Baker Street murder in UK solved after 30 years thanks to bloody footprint

A 30-year-old cold-case murder near the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes was solved after detectives traced the killer’s bloody footprint at the scene of the crime, Report informs, citing The Telegraph.

Sandip Patel, who ran errands for his father’s newsagent Sherlock Holmes News on Baker Street, in central London, stabbed Marina Koppel, a prostitute, more than 140 times in her rented flat in nearby Chiltern Street on August 8, 1994.

The 21-year-old student’s finger marks were found on a carrier bag in Koppel’s kitchen, but he was not treated as a suspect at the time.

He was charged with her murder last year after his DNA was matched to hair on the victim’s ring, and he was linked by a bloody footprint on a skirting board.

During the attack, he forced Koppel to give up her pin number and used the bank card to withdraw money near his home, it was alleged.

Patel, now 51, had denied murder but declined to give evidence in his defense.

The Old Bailey jury took three hours and 10 minutes to find him guilty.