The family of a 19-year-old woman whom the serial killer Levi Bellfield claims to have murdered two decades ago have accused the Metropolitan police of failing to take the case seriously because of their race and the alleged victim’s gender.
Bellfield has made a signed and written confession to the kidnap, rape, assault and murder of the university student Elizabeth Chau, who disappeared from a west London street in 1999, his solicitor confirmed.
Police are understood to believe there is credibility in Bellfield’s confession, tempered by concerns he could be “manipulative”.
Bellfield has already been convicted of three murders; 13-year-old Milly Dowler in March 2002, Marsha McDonnell, 19, in February 2003, and Amélie Delagrange, 22, in August 2004. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy in May 2004.
Chau’s family told the Guardian they had been living in agony since the computer studies student at Thames Valley University went missing without trace on 16 April 1999.
They say police did not tell them of Bellfield’s confession, first made verbally in October 2022. Instead they were informed by a prison visitor in March 2023, who told the Chau family out of frustration with alleged police inaction.
The claims of Bellfield’s confession reached police in October 2022, the Chau family and other sources say. Met detectives will next month interview Bellfield over two days. The Chau family do not believe this should have taken seven months.
Chau’s family believe police bungled her case, from her disappearance through to the emergence of Bellfield’s claims to be responsible for her death, which added to their trauma. The Met declined to comment.
In interviews with the Guardian, Chau’s relatives, including her sister, Bic-Hang, 48, her brother Minh-Vu, 51, and her mother, Phung, 76, said they were fully aware the serial killer could be manipulative and lying. But they said the police had been slow to take basic steps to discover whether Bellfield was telling the truth.
Bellfield has given broad details of a west London site where he says Chau’s body was secreted after her murder, and offered to show detectives the exact spot.
There has been no sighting of Chau since the night she disappeared, shortly after 6pm, in and around Uxbridge Road close to Ealing police station. Her body has not been found.
The family are from Vietnam originally, and Chau was born in the UK. Chau’s sister, Bic-Hang, told the Guardian: “From the beginning to now the police have failed us.
“Since October 2022, the police have known … that a serial killer is willing to confess to Elizabeth’s abduction and murder and tell them where he buried her. Yet again, there has been no police action until a third party came to us and we raised the alarm.
“Their lack of care is utterly shocking and traumatising. We have felt ignored and dismissed because of our race and because of Elizabeth’s gender.”
Bellfield lived in west London and while under police surveillance was spotted driving around in a van, and trying to talk to young women in and around bus stops. Bellfield is already serving whole-life tariffs and is in HMP Frankland.
After the alleged confession to Chau’s murder, the Met has set up a gold group, which operates when there is a major event which could impact on community relations.
Bellfield’s solicitor says he has also admitted to at least six other attacks on women in London and Surrey where the victim survived, in a document given to the governor at HMP Frankland, and which was sent to police.
The Chau family says some details in the four-page written statement from Bellfield are not in the public domain, and may only be known to someone present when she disappeared.
Her brother, Minh-Vu, said: “We remember Elizabeth every day, not a single day passes where we don’t hope she will return back home. Our pain does not leave us but it has been doubled by police inaction. Why are the police so indifferent to Elizabeth’s tragedy and why don’t they care about our loss?”
Minh-Vu said his mother and father still cling on to hope: “The parents have been hanging on to hope she is unharmed and she will come through the door.”
Bellfield’s solicitor Theresa Clark said: “I can confirm that Levi Bellfield has made a statement where he has admitted the murder of Elizabeth Chau and other offences. The police will be speaking to him.”
Clark said the confessions were Bellfield’s idea: “It was at his instigation. I think he feels the families and victims deserve some resolution and closure. I’m minded to believe him. He wrote a signed statement and he gave it to me.”
The Chau family met police last month to discuss the confession. They have also asked to meet the force’s commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, who has vowed to clean up the scandal-hit Met.
Minh-Vu said: “It has been over six months, we were baffled by why it has taken so long to tell us they had information about what had happened to her.”
He added the family know Bellfield’s history: “We were very cautious. Bic recognised some of the material [in Bellfield’s alleged confession] that was not in the public domain.”
There is a long history to the case, with the family saying when Chau went missing they had to carry out the initial basic inquiries and searches.
This includes the family – not police – finding CCTV footage recording the last known sighting of Chau. The camera was outside Ealing police station and owned by the council. Other items belonging to the student were found by a family organised public search.
Bic-Hang said: “When we reported Elizabeth missing in April 1999, the police didn’t listen nor act swiftly. We had to organise search parties ourselves. We are the ones that located and gathered the CCTV images showing her last moments. We looked for witnesses. We did the police’s job.”
Bic-Hang, has worked for the Crown Prosecution Service for over two decades and said: “After 24 years you want to hang on to hope and get answers where your sister is.”
The Met said: “We are not prepared to provide an ongoing commentary. We have no comment to make.”
Suresh Grover, of the Monitoring Group, who has helped the Chau family since 1999, said: “There have been so many opportunities in this case for police to act professionally and transparently but none have been taken. Both these factors should shock the public.”
The Chau family say police told them Elizabeth’s case was closed a decade ago because there were no further leads. They say a member of Bellfield’s family claimed he had confessed to Chau’s murder in 2017, then retracted the claim.
