UK: Crazed Black Boyfriend Stabs Tiny White Hairdresser to Death in Front of Horrified Work Colleagues

Daily Mail
February 21, 2014

Hair salon worker Hollie Gazzard, 20, was brutally stabbed to death in front of customers
Hair salon worker Hollie Gazzard was brutally stabbed to death in front of customers by her Black boyfriend who she had recently split up with.

A young hairdresser was stabbed to death at the salon where she worked in front of horrified colleagues and customers.

Hollie Gazzard, 20, was nearing the end of her shift when a man walked in and subjected her to a brutal attack.

Yesterday the police arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of her murder. The suspect, named locally as Asher Maslin, is understood to be Miss Gazzard’s ex-boyfriend, whom she apparently broke up with last month.

Police searched a building site near the scene and recovered a knife – and they are not looking for any other weapons in connection with the death.

The hairdresser was stabbed in front of colleagues at the Fringe Benefits salon in Gloucester, some of whom are now receiving counselling.

Emergency services were called to the scene just before 6pm on Tuesday where they encountered what police described as a ‘very, very nasty incident’. The victim was taken to hospital but later died from her injuries.

Hollie Gazzard, 20,  died after being stabbed in the hairdressers where she used to work. Her ex-boyfriend Asher Thomas  has been arrested on suspicion of murder
Asher Thomas and Hollie Gazzard.

Shockingly it emerged that members of the public filmed the incident on their phones – forcing police to ask anyone with footage of paramedics trying to save Miss Gazzard’s life not to post it on social media websites.

Yesterday a police spokesman confirmed that the suspect had previously been in a relationship with Miss Gazzard, and was now being held at Cheltenham police station.

Miss Gazzard’s friend Kayleigh Bishop said that the couple had an ‘on-off’ relationship and  had moved in together briefly  last year.

Miss Bishop, 20, added: ‘I don’t know what had happened to make them finally break up – but they were never right for each other. She wasn’t going out with anyone else.’

On the Fringe Benefits website, Miss Gazzard, who until recently worked on a cruise ship, said that she has been working in the industry since the age of 16.

But in December last year Miss Gazzard appeared to open up about her relationship on her Twitter feed, writing: ‘Why are people so selfish?!’

Police investigating the killing of a young woman have arrested a 22-year-old man on suspicion of murder
The scene of the crime. The brutal murder was witnessed by everyone walking past and in the salon at the time. Apparently some people filmed it on their phones.

A number of other messages seem to refer to her ex-partner, with one reading: ‘Finally Ashers gone to sleep after being sick about five times and complaining that he’s dying.’

Yesterday Miss Gazzard’s family said ‘the brightest star’ in their lives had gone out.

In a statement issued through Gloucestershire Police, they said: ‘Hollie is our daughter and she was a beautiful, happy and loving girl. Everybody she came in contact with loved her, enjoyed her company, her happy nature and her sense of fun.’

They added: ‘She was at the beginning of life and to have it taken away in this manner is very hard to bear. The only comfort we have at this time is that Hollie is now free and at peace and that no harm can ever come to her.’

On her salon’s website Hollie herself as someone who is passionate about her work.

‘My career as a hairdresser started when I was 16 and was offered an apprenticeship within a salon in Gloucester,’ she wrote.


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