Murder of Penny Bell

Lauren Bell announced in January 2021 that she was again offering a £20,000 reward for information that would solve her mother's murder in its thirtieth anniversary year. An Instagram account was set up to share information and updates about the case. The case was featured on the BBC's Crimewatch Live programme on 10 March 2021.

In a 2015 CBS Reality documentary on Bell's case her daughter Lauren said she "had a feeling" as to who was responsible for the murder, but did not elaborate.

Robert Napper was interviewed in 2008 following his conviction for the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell, but there was no evidence linking him to Bell's murder and he was cleared of involvement.

In 2003, police were performing forensic DNA analysis on blood stains found at the crime scene.

4,000 people had been questioned by the police by May 1992.

The family home was undergoing extensive renovations from November 1990, valued at £100,000. Penny had withdrawn £8,500 from her and her husband's joint bank account on 3 June 1991, three days before her death. She had never previously withdrawn such a large sum of cash and it remains unaccounted for. At the police press conference on 8 June 1991, Alistair Bell described Penny as having something on her mind the night before her death, that she fell asleep while watching the television news at 9pm and went to bed early.

On the morning of 6 June 1991, Alistair Bell left the house as usual at 8:30 BST. He described his wife's demeanour as "bright and chirpy". He noted that Penny did not wave him off as he left with their son in his car, as was her usual custom, but believed that this was due to the disruption caused by their kitchen renovation.

Police had also examined Bell's husband Alistair as a suspect, as he inherited the bulk of his wife's estate as well as a £200,000 life insurance payout. However, they found no evidence to link him to his wife's murder and he had a verified alibi of being at work in Shaftesbury Avenue in Harrow on the morning of 6 June 1991.

Penny Bell lived with her husband, Alistair Bell, in Baker's Wood, near Denham, Buckinghamshire where they moved in October 1987. Penny was a partner in Coverstaff Ltd, a successful employment agency based in Kilburn.

A former neighbour of the Bell family from when they lived in Whitmore Road in Harrow before moving to Baker's Wood in 1987, John Richmond, was arrested by the police in April 1992 after he sold a story to The Sun newspaper in which he admitted being the man Bell had been with on the morning of her death. Richmond, who had been married three times previously, also claimed to have been in a secret relationship with Bell at the time. His fingerprints were then found in Bell's car. A bankrupt former builder, he was eventually released from police bail in July 1992 after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge him. The police investigation was then wound up, with Richmond being described as "completely in the clear". However, police interviewed Richmond again in December 1994, after he claimed Bell was killed by an "assassin" and that he had been paid £30,000 by the man behind the murder to keep quiet. He claimed he knew the identity of the murderer because he was asked to recommend a hitman to carry out a knife attack, but didn't know Bell was the victim.

Bell had worked as a Samaritan until around 1982, and police explored the idea that the killer was someone she had counselled but this line of inquiry did not identify any further suspects.

Bell was the mother to two children, Matthew (born c.1978) and Lauren (born 1982).

Ruth Penelope "Penny" Bell (28 February 1948 – 6 June 1991) was an English businesswoman who was murdered on 6 June 1991 in the car park of Gurnell Leisure Centre, Greenford, London. She was stabbed over fifty times as she sat behind the wheel of her car. Her murder remains unsolved.