Twenty-year-old Floarea Nicolae was originally from Romania but was living in Edmonton, north London, England, where she plied her trade as a sex worker.
At around midnight on June 1st, 2014, someone approached Floarea as she stood on Grove Street and stabbed her once in the stomach before fleeing the scene. The victim was taken to the hospital but died of her injuries shortly afterward.
A few days later, authorities arrested a thirty-eight-year-old woman in connection with the crime, but she was summarily released without charge. However, a forty-seven-year-old woman named Ayse Asim, who was arrested at the same time, was charged with murder.
At Asim’s trial in December 2014, the prosecution argued that Asim had phoned the police a dozen times in the prior ten months, complaining about sex workers in the surrounding streets. It was then alleged that Asim had spoken to Floarea Nicolae on the night of June 1st, after which she had walked to a nearby gas station to buy cigarettes. Upon returning from this errand, the prosecution said, Asim had stabbed Floarea in the stomach and then went home.
Asim had in fact turned herself in to the police two days after the killing, telling them she “may have stabbed someone.” However, she later made a full statement in which she denied the slaying, claiming she was on medication at the time of her confession and had been confused.
Ayse Asim was eventually acquitted due to lack of evidence, thus the murder of Floarea Nicolae remains officially unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 