South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2006 | March | 3
From the archive, first published Friday 3rd Mar 2006.
POLICE are now "almost certain" that the person who died in a fireball car blaze in Thornbury last month was the man they were hunting in connection with the murder of a young Polish woman in Patchway.
Detectives say that extensive forensic examination of the human remains found in a car which burst into flames in the town's High Street on February 3 are now complete and they are satisfied that the dead man was convicted rapist Clive Hayes, 54.
He was free on licence from a life sentence for raping a 15-year-old girl in Leeds when he went missing after 20-year-old care worker Karolina Mikolajewska was found dead from head injuries at his flat in Coniston Road, Patchway.
Less than three days later Hayes' MG Rover sports saloon was seen to explode in Thornbury High Street and to erupt into a ball of fire.
The car smashed into the shop front of florists T and J Owen before coming to a rest near the town pump.
A man's badly burnt body was found in the driving seat and the charred remains of a dog were in the rear footwell.
Avon and Somerset police spokesman Ceri Doyle said: "Without any existing dental records or DNA for Clive Stephen Hayes, police had to use a DNA matching system which, whilst very accurate, cannot give 100 percent confirmation.
"However, as a result of these tests, it is almost certain that these remains are those of Clive Stephen Hayes."
An inquiry team was still investigating the murder, she said, but they were no longer looking for Hayes nor, at this stage, for anyone else in connection with Karolina's death.
An inquest into the Thornbury death is set to be opened by the Bristol Coroner on Monday.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008