POLICE continue to hunt the killer of Zoe Parker, a woman who absconded from a care home in Abbots Langley, whose dismembered torso was found in the Thames, an inquest heard on (Tuesday).

The top half of the 24-year-old's body was found between barges on December 17, 2000. She was almost certainly strangled and her body cut through with a sharp blade and dumped in the river somewhere between Isleworth and Battersea.

Weston-super-Mare born Zoe had fled from a behavioural unit at Waddon Court, Woodside Road, Abbots Langley, three months before her death and was known to exchange sex for lodgings in the Hounslow and central London area.

Westminster Coroners Court heard graphic design consultant Troy Moore, owner of Landrail Houseboat, in Battersea, raised the alarm after spotting decomposing remains in mud near his vessel.

A murder inquiry was launched and detectives from Barnes-based Serious Crime Group appealed for help in identifying the woman using a Zoe tattoo on her shoulder.

It was discovered she was born Cathy Dennis but had changed her name and grew up in Hounslow. Her mother, Jackie Parker, from Feltham, did not attend the inquest.

Detective Inspector Steve Hall told the court Zoe's parents split up when she was three months old and she was taken into care aged 18 months, spending her childhood with foster parents or in homes, causing difficulty for others with her aggression.

She became a local tearaway in Feltham, causing trouble, stealing from shops and regularly having sex with strangers. In 1995, she was sectioned under the Mental Health Act and treated at Waddon Court.

However, her aggressive, abusive and violent behaviour continued to cause problems and, in 1998, she was sent to Holloway Prison for assault. On her release from prison, she was once sectioned under the Mental Health Act to live at the care home in Abbots Langley.

"She would sleep with men to get a bed for the night and some food on a short-term basis," said DI Hall.