A man has pleaded guilty to the murder of a woman who went missing 28 years ago, after telling police he disposed of her decomposed body months after he killed her.
Patricia Lashley, who was 33 at the time, was last seen near her home on Hall Street, Dudley, in September 1998.
Trevor Dunkley, 66, pleaded guilty to her murder and a separate count of preventing her lawful burial at a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday.
He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at the same court on 6 November.
Dunkley, of Himley Road, Dudley, showed no emotion in the dock as his barrister, Balbir Singh, told the court that the charges had been brought based on a police interview.
Asked by Judge Michael Chambers KC if Lashley’s body had ever been found, Singh said: “No, because this is 28 years ago and the body was put into the cellar downstairs.”
West Midlands Police previously said Lashley, a mother of seven, moved to Dudley in the 1990s and it was understood she and Dunkley knew one another.
Her family made a fresh appeal to trace her in 2017.
Police said she had been known to have links to London, Newcastle, Wales and Scotland, and was known locally as Pat or Jade, and also used the names Vanessa and Tricia, as well as the surname Bradford.