Twenty-one years ago, an unidentified woman dressed in smart clothing entered the Wembley Point building, bought a copy of The Guardian newspaper and took a lift to the 21st floor where the staff canteen was located.
She is believed to have bought a coffee, smoked a cigarette and read her paper before eyewitnesses said she opened a window and jumped out.
Witnesses said it all happened in the space of ‘a split second’ on the morning of 29 October, 2004.
The woman had cash, a lighter, a packet of cigarettes, a plastic bag with the lettering ‘CPNY’ and an oil painting with her, but no identifying documents; even today, her identity is unknown.
She also had a bus pass valid between 26 October and 1 November of that year, issued at Seven Sisters Road, Tottenham.
Seeking to help answer that question, Locate International hired forensic artist Hew Morrison to create an image of her face in the hope that someone out there will one day recognise her.
This is what the mysterious woman looked like before she died 21 years ago (Hew Morrison)
Speaking to LADbible, Hew explained how he got the job and how his work creating forensic images can help identify people.
“That is a case that was taken on by Locate International, I’m the forensic imaging consultant for them,” he explained.
“They approached me with the post-mortem photograph and the description of the clothing she was wearing. I created a more appropriate, sanitised image because she had fallen from the top of the building so we couldn’t use the image for a media appeal.
“So I created that sanitised image for her in the hope she will one day be identified.”
Sadly, 21 years after the unknown woman’s death, the forensic artist said that while there had ‘been a few leads’, it seemed they had led to ‘nothing concrete’ and ‘even now we still don’t know who she was’.
Despite this update, he is sure that ‘someone out there’ will know who she is, and Locate International are still happy to speak with anyone who might know something that could help.
The Wembley Point building in October 2022 (Google Maps)
“Someone somewhere is suffering wondering where the hell their loved one is and it must be absolutely horrible,” he said of the efforts to give unidentified people the best chance of being recognised.
“We don’t know who they are, we don’t know who the person is but I keep that in mind as well, just hopefully find some closure for these people.
“Everyone deserves to have their name back, they deserve to have that dignity, they deserve to have that face restored to have that dignity as well.”
Locate International says that a couple of weeks before her death, the woman spoke to a witness who remembered her being distressed over her boyfriend’s health, which suggests there were people who personally knew her.
Other witnesses have said she appeared familiar with the Wembley Point building and may have worked there, and while it’s been 21 years without a definite identification, the idea that somebody out there who knew her and could identify her is still valid.
The forensic artist has helped put together an image of the Wembley Point Woman (Hew Morrison)
Given her lack of identifying details, the forensic image created by Morrison is the only picture of her available.
He got his start in forensic art after studying art at university, and when human remains were found while digging up Edinburgh for the tramlines, he was tasked with reconstructing their faces.
When he’s tasked with reconstructing someone’s face, he’ll often be given a mortuary image or a crime scene picture if it’s an unidentified persons case, and since there’s ‘no way that can be put out to the media’ he makes something that can.
CT scans of the skull and even DNA if it’s recovered can help him piece together the details, including someone’s age, sex, ancestry and even their hair colour.
While he started with historical faces, Morrison has done plenty of work on crime and unidentified persons cases including the Wembley Point Woman and clients around the world.
The Wembley Point Woman had been wearing this jewellery when she died (PA)
She had also been carrying this painting with her (PA)
He’s worked on homicide cases in America, created an image of ‘a major cocaine trafficker who’s been on the run for several decades’ and created a forensic image of the mysterious ‘Lewisham Man’ who died in London unidentified, so that ‘hopefully one day’ we will know who he was.
In one case, one of the subjects of his forensic artworks actually recognised themselves and became reunited with his long lost family.
He explained: “A family contacted me and they had a brother that had been missing for a long, long time, about 30 years.
“I created an age compressed composite of what he would have possibly looked like 30 years on and a few days later he actually saw the picture of himself. He was reunited with his family.
“It looked quite like him, I was quite pleased.”
Anyone who may have information on the Wembley Point Woman can check out Locate International’s website here and contact them.