Man pleads guilty to 1998 murder of mother of seven

A 66-year-old man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a mother of seven who disappeared from her Dudley home nearly three decades ago. Trevor Dunkley admitted to killing Patricia Lashley and preventing her lawful burial during a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, September 11, 2026. The court heard that the charges were brought following a confession Dunkley made to police. His barrister, Balbir Singh, told Judge Michael Chambers KC that the victim's body has not been found. "No, because this is 28 years ago and the body was put into the cellar downstairs. It decomposed. When he was moving about nine months to a year later the skeleton was disposed of into the bins," Mr Singh stated. Patricia Lashley, who was 33 at the time, vanished near her home in Dudley in September 1998. She was a mother of seven and was known locally as Pat or Jade. Police said she had links to London, Wales, Newcastle, and Scotland, and also used the names Vanessa and Tricia, as well as the surname Bradford. Dunkley, of Himley Road, Dudley, showed no emotion in the dock as he entered his guilty pleas. The two charges he admitted covered a period between September 22 and September 28, 1998.