First picture of teenage shop assistant murdered in frenzied knife attack as she walked home from work

By
Dan Newling and Kate Loveys
Last updated at 2:09 AM on 20th January 2010

She was just a schoolgirl working part-time to earn some extra money.

But for Asha Muneer, her job as a shop assistant at Laura Ashley ended up costing her her life. The 18-year-old’s trip home along a lonely riverside footpath on Monday evening turned out to be her last when she was set upon and murdered.

Police yesterday revealed she had been stabbed ‘multiple times’ in the head and body. Her handbag, which was found near her blood-soaked body, had been emptied and its contents scattered on the ground.

Last night her family were trying to come to terms with what had happened to the A-level student as friends paid tribute to a ‘bubbly girl’ who was always there for her friends. Asha’s body was discovered two miles outside the centre of Reading, on a footpath running under a main road and alongside the River Kennet.

The murder scene is close to Reading Football Club’s Madejski stadium and less than a mile from her place of work – an out-of-town branch of Laura Ashley.

Detectives said the attack took place at around 8.30pm. Asha’s body was discovered 45 minutes later by a jogger.

The store where the teenager works closes at 6pm leaving two-and-a-half hours unaccounted for. However, last night it was reported she had arranged to meet friends at a nearby McDonald’s after work.

Yesterday members of Asha’s family gathered at her home in the nearby Whitley area of Reading, a mile and a half from the murder scene.

A man, who described himself only as Asha’s uncle, said: ‘We don’t really know anything much about what happened. It is too soon to talk about Asha. We are not in the right place in our heads at the moment.’

Asha, who is believed to be Muslim, had four sisters aged between 14 and 21 and a young brother. Her father is a taxi driver.

A close school friend, Amy Collett, said: ‘Everyone loved her. She was so sweet and funny and was there 100 per cent for her friends. She was so bubbly.’

The pair met at Reading Girls School which Asha attended for GCSEs before moving to Highdown School in Caversham to do her A-levels.

Amy added: ‘Just the other week she messaged me about an event she was organising. It was going to be like a mini reunion. I’m so sad that I won’t be seeing her there now.’

Another friend said she believed the teenager had an older boyfriend. She said: ‘I don’t know how she met him. I heard a few months ago they were having problems.’

A Facebook group page was last night set up in Asha’s memory. A poem dedicated to the schoolgirl finished with the lines: ‘Asha was definitely a star to those she knew – like a sister to everyone.’

One local woman, housewife Leanne Marlow, a 21-year-old mother of one, told how she had walked the path where Asha died just two hours before the attack. She said: ‘It was very dark. ‘It can be very gloomy down there, especially at night.’

Kathryn Hilliard, 28, from the nearby Kennet Island housing estate, added: ‘That part of the footpath is a bit scary and there’s a lot of graffiti down there. I would never go down there in the dark on my own.’

White-suited forensic officers yesterday trawled the site immediately around where Asha’s body was found. A kitchen knife was found on the ground nearby but it was unclear if it was used in the attack.

The underpass, which runs under the A33 road, is often used by pedestrians to walk between the various retail, industrial and housing estates that line the road into Reading town centre.

Thames Valley Superintendent Jim Weems said he was ‘keeping an open mind’ about the motive for the murder.

Last night police revealed a 19-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder at an address in Reading.

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