A 30-year-old cold-case murder near the fictional home of Sherlock Holmes was solved after detectives traced the killer’s bloody footprint at the scene of the crime.
Sandip Patel, who ran errands for his father’s newsagent Sherlock Holmes News on Baker St, in central London, stabbed Marina Koppel, a prostitute, more than 140 times in her rented flat in nearby Chiltern St on August 8, 1994.
The 21-year-old student’s finger marks were found on a carrier bag in Koppel’s kitchen but he was not treated as a suspect at the time.
Marina Koppel's family said she was "much loved", "extremely bright, highly intelligent and charismatic". Photo / Met Police
He was charged with her murder last year after his DNA was matched to hair on the victim’s ring and he was linked by a bloody footprint on a skirting board.
She later worked as a masseuse and offered sexual services to around 100 “well-to-do” men “if the price was right”, jurors were told.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones KC said little was known of Koppel’s last movements.
On the evening of August 7, 1994, she had entered a poker tournament at the Victoria Sporting Club casino and met a client at a Heathrow hotel before returning to London.
Koppel was stabbed more than 140 times during a “sustained and savage” attack. Photo / Met Police
The mother-of-two’s last known sighting was a visit to Midland Bank on Baker St at 1.42pm the following day.
That evening, her husband returned to her flat near Baker Street Tube station to find his wife had been murdered.
She was covered in blood and wearing only black lace-up lingerie that she might wear if she was expecting one of her clients, jurors were told.
‘Sustained and savage’ attack
Emlyn Jones said she had been stabbed more than 140 times during the “sustained and savage” attack.
He told jurors: “Marina Koppel was brutally murdered.
“It has taken a terribly long time to solve it, but we now have evidence that she had this defendant’s hair stuck to the ring she was wearing when she was attacked and killed; and his bare foot was pressed against the skirting board next to her.
“And that, the prosecution say, can only be because it was him who killed her all those years ago.”
Even though Patel’s finger marks were found on an unbranded plastic bag in the kitchen, he was not treated as a suspect because he would have likely handled bags from nearby Sherlock Holmes News.
Patel only became a confirmed suspect in 2022 after his DNA was matched to a hair found by a scientist on the ring in 2008.
Although technology was still not advanced enough then for scientists to get a DNA profile, it was preserved until 2022 and re-examined.
Sandip Patel, now 51, denied murdering Marina Koppel in 1994. Photo / Met Police
Made a suspect
The bloody footprint was found at the scene in 1994 and matched to Patel after he was made a suspect, the prosecutor said.
Emlyn Jones told jurors: “You may have little trouble concluding that if those footprints were made in Marina’s wet blood, then that can only be because they were left by her killer - someone who was in that room, barefoot, at the time of her blood being on the skirting board.
“All these years later, they have been identified - they are the defendant’s prints - they were made by the sole of his left foot.”
Following his arrest, Patel denied knowing the victim but said he would run errands for his father.
He was re-arrested in 2023 after his footprint was identified and answered “no comment” to questions.
The victim’s husband died in 2005, never discovering who murdered his wife.
Highly intelligent
Members of the victim’s family, Mary and Martin Koppel, said: “Marina Koppel, our sister-in-law, was an extremely bright, highly intelligent and charismatic person, who saw good in her family and all people she met.
“She wanted to give them everything they needed, especially her two children and nephew who grew up in Colombia.
“Her family and friends would have been in a much better place because of her abundance of energy for life had she not died.
“Marina was a daughter, a sister, a mother, a loving aunt, a daughter-in-law and a sister-in-law who was much loved by all of us as she loved all of us.”
Patel, of Finchley Rd, north London, looked up at the public gallery as the verdict was delivered.
He was remanded into custody to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.
