Boyfriend of murdered Playboy Bunny, Eve Stratford, says he feels ‘no guilt’ over girlfriend’s 1975 death – despite being police’s initial suspect – in new documentary exploring unsolved crime

• Playboy bunny Eve Stratford was murdered in her Leytonstone flat in 1975 
• READ MORE: Hunt for the bunny girl murderer: Four unsolved killings come under the microscope in a new series from Louis Theroux’s brother Marcel…

The former boyfriend of a Playboy Bunny who was brutally murdered in her own home has revealed he feels ‘no guilt’ over the tragedy.

German-born Eve Stratford, 22, was killed in her flat in Leytonstone, east London, in 1975.

Her murder has never been solved, but the investigation has been given a new lease of life in a new ITVX series.

Stratford, who also went by the name Eve Van Bock and Bunny Ava, was found tied up with a scarf with a stocking tied round her leg – she is believed to have been raped. 

Filmmaker Marcel Theroux interviewed Eve’s former lover and roommate Tony Priest who was initially questioned over her death, but let go when semen at the scene didn’t match his DNA.

Eve – a Playboy Cocktail Bunny was found in her bedroom; her throat had been slashed between eight and 12 times.   

Tony Priest (pictured) was the boyfriend and roommate of the tragically murdered Playboy bunny – Eve Stratford 

Filmmaker Theroux said: ‘I stumbled across these crimes while researching a book on 1970s London. It was the city of my childhood, a weird mix of shabbiness and glamour. It beggared belief that an unknown serial killer might have been walking its streets’

Priest, who at the time was the lead singer in a rock band called Vineyard, told Theroux: ‘I mean I quite understand that they [the police] thought I was involved because the husband and the boyfriend are always the first suspects.’

‘I remember being in a cell and I spent the night in the cell, but of course the police don’t know anything…it’s up to me to tell my story, and then I’ve had to go and give blood because obviously they had semen samples, and my blood didn’t match the semen sample, so it was obvious it wasn’t me.’

He added: ‘I knew I had no guilt.’

Detectives at the time said there was no sign of forced entry to the flat, leading them to believe the model had invited the killer in and may have known them.

However, during the documentary, Tony revealed his own suspicions over Eve’s murder: ‘At the time I was frantically looking for something to grab onto because the police didn’t seem to be going anywhere.’

He explained he had suspicions over a man that frequented the Playboy club named Ali.

‘He was sort of in the picture, so you know you’re, you’re just thinking well what about him?’ he said.

But the new lead was to no avail, and Theroux later learned that Tony had misremembered the man’s name.

Eve Stratford, 22, (pictured) a Playboy Bunny, was stabbed between eight and 12 times when she was murdered on the evening of March 18, 1975. A new ITVX series re-examines her unsolved murder

Theroux has spent four years looking into Stratford’s murder, which has been linked to two other murders: Lynne Weedon, was 16 when she was killed in September 1975 and croupier Lynda Farrow, who was murdered in 1979

Theroux’s research revealed that out of the hundreds investigated for Eve’s murder, a number were Middle Eastern men who visited the Playboy Club.

At the time, the club was one of the most successful casinos in Europe, attracting money from the Middle East.

However, Theroux came to realise: ‘The flip side of the prosperity was resentment and prejudice towards the rich outsiders.

‘I would come to discover that these attitudes had even affected the way Eve’s death had been investigated.’

Despite a lengthy police effort, Stratford’s case remains unsolved. 

However, the case gained momentum in 1979, following the death of 29-year-old croupier Lynda Farrow, who was knifed to death in her own home, by a killer many believe to be the same as Farrow’s. 

The two-parter, presented by filmmaker Marcel Theroux, re-examines the case. Pictured: A photo of model Stratford, left, taken just a few weeks before her murder

At the time of her murder, Eve was dating Tony Priest – the front man for a rock band called the Vineyard

Tony Priest spent the night in a cell following the murder of his girlfriend – but was cleared after a DNA mismatch on the crime scene

The series also examines the murder of Lynda Farrow, a murder that also remains unsolved.

Theroux has spent four years trying to find police files on the cases and looking for potential breakthrough information.

The filmmaker said: ‘I stumbled across these crimes while researching a book on 1970s London. It was the city of my childhood, a weird mix of shabbiness and glamour.

‘It beggared belief that an unknown serial killer might have been walking its streets.’

He previously commented: ‘I became haunted by the stories. You go into it in this intellectually curious way thinking, “This is amazing sociology. The Playboy Club was the most successful casino in Europe.” So that was fascinating.

‘But as I met people who are connected to the victims, the weight of the story began to land and I saw that there are people who’ve been carrying trauma for decades.’

The Playboy Bunny Murder ITV1 & ITVX 9pm Monday and Tuesday.

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