Body on line may be linked to series of killings

Detectives yesterday launched a murder inquiry after the naked body of a prostitute was found by an isolated railway line.

Daniella White, 28, was hit by a goods train on the main West Coast InterCity line at Blisworth, near Northampton, early on Tuesday morning.

Police have not dismissed links between her death and the murders of several other women by a possible serial killer known as the "Midlands Ripper". Her body was so badly injured by the impact of the train she could only be identified though fingerprints. Police have still not recovered the clothes she was wearing.

A second post-mortem examination was completed on the body yesterday and police say further forensic tests will now be carried out. The cause of her death has not been revealed.

Miss White had a conviction for prostitution and, although she came from Walsall, in the West Midlands, she had been living and working from a house in Northampton. Detectives now believe she was also involved in drugs and are still trying to piece together her background.

Senior detectives meeting in Worcester, at the headquarters of West Mercia police, earlier this month discussed, for the second time, the possibility of a connection between the murders of several other women in the Midlands.

These include the deaths of three prostitutes and one woman who may have been mistaken for a prostitute.

Two of the women, Samo Paull, 20, and 32-year-old Tracy Turner, worked as prostitutes in the West Midlands.

Both were killed in separate attacks two years ago and their bodies were left naked in Leicestershire, less than 20 miles from the spot where Miss White's naked body was found.

Detectives this month dismissed any formal connection between the crimes, although they accepted there were similarities.