Stunning: Eva Rhodes in the 1960s. She vanished four months ago, aged 65, and her family believe she has been killed



Murder riddle over the 60s model who caught John and Yoko's eye

By David Williams
16th January 2009

A former British model and actress who once rubbed shoulders with John Lennon is missing, feared murdered  -  because of her love of animals.

For 12 years Eva Rhodes has cared for abandoned cats and dogs at a sanctuary in Hungary funded partly by donations from animal lovers in England and a gift from Yoko Ono, with whom she made a film in the 1960s.

But four months ago the 65-year-old grandmother, who had been the target of a hate campaign and had clashed with local police, vanished and her family believe she has been killed.

She was last seen in the company of a young Roma man she had recruited to help at her Puss in Boots Animal Trust near the town of Gyor, on September 10.

Although her personal bank account has not been touched, the sanctuary has been ransacked and donations sent from England mysteriously diverted.

'We believe she has been murdered and the body possibly disposed of,' said her sister Judith Majlath.

She added: 'Despite all the evidence that she is the victim of crime, she is merely being treated as a "missing person" by the Hungarian authorities, whose indifference is shameful.'

Miss Majlath, who lives in Vienna, flew to Britain this week to join Mrs Rhodes's Chelsea-based daughter Sophie in pleading with Foreign Secretary David Miliband to ask Hungary to treat the disappearance as a criminal case.

Miss Majlath said there had been a long-running dispute between police in Gyor and her sister over the sanctuary.

It ended with a victory for Mrs Rhodes in the European Court of Human Rights, which upheld her claim that police had acted over-aggressively towards her.

Eva worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on their their film, Rape

'There are many elements in Gyor who will not be sorry that Eva has disappeared and one of them is the police,' Miss Majlath said.

'There is trafficking in dogs in Hungary and people treat animals in a very diffirent way to the UK. Many of those who lived near the sanctuary considered Eva an eccentric English woman who brought them unwanted attention.'

Some of the animals sold by the traffickers, she said, end up being used in dog-fighting and lab experiments.

Mrs Rhodes, whose family left Hungary in the 1950s, began working as a model and actress in London in the 1960s.

Her stunning looks attracted the attention of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who were looking for an actress to star in a film they were making called Rape, about the intrusion of the camera in everyday life.

Eva married British architect Mark Rhodes. The couple later divorced and she established the sanctuary using £150,000 of her own money.

The centre  -  and Mrs Rhodes  -  are well known in Hungary, especially after she was reunited on TV with a surprised Yoko Ono when Rape was shown to great acclaim at a festival in Vienna.

In the Sixties, all Mrs Rhodes had received for her role had been an album signed by John and Yoko and the promised £25,000 fee had not materialised.

On learning of Mrs Rhodes's new life with animals the widow of the Beatle 'made good' the outstanding debt  -  the money going to the sanctuary.

Hungarian police insist they are treating the disappearance of Mrs Rhodes seriously.





Article: HERE