Lucy Partington

Lucy Katherine Partington (4 March 1952 – some time between 27 December 1973 and 2 January 1974; aged 21) was a British murder victim. She was born in St Albans, the third child of Roger and Margaret (Bardwell) Partington. On the night of 27 December 1973, during her final year of reading English Literature at Exeter University,[1] she was abducted by serial killers Fred and Rosemary West. Her precise date of death is unknown.

However, at twenty-five past midnight on 3 January 1974, Fred West admitted himself into the casualty unit at Gloucester Royal hospital with a serious laceration of his right-hand that required several stitches, leading to speculation that she could have been kept alive and tortured for several days in the cellar of the Wests' home in Cromwell Street before finally being murdered.[2] Her remains were discovered there on 6 March 1994 alongside the knife West used to dismember them. On 16 February 1995, Partington's remains were reburied in Exeter, Devon.

Partington’s sister, Marian Partington, wrote about the impact of Lucy’s life, disappearance, and death in her memoir, If You Sit Very Still, in May 2012.[3] The book builds on Salvaging the Sacred, an essay written by Marian and published in The Guardian Weekend in May 1996.[4] The essay inspired a play by Bryony Lavery (Frozen), which premiered in 1998, and a feature film by Juliet McKoen, also entitled Frozen (2005).

Lucy Partington was the cousin of novelist Martin Amis. He dedicated his novel The Information to her memory and writes about her life and death in his memoir Experience.[2]

References
  1. Benn, Melissa (4 May 2012). "If You Sit Very Still by Marian Partington - review". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  2. Amis, Martin (11 May 2019). "When darkness met light". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  3. "Marian Partington's bid to forgive Fred and Rose West". BBC News. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
  4. Marian Partington, Salvaging the Sacred: Lucy, My Sister, originally published in The Guardian Weekend, 18 May 1996 and reissued by Quaker Books, 2004

Further reading
  • Partington, Marian (2012). If You Sit Very Still. Vala Publishing Co-operative. ISBN 978-1-908363-02-2.
  • Amis, Martin (2000). Experience. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099285-82-3.
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