Marie Harding

Marie Harding, a 73-year-old grandmother from Southwick near Hove, West Sussex, was murdered on 15 September 2004.

She was walking home along a quiet wooded footpath near Highdown Close after visiting her daughter when she was attacked. A dog walker found her body around 4:20 p.m.; she had been stabbed in the back and her throat slashed.

Her killer was Daniel Gonzalez, a 24-year-old spree killer from Woking, Surrey. Gonzalez, who styled himself the “Freddy Krueger Killer”, went on a random, drug-fuelled stabbing rampage inspired by horror films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. He wore a hockey mask during the attack on Marie and left her DNA on it. Marie was his first murder victim in the spree.

Over the following days, Gonzalez killed three more people (Kevin Molloy, Derek Robinson, and Jean Robinson) and attempted to murder two others in Sussex and north London before his arrest on 17 September 2004.

In March 2006 at the Old Bailey, he was convicted of four murders and two attempted murders and given six life sentences with a recommendation that he never be released.

Gonzalez had a history of mental health issues (including schizophrenia) and drug use. He had an English mother and Spanish father, he died by suicide in Broadmoor Hospital in August 2007 at age 27.

The family of Marie Harding expressed relief at the conviction, describing her as a kind, smiling woman who loved her work at Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club’s ticket office.

Rest in peace Marie. You will not be forgotten.