Cummins is suspected of committing his first two murders in October 1941. His first suspected victim was a 19-year-old clerk named Maple Church, who was murdered on 13 October. Church is known to have frequently engaged in casual sexual relations with servicemen. Her nude body was found by workmen in a bombed house on Hampstead Road the day after her murder. She had been strangled to death with her own camiknickers by an individual described by the pathologist who examined her body as being a left-handed individual, as the bruising around Church's neck indicated her murderer had more strength in his left hand than his right. In addition, her handbag had been emptied, with several contents missing. Church had not been subjected to a sexual assault. Her death is believed to have occurred at approximately 9:15 p.m.