Like everyone else in Bermondsey and across London, we were shocked by the tragic news of the four killings on the Bonamy Estate this week. While the full details are yet to be confirmed, what is clear is that the people stabbed to death were a family spending an evening together.
What more relatable situation could there be, after two years spent largely apart, than a family gathering? And yet this shocking act of violence senselessly tore this family apart, and brought bloodshed and hordes of police and journalists to a quiet Bermondsey estate in the process.
Bermondsey murder: four victims of Bonamy Estate stabbing named
Dolet Hill, one of the women who was killed, alongside her partner, daughter and granddaughter, retired from her job in the pharmacy at Guy’s Hospital four years ago, after more than two decades. A Guy’s spokesperson told us that she was “well-respected” and a union member who helped improve workplace conditions for her colleagues. Her niece told reporters she was “very loving, very kind, very generous”.
We will learn more about Ms Hill, Denton Burke, Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo and Samantha Drummonds in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime we send our condolences to their loved ones.