Woman beheaded first victim (4)
I believe the answer is:
abel
'first victim' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'woman beheaded' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'woman' could be 'bel' and 'bel' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'a' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for abel that I've seen before include "One of the first children" , "Son of Adam and Eve" , "Cornish city" , "First person killed" , "Cain's younger brother" .)