A widow whose daughter was brutally killed more than three decades ago has told of her shock after cold-case detectives made an arrest.

Wendy Knell was murdered at her Tunbridge Wells bedsit in June 1987. She had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death.

For years her parents Pam and Bill refused to give up hope that one day they would see the 25-year-old's killer would be brought to justice, although this wish was be left unfulfilled for her father, who died in 2017.

Speaking just hours after the revelation of a potential breakthrough by murder detectives, Mrs Knell said she was still coming to terms with the news of the suspect's arrest.

"The police came round and told me early this morning but they couldn't tell me anything about who he was," she said, "so I don't know if it was someone Wendy knew or a complete stranger.

"I'm dumbfounded, I wasn't expecting this after 33 and-a-half years. My husband died three years ago so he will never know.

"I'm just wandering around like a dummy."

Asked if the apprehension of a suspect might finally bring some peace, she said: "I don't know, it is too early to know. I'm still taking it in."

Miss Knell's body was discovered in her bedsit in Guildford Road on June 23, 1987.

Five months later another young woman was killed in the town.

Caroline Pierce, 20, was sexually assaulted and murdered after arriving home to her bedsit in Grosvenor Park on November 24. Her body was discovered by a farm worker in a field near St Mary in the Marsh, Romney Marsh, on December 15.

This morning police announced that a 66-year-old suspect from Heathfield in East Sussex has been detained in connection with the deaths.

Mr Knell, a retired bus driver, died three years ago following a period of illness with cancer. "If he’s not been found by the time I go, she’ll tell me who it was," he had said in 2012.

The couple had long insisted they believed a killer would eventually be brought to account by officers working on Operation Greenfinch.

They made regular appeals on the anniversaries of Wendy's death, and supported a Crimewatch reconstruction aired by the BBC on the 20th anniversary of the terrible crimes.

In 2017 Mr Knell spoke movingly of the impact their tragic loss had on the couple.

"It affected our married life as well because from the day she was killed Pam couldn't bear me near her," he said.

"If I put my arms around her she just goes 'don't do that'.

"So the only thing I could do was move to the other bedroom and I have been there ever since.

"She has got her bedroom and I have got mine, so I have not only lost a daughter, I have lost a wife and gained a sister."

Speaking at the same time, as they renewed their appeal for information, Mrs Knell said: "Just before it happened I turned 50 and they all said to me your life begins at 50.

"Then that happened and my life finished as I knew it then."

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