A woman stabbed to death in south London had never recovered from her sister's death from cancer and the miscarriage of her own twin babies, friends revealed today.

Dee Willis, 28, of Peckham, was knifed by another woman at about 11pm on Tuesday, after an earlier argument, as she cycled home from the Kentish Drovers pub in Peckham with her boyfriend. She died later at King's College Hospital.

Close friend Sandra Martin, 52, said: "The girl who attacked Dee said something nasty to her about the argument earlier in the night and then just lashed out at her."

Mrs Martin said that Ms Willis's mother, Carol, was numb with grief.

The attack was in the area where Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has a constituency home and is just 100 yards from the kebab shop the Peckham MP visited this year to prove Britain's streets were safe.

Last night forensic science officers found a knife in a telephone booth near the scene. It is yet not known if it was the one used in the killing.

Police believe they know the identity of the killer and raided a house yesterday but no one has been arrested.

Ms Willis's death comes just four years after her sister Sarah died of cancer while in her twenties. In March Ms Willis, pregnant with twins, suffered a miscarriage. Both events had left her traumatised, her friends said today.

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