DNA Links Suspect To Teen's 1982 Murder

A man has been arrested over the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1982 following a match on the DNA database.

Yiannoulla Yianni was found dead by her parents at their family home in Hampstead, London, on 13 August 1982.

She had been raped and strangled.

A 56-year-old man was taken into custody on 12 January in Golders Green, north London.

It came after he was arrested on an unrelated matter and his details put on the National DNA Database.

On the day she died, Yiannoulla had spent the morning at home with her mother.

They walked to the family's shop to have lunch with her father and brother, and she then headed home at 1.30pm to prepare dinner.

It was the last time they saw her alive - her body was discovered around 90 minutes later when they returned home.

The teenager had been a pupil at Quintin Kynaston School in St John's Wood and worked part-time at Woolworths in Finchley Road.

More than 1,000 witness statements have been taken in the hunt for her killer over the years, and a number of media appeals made.

Police said the suspect was still in custody in north London.

Detective Inspector Julie Willats said: "The Met never close unsolved murders and regardless of the passage of time cases can and will be reviewed, for any new opportunities to develop previously unknown lines of enquiry, and follow-up any fresh information which has become known to us.

"Yiannoulla's family - who understandably are still devastated by the loss of their beloved daughter and sister more than three decades ago - have been fully informed of this new development."