A convicted killer who murdered two women and threw their body parts in canals has died without confessing what he did to their remains.
Depraved killer John Sweeney, 69, was jailed for the murder of ex-girlfriends Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead in 2011.
Some of their remains were discovered in a canal in London and Rotterdam, Netherlands, but it took years before Sweeney was linked to the murders and brought to justice.
He is believed to have died at HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire, on August 14, while serving his whole-life sentence, with The Times reporting he succumbed to cancer.
The torso of Ms Halstead, 33, an American model, was found in the Rotterdam canal in 1990, but it took another 18 years and DNA testing to identify her.
Body parts belonging to Paula Fields, 31, were found stuffed inside six bags floating in Regent’s Canal in Camden in 2001.
Both of the women’s heads and hands and Ms Fields’ feet are still missing.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘These were horrific crimes and our thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones.
‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is investigating, and it would be inappropriate to comment further before the conclusion of its findings.’
Detectives investigating the murders committed by the carpenter feared he might have had more victims as the police were unable to find some other women linked to Sweeney who had not been seen for years.
By the time the ‘Canal Killer’ was caught, he was already in prison for trying to kill nurse Delia Balmer with an axe in 1994.
She was saved from becoming Sweeney’s next victim by a neighbour, who barged in with a baseball bat.
Balmer recounted her survival in the hands of Sweeney in a memoir Living With A Serial Killer, which directly inspired the 2024 ITV drama Until I Kill You.
Detectives discovered hundreds of grisly drawings and poems in Sweeney’s home when he was caught. More amateurish pieces were later found in his cell.
Sweeney, who was described in court as a ‘hateful, controlling and possessive man,’ is said to have been convinced he would never be caught.
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