Marsha's steps retraced

Quiz: police ask passers-by for help

A week after her brutal murder, Marsha McDonnell's last hours of life have been reconstructed by police.

Ninety officers helped retrace the steps of the 19-year-old gap year student and questioned people along the route she took before she was bludgeoned to death 100 yards from her home in Hampton.

Marsha's evening - a trip to the cinema with friends - began last Monday when she and two friends from work were dropped off by one of the friend's parents in Kingston town centre at 8.30pm.

They got out at Kingston Bridge near the White Hart pub, just over the river from Marsha's workplace, the Wax Lyrical candle shop in the Bentalls shopping centre.

They walked across the bridge towards the Rotunda shopping complex which houses the Odeon cinema. After a quick drink they headed to the Odeon for the 9.15pm showing of Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

By 11.45pm it was over, and Marsha waved goodbye to her friends and crossed the road to the bus stop at Kingston railway station. She was caught on the bus's CCTV as she fished out 70p from her purse for the 10-minute journey home.

When she got on the 12.05am No111 bus a week ago there was one other passenger as it pulled out, three minutes late.

Last night, journalists and police aside, there were again just two passengers - two teenage boys who told police they had not been on the bus a week ago.

When the bus stopped at the edge of Bushy Park last night, City worker Joanna Roche, 29, got on. She said: "There is nothing I can do, except be more aware."

Marsha got off at Percy Road, a quiet street 500 yards from her home. It was 12.17am and she headed off into the well-lit streets alone. She would have turned left into Priory Road, where she lived with her parents, sisters and brother at No 88. Now, 100 yards from her own doorstep, there is a mountain of flowers and soft toys in memory of her. Last night her father, Phil, 53, was there, paying silent tribute to his daughter, victim of a seemingly motiveless attack.

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