Amelie killing: new appeal

Three men could hold the key to the murder of Amelie Delagrange.

Their pictures were released after officers trawled through hours of CCTV footage. The men were on different buses travelling past Twickenham Green around the time the 22-year-old French student was beaten to death.

Miss Delagrange was killed on her way home from the Cristalz bar in Twickenham on 19 August.

She boarded a 267 bus travelling towards Twickenham at about 9.30pm. She missed her stop and got off at 9.45pm at Fulwell bus garage.

Detectives believe she walked back to Twickenham Green and have a last sighting of her walking past the Loch Fyne fish restaurant in Hampton Road.

As she walked back towards her home she was attacked from behind at around 10pm near the cricket pitch. She was hit with a blunt instrument. Five days later her purse, keys and Walkman were found in the river at Walton-on-Thames.

Her brown leather bag and Sony mobile phone, taken during the attack, have not yet been found.

After analysing hundreds of hours of film, officers believe the men may have seen the killer near the green or waiting in a vehicle nearby.

The first man is in his mid to late twenties. He has a beard and was wearing a dark hat with light hoops. He is pictured on the 70 bus which travelled past Twickenham Green, along Hampton Road, at approximately 10.08pm. He got off the bus near the bridge in Richmond.

The second man has short, dark hair. He is in his late thirties or early forties and was wearing a light-coloured long-sleeve jacket with a dark top underneath and light-coloured trousers.

He boarded the 70 bus in the Richmond Circus area and left the bus at Twickenham Green at approximately 10pm at a stop just before Hampton Road.

The third man was wearing a light-coloured baseball cap, a dark hooded top with a lightcoloured top underneath and knee-length shorts.

He boarded the 281 bus at Twickenham Green at approximately 10.15pm, travelling towards the town centre before getting off in Hounslow.

The potential witnesses include a woman in her late teens or early twenties with shoulder-length hair.

She was wearing a longsleeved, dark coloured top with a "Chicago" emblem on the front.

The picture was taken as she boarded the 281 bus in Teddington. She stepped off at Twickenham Green at about 10pm.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Any passengers including people on the 267 bus Amélie took home - and anyone who saw her after she left the bus garage - are also asked to come forward.

"We are appealing for anyone who might have seen any suspicious activity near the river beneath Walton Bridge or along the towpath around

10.15pm on Thursday 19 August or in the days following the murder, to come forward.

"We still need to trace various items of Amélie's property

that is still missing: a Sony

Ericsson T300 mobile with a black face plate and a light brown handbag with leather trim." Miss Delagrange's murder has been linked to a number of attacks on women in south-west London.

The same assailant is believed to have killed student Marsha McDonnell, who was attacked only yards from her home in Hampton last year.

Miss McDonnell, a 19-year-old gap-year student, was battered

over the head

three times with a "hammer-like" instrument in Hampton in the early hours of a February morning last year.

This April Edel Harbison, a 34-year-old accountant, survived a horrific attack near Twickenham Green.

Accounts clerk Dawn Brunton, 36, was badly hurt in a similar assault in Hatton Cross in November last year.

In January the same year a 17-year-old in Strawberry Hill was also targeted. All the women were blonde and were

attacked from behind. Detectives said a sixth attack on a 28-year-old woman in Feltham four days after Miss Delagrange was killed is no longer being linked.

An incident room is open at Barnes under Detective Chief Inspector Andy Murphy.

Anyone who recognises themselves or knows those in the CCTV stills are asked to call the incident room on 020 8247 7911 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.