Hertfordshire Police have launched a major review of unsolved murder cases following shocking revelations from the Joy Morgan investigation, which found her killing was not reported to the force for over a month.
The 20-year-old nursing student was murdered by fellow church member Shohfah-El Israel, formerly known as Israel Ogunsola, in a case that has exposed alarming gaps in how violence against women from the Black community is reported and investigated.
A Case of Unreported Horror
Detective Superintendent Justine Jenkins revealed the grim truth: "We did not know Joy was missing for a number of weeks." The young student's disappearance went unreported to police until February 2019, despite her having been killed in late December 2018.
This catastrophic delay in reporting meant critical evidence was lost and the investigation faced unnecessary obstacles from its inception.
The Killer Among Them
Israel, now serving a life sentence with a minimum of 17 years, was a member of the same Ilford-based church community as Joy. The 41-year-old maintained a facade of concern while secretly knowing the gruesome fate of his victim.
The investigation revealed Israel had researched how to dispose of a body and purchased tools potentially used to conceal Joy's remains, which have never been recovered.
Systemic Failures Exposed
The case has triggered a force-wide review of unsolved murders and long-term missing persons cases. Detective Superintendent Jenkins confirmed: "We're reviewing cases where we've got missing people that are long-term or unsolved murders to see if there's anything that we can do."
Particular attention is being paid to whether other cases involving Black women and girls might have been under-reported or inadequately investigated due to systemic biases.
A Family's Unending Pain
Joy's mother, Carol Morgan, continues to endure the agony of not being able to lay her daughter to rest. "I still don't have my daughter back," she told the court during Israel's sentencing. "I cannot have a funeral, I cannot lay her to rest."
The family's pain is compounded by the knowledge that earlier intervention might have prevented this tragedy, had the system worked as it should.
Broader Implications for Policing
This case has raised serious questions about how police handle missing persons reports from minority communities. There is growing concern that cases involving Black women are not being treated with the same urgency as others.
Hertfordshire Police have acknowledged these concerns and are now implementing new procedures to ensure better community engagement and more thorough investigations in similar cases.
