Neighbours 'Shocked' At Wakefield Stabbings

12 March 2012, 15:40 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

Neighbours living near a Wakefield flat where two teenagers were found stabbed have spoken of their shock at the deaths of the “decent, normal, everyday girls'”.

17 year old Kimberley Frank, and 18 year old Samantha Sykes, were found at the flat on Barden Road, in the Eastmoor area, early on Saturday morning.

A 19-year-old man was being questioned on suspicion of their murders.

On Monday, the two-storey building on Barden Road, where Miss Frank lived, remained cordoned off and a police officer stood outside.

Another block of flats on the next road was also surrounded by police cordon tape on Monday morning and a police officer stood at the main front door. Neighbours said they believed Miss Frank's sister and her boyfriend lived there.

25 year old Stephen Ryan, of Linton Road, Wakefield, lives in a flat in the neighbouring block and said he would often see Miss Frank's sister and boyfriend arguing.

Mr Ryan said he did not know the women who died but occasionally saw them on the estate.

“They just looked like decent girls really. Just normal, everyday girls you see around this estate,” he said. “My girlfriend knows one of the girls and she's in bits. She's been saying how these lasses were nice girls and didn't deserve it.”

West Yorkshire Police said officers were contacted by Kent Police after a 19-year-old woman in Dover raised concerns for the safety of the two women.

Officers went to the flat on Barden Road and discovered the bodies of Miss Frank and Miss Sykes, of California Drive, Horbury, West Yorks.

Two men, aged 19 and 23, and a 19-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of murder by Kent Police but the woman and the 23-year-old man were later released without charge. A post-mortem examination revealed the women died from stab wounds.