Shirley Bassey’s youngest daughter was ‘murdered’ by a serial killer

Jailed killer faces quiz on loss of life of Shirley Bassey’s youngest daughter

By Michael Seamark for MailOnline
Up to date: 11:15 BST, 25 March 2010

A convicted assassin faces being questioned in his cell over the loss of life of Dame Shirley Bassey’s daughter 25 years in the past.

The singer has by no means accepted the official ruling that Samantha Novak, discovered face-down within the River Avon close to the 250ft Clifton Suspension Bridge, died by chance.

Now a ‘chilly case’ squad of detectives is investigating allegations {that a} killer was linked to the 21-year-old’s loss of life.

Avon and Somerset Police mentioned yesterday that the household of assassin Michael Moffat’s sufferer – Penny Beale – have written to detectives with a brand new lead.

Penny’s mom contacted them saying Moffat had informed her daughter he was ‘concerned within the homicide’ of Dame Shirley’s daughter. The killer bragged about having a relationship with the singer’s daughter and warned Penny that she would undergo the identical destiny.

Samantha was discovered within the river in Bristol in August 1985, 9 days after leaving a pub the place she had been consuming. Police concluded that she ‘simply fell in’ and it was a tragic accident.

At her inquest the coroner recorded an open verdict, saying she had died from shock because of sudden submersion into water and there was no proof of foul play.

However in an interview final October Dame Shirley mentioned: ‘I by no means believed that [it was suicide] . . . if she’d jumped off the bridge, all her bones would have been damaged.

‘However there was not a bone damaged. She didn’t have a mark on her.

‘She did not have any water in her lungs. If somebody’s drowning, they gasp, do not they?

‘It is bothered me all this time. As a result of if she did not have any bruises or damaged bones, the place did she fall?

‘And if she did not fall from the bridge . . . My creativeness goes wild.’ 

Samantha was Dame Shirley’s second daughter and introduced up whereas she was married to her second husband Sergio Novak,

Moffat, 47, from Edinburgh, was jailed for 11 years for battering his girlfriend Miss Beale, 31, to loss of life in Hastings, East Sussex, in 2001.

The killer, who’s being held in a Scottish jail, is believed to have lived in the identical space as Samantha on the time of her loss of life.

Miss Beale’s mom, additionally known as Penny, claimed she had been telling police for 9 years that the person who murdered her daughter might have additionally killed Samantha.

Mrs Beale, 60, mentioned she informed them of her considerations in October 2001 – one month earlier than her daughter was murdered by Moffat.

Since then she mentioned she has contacted officers with the allegation ‘again and again’ however believes they didn’t take her claims severely till Dame Shirley’s feedback final October.

Mrs Beale mentioned: ‘Earlier than my daughter was murdered she tried to kill herself and it was then that Moffat mentioned one other of his girlfriends had dedicated suicide. He informed her it was Shirley Bassey’s daughter.

‘In the summertime of 2001 I informed police my considerations he had murdered Samantha and was going to kill Penny however all people thought I used to be simply an overprotective mum or dad.’

Police will resolve inside the subsequent few weeks whether or not to journey north from Bristol to query Moffat.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Carter, head of the power’s main crime overview group, mentioned: ‘We regarded on the circumstances surrounding the loss of life six months in the past after feedback made by Dame Shirley.

‘There was nothing from the coroner’s report back to counsel it was homicide somewhat than suicide, nevertheless this info is further so we’re making recent inquiries.’

A spokesman for Dame Shirley declined to remark.