Killed by the same abuser: Families demand answers

Elise Skillen says her family had already spent two weeks pleading with police to do more to find her missing sister Fiona Holm when they made a disturbing discovery. She recounts how they had gone to the home of Holm's boyfriend, a man called Carl Cooper, and found him in the act of selling her clothes. Skillen says: "If you love someone, why would you be selling their clothes if they're missing? I knew in that moment, he's done something to my sister." Holm, 48, from Catford in south-east London, disappeared in June 2023. Skillen says her family repeatedly asked the police for help, telling them Holm was vulnerable, with the mental age of a 15-year-old, and voicing concerns over her partner Cooper, 66, who had previously attacked Holm with a screwdriver. She says they told officers they were suspicious that Cooper had repainted the outside of his windows and he had been spotted burning items in his back garden. "They said, 'Well it's not a crime to burn rubbish in your garden'." But Skillen, along with Holm's daughter, Savannah Holm-Aderemi, were deeply worried. "We felt hopeless," says Holm-Aderemi, describing how they took turns carrying out searches of the streets themselves.