s children were present at Wolverhampton Crown Court this afternoon to see Trevor Dunkley finally brought to justice for killing their mother in 1998.

He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum period before he can be considered eligible for release of 10 years and six months, taking into account 120 days he has spent on remand.

The killer, now 66, only confessed in summer this year to killing Ms Lashley and concealing her body in a cellar for around a year before he moved away.

Dunkley attacked Ms Lashley at the home they shared together in Hall Street, Dudley, later claiming a “red mist” had descended after he got home from work one day in September 1998.

Dunkley, who was 38 at the time, stood over his 33-year-old victim and launched a physical assault with his fists.

After the murder he took Ms Lashley’s child to social services, lying that she had left him and abandoned her baby.

Dunkley returned home to sleep on the sofa before he went to work that night, he has told detectives. Upon his return he saw Ms Lashley hadn’t moved and he “knew she was dead”.

Ms Lashley, who also used the names Jade, Vanessa and Tricia as well as the surname Bradford, was originally from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and had lived there and in London before moving to Dudley in the mid-1990s.

She frequented the No Limits club and other pubs in the area, which is how she came to meet Dunkley.

At the time of her death she had family in Ebbw Vale, Wales, and she was reported missing by her sister in June 1999.

In sentencing Dunkley today Judge Michael Chambers KC said the murder was aggravated by the fact he had concealed Ms Lashley’s body and prevented her burial, and that he knew she was the mother of a nine-month-old and that he had left the baby and her other children with the impression their mother had abandoned them.

In the years following her disappearance West Midlands Police issued appeals for help to find her.

The force’s Missing People Review Team investigated public records and the accounts of people who knew her at the time in the hope of establishing that she had moved away from the area.

The case was still being investigated when one West Midlands Police officer recently went to speak to Dunkley, now of Himley Road in Dudley.

During that visit he made the shock confession, telling the officer: "I killed her. I'm sorry".

Police say it is unlikely Ms Lashley’s remains, which Dunkley covered with bedding and hid in a cellar for a year, will ever be found.

According to Dunkley, he decided to confess in July this year, nearly 30 years after robbing her family of the chance to lay her to rest, because he feared police were “onto him”.

He was arrested and police began forensic examination of the Hall Street property’s cellar.

They had to dig through the results of multiple renovations that had been carried out in the decades since Dunkley moved out.

New West Midlands Police photos show the extent of the operation to excavate the cellar.

Police were spotted in Hall Street in August with several huge bags of rubble cleared from the cellar during the course of the investigation.

The extensive excavation between July and September confirmed no human remains were present, giving investigators no reason to doubt Dunkley’s version of events: that he kept Ms Lashley’s body in the cellar for around a year before disposing of her remains in household waste over the course of several weeks.

Detective Inspector Michelle Cordell, from West Midlands Police’s Homicide Unit, previously said: "This was a truly harrowing case in which a young mother was murdered inside the home she shared with her partner and her baby.

"Trevor Dunkley is the only living person who truly knows what happened that day.

"He has provided an account of events which, sadly, we cannot corroborate.

"What we do know, is that by his own admission, he subjected Patricia Lashley to a sustained and violent assault which led to her death.

"His actions afterwards are unspeakably cruel. It is difficult for anyone to comprehend how he could live for so long, knowing what he had done and within the same location he had deposited her body.

"His calculated and sophisticated plan to dispose of her remains in household waste took careful planning.

"Not only did he deprive Patricia a lawful or decent burial, he robbed her family of the opportunity to lay her to rest.

"For decades, they have had to live without answers and with the hope that one day she would return. There can be no justification for his actions."

For preventing Ms Lashley’s lawful burial Dunkley was sentenced to two years in prison, to run concurrently with his life sentence.

Judge Chambers accepted the defendant had no previous convictions, was clearly remorseful and had a good work record.

Dudley residents who knew Dunkley told the Express & Star he has been employed as a cleaner at a local bookies, and in recent years worked at a town centre discount store.