Jogger killed in park was young artist

Hand on hip, she stares straight ahead, her manner confident, her hair parted to one side. The self-portrait reveals the gift of a talented young artist who was living and working in London, with a "brilliant future".

But Margaret Muller, 27, an American teaching assistant at the Slade School of Fine Art, was found stabbed to death on a path in Victoria Park, Hackney, east London, at 8.30am on Monday after joggers and cyclists heard her screams.

Ms Muller, from Virginia, had carried no identification. Police discovered who she was through a friend listed in the mobile phone she had with her.

Detectives investigating the murder are considering possible links with an attack in nearby London Fields last Thursday, in which a woman was raped by a man armed with a knife at 5pm. Police believe a sexual assault may have been a motive for the attack on Ms Muller but they have not ruled out that the killer was someone she knew. She died from multiple wounds including one in the neck.

The artist came to London from America to study in 1998 and has displayed her paintings in the United States and Britain. She graduated in 2001 from Slade and was a studio teaching assistant at the school. Ms Muller had been living in Wallis Road, Hackney, where she had a studio.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Shatford, the officer in charge of the inquiry, said: "Ms Muller was clearly a hard-working, decent and enthusiastic young lady with a brilliant future and her family are devastated by this. She appears to have been well liked. She was an attractive young lady, an accomplished and respected artist in the art community and the college she attended.

"We are extremely concerned at the frenzied attack and the fact that it was in broad daylight. This is an individual who acted very quickly, shown by the fact that no witnesses have seen him." Police wish to question a white man aged between 18 and 20 who was in the area at the time. He spoke to a park keeper and helped direct an ambulance.

Ms Muller specialised in life painting and drawing. She had a website of her paintings, including self-portraits.