Freezer murders: Police try to piece together final years of victim's life
Henriett Szuke's body was found in a freezer at a flat in east London alongside the body of another woman, Mihrican Mustafa.
Wednesday 8 May 2019 22:51, UK
One of two murdered women whose bodies were found in the same freezer was a young Hungarian searching for a better life in the UK.
Henriett Szuke, 34, moved alone to London looking for work after giving up her job as a factory packer in the industrial city of Miskolc.
But she soon found herself destitute and sleeping rough and had made no contact with family and friends in Hungary for three years.
She became a daily visitor at the Welcome Centre, a homeless charity in Ilford, east London, where clients are given practical and emotional support. She spent some nights at a Salvation Army hostel.
Manageress Sonia Lynch said: "Despite the difficult circumstances of being a female and homeless in the UK, she was quite a warm, kind and caring person, always smiling, always drawing and to know she has come to this end is quite distressing.
"When we knew Henriett she had no issues with drugs and alcohol and other issues. People's perception of homeless people are that they brought this upon themselves.
"It's not that at all. People like Henrietta came here for a better life, get work, support themselves but it didn't work out like that."
Last month Henriett's body and that of a missing local woman Mihrican Mustafa, 38, were found in a freezer at a flat described by police as a haven for drifters and drug users.
They had both suffered multiple injuries.
On Ms Lynch's office wall is a sketch of an angel drawn by Henriett during the nine months she spent visiting the centre from December 2014, soon after she arrived in the UK.
"She was always sketching, it was a kind of therapy for her I think," said Ms Lynch. "She was very talented and would do drawings and give them away to other clients."
Around that time Henriett wrote on her Facebook page: "So lonely, broken Angel, lovely weather but so bored…am broked today. No money, no honey."
Henriett last visited the centre in August 2015, when she asked for a food voucher and told staff she was moving in to live with a friend.
Ms Lynch said: "She was happy and it sounded like she was getting her life together. That's the last we heard from her.
"It was a terrible shock to hear she had died and the circumstances in which her body was found."
Scotland Yard officers have visited Henriett's family in Hungary to try to piece together the final years of her life in the UK.
They have appealed for any information about Henriett and her connection with the flat in Vandome Close, Canning Town, where her body was found on 26 April.
Police also want to know more about 38-year-old Mihrican Mustafa, known as MJ, who was reported missing by her family a year ago.
Detectives don't know if the two women knew each other, or were simply united in death.
Zahid Younis, 34, who lived in the flat, has been charged with preventing the burial of the women's bodies.