Police have launched a fresh appeal into the murder of a Holocaust survivor found strangled to death in a hotel bedroom 45 years ago.
The body of widow Emmy Werner, who lived in a care home in Fenstanton Avenue, Finchley, was discovered by a chambermaid at the Queen’s Hotel in Inverness Terrace, Bayswater, at 1pm on September 17, 1972.
A £20,000 reward is being offered if information leads to the arrest and prosecution of her killers.
On the night of her death Emmy returned to her room at about 8.30pm after a night out with friends to see Move Over Mrs Markham at the Vaudeville Theatre in the Strand.
Detectives believe she was attacked in the early hours of the morning with several other serious injuries suggesting the 68-year-old woke after being disturbed by a thief.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested within a few weeks and charged with the murder but was acquitted in February 1973 at the Old Bailey.
Emmy’s granddaughter Carolyn Franks, 58, said: “My grandmother was a vulnerable woman and no one should have to die like she did, especially after the trauma she had already endured. The effect on her close family continues to be a source of great sadness to us and we feel whoever killed her should be held to account.”
Detectives hope people working at, visiting or living near the hotel in the early ‘70s will come forward with useful information.
Before the war Emmy, her husband Albert, a dentist, and daughter Hedy lived in Brno, Czechoslovakia, before they were transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp near Prague in 1942.
In October 1944 Albert was taken to Auschwitz and then on to Kaufering concentration camp where he died five months later.
Emmy and her daughter, then aged 17, were liberated in May 1945 and came to London in September 1946. They stayed with relatives before settling in the Finchley area.
Det Insp Susan Stansfield said: “We would ask anyone who can help to please contact us in confidence. Even if you think what you know is insignificant, we would ask that you come forward and let us assess what you tell us.”
Call 020 7230 4294 or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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