by CHRIS CLARK & TIM HICKS

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Introduction: “The East Lancs Ripper”

For many years there has been media comment on the possibility that a serial killer, dubbed “The East Lancs Ripper” and who remains undetected, had operated in East Lancashire in the period 1988-1998.

This man has been alleged to be responsible for the unsolved murders of Linda Donaldson, Maria Christina Requena, Julie Finlay and Vera Anderson. Manchester Evening News (MEN) report on the “East Lancs Ripper” here.

There has also been media comment that the suspicious disappearances of Helen Sage, Georgina Moore, Pauline Curry and the murder of Julie Jones may be connected to these murders. (MEN) report here.

New information has been revealed in the “In the Footsteps of Killers” documentary on the 1990 murder of Mrs Trevaline Evans in Llangollen, North Wales, in which Tim participated (here). Following on from this, the authors have re-reviewed these cases.

The authors eliminated three of these cases from the series in an article published in 2018.

• Vera Anderson

Vera Anderson was found with her throat cut in her car in Penketh near Warrington on the 25^th of August 1991. The modus operandi of this crime was very different to those of the other cases. In 2022, Cheshire Police arrested a 70-year-old man from Widnes and a 61-year-old woman from Warrington for Vera’s murder, but they were released without charge.

• Georgina Moore

Georgina Moore was a divorced mother of two who disappeared from Wigan in 1998. She was reported as missing but was traced and found to be alive and well.

• Pauline Currie

Pauline Curry was a hairdresser and single parent, who disappeared from Lowton, near Leigh in November 2006. She was also traced and found to be alive and well.

The authors are nevertheless satisfied that the remainder of these cases are linked and form a cluster of attacks for which serial killer Christopher Halliwell (pictured above left), is a strong suspect. They also believe that Halliwell could be a suspect in the “Angel of the Meadows” murder and  have now linked the murder of Trevaline Evans to the “East Lancs Ripper” series.

Christopher Halliwell

Halliwell is currently in prison on a full life sentence for the 2003 murder of Becky Godden-Edwards and the 2011 murder of Sian O’Callaghan. He was 47 when he murdered Sian O’Callaghan. It is rare for men to start killing at that age. Most serial killers start in their late teens and early twenties.

Halliwell was a misogynist from the age of 15. When he was aged twenty-one to twenty-three (in between 1985 and 1987), he boasted in prison to a cell-mate that he had already killed one woman and wanted to become a serial killer.

During the course of its investigation into Halliwell, Wiltshire Police discovered three “trophy caches” of sixty items of women’s clothing which it is suspected were taken from his victims. These were:

• A pond at Ramsbury, Wiltshire where they recovered Sian O’Callaghan’s boots (SO’C: D3).
• Buried near the pond they found Becky Godden-Edwards’ cardigan (BG-E: D4), fifty-eight other items of women’s clothing and a shotgun.
• Halliwell’s garage where they recovered a pair of knickers that did not belong to his wife or his daughter. The implication being that they were from a more recent, but unknown victim and were being stored in the garage prior to being transported to the cache at Ramsbury.

Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who arrested Halliwell has been quoted as saying:

“Buried around the pond were more items of women’s clothing. I wondered, did they belong to the six other victims I suspected Halliwell of killing? But I had my maths wrong.

Around the pond were not six other items of women’s clothing. There were 60.

 Halliwell might have been far more prolific than even I had feared.”

Daily Mail coverage with his remarks in full here.

In 1977 alone, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe murdered at least five women. So in the period following his release from prison in 1987 to his arrest in 2011, Halliwell could have murdered many more women than those for which he was convicted.

Serial killers prefer to operate in areas and follow routes they are familiar with because:

1. They are more confident and comfortable in familiar surroundings.
2. They know the patterns of behavior locally, which reduces the possibility of detection while they are committing a crime.

To assess the possibility of other crimes having been committed by a serial killer, it is necessary to identify the areas he was familiar with. Then compare his modus operandi to unsolved crimes in those areas.

Halliwell’s geographical area of operation

Halliwell led an itinerant life style. He enjoyed driving and travelled widely to work in many jobs, including window-cleaner, builder, ground-worker, chauffeur, taxi-driver and bin-man, and to pursue his hobbies of narrow-boating and fishing. He regularly used prostitutes and visited ‘red light’ districts.

Halliwell lived in Dalbeattie, Scotland, several addresses in Swindon and at Aughton Park near Liverpool. He is known to have stayed and worked in North Wales as a window fitter. He may also have stayed with his father in Huddersfield. According to one witness, he also lived in York and worked there as a minicab driver or a builder.

Consequently Halliwell’s geographic knowledge and area of operations was enormous. He certainly knew Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester, Yorkshire and North Wales. This has led the authors to potentially link Halliwell to:

• A cluster of murders within a 40 mile radius of Aughton Park in Lancashire.
• A cluster of attacks in North Yorkshire, which are to be covered in a separate series of articles.

Halliwell’s modus operandi

The authors have analysed Haliwell’s modus operandi, based on the murders  of Becky Godden-Edwards and Sian O’Callaghanfor which he was convicted.

Becky Godden-Edwards

Becky was a heroin addict and paid for her abduction through prostituting herself at Swindon’s Manchester Road red light district (RLD). Halliwell was a regular client and was obsessed with her. She was last seen getting into Halliwell’s cab outside a nightclub on East Street, Swindon, (Abduction Point BG-E: AP) in January 2003, while arguing with him.

When he was arrested, Halliwell took detectives to the exact location of Becky’s grave in the corner of a field in Eastleach (BG-E: D2), in the Gloucester Constabulary force area. Even though it was nondescript and he had buried her there eight years before. The implication being that he had visited the grave several times over the years to obtain pleasure from the memories it brought him.

Becky’s clothing had been removed. Her hands, feet and head were missing and Halliwell never revealed where he had buried them (BG-E: D3+), or the location where he dismembered her body (BG-E: D1). The cause of death could not be determined.

Sian O’Callaghan

Halliwell worked in Swindon as a minicab driver. In the early hours of the morning of 19^th March 2011 he contacted his control room and told them he was clocking-off and going home. He then drove around Swindon, looking for a suitable victim.

Sian O’Callaghan (pictured above right), aged 22, was walking home from a nightclub on High Street Swindon and was spotted by Halliwell (SO’C: AP). She had facial similarities to Halliwell’s mother, (who he hated), had a slight build – which meant she could be easy to overcome. This all fitted his victim preferences. He pulled up in his green Toyota Avensis with a minicab sticker on the side and offered her a lift. Sian got in and Halliwell killed her shortly afterwards by stabbing her in her head and neck with a knife. Her body was later found to have been undressed and showed signs of strangulation and blunt force trauma to the face and head.

[See Map, here]

Halliwell took Sian’s body to the Savernake forest (SO’C: D1) and concealed it there, later visiting it four times. When he realised that the police were searching the Savernake Forest in the Wiltshire Police force area, he moved Sian’s body to the White Horse at Uffington, Oxfordshire, in the Thames Valley Police force area (SO’C: D2). He removed the body from the boot of his car and rolled it down an embankment into undergrowth, which completely concealed it from the road. He had obviously preselected the deposition site at Uffington and it was perfect for this purpose. The operation probably took less than two minutes.

Forensically aware, Halliwell later cleaned the rear seat of his car and burned the seat covers.

The Map

[See Map, here]

This summarises some of this information and shows that Halliwell moved both bodies in short journeys of between 11 and 19 miles in rural areas, at night. This reduced the possibility of being stopped by the Police in a traffic stop, being picked up on CCTV or being seen by other drivers or residents.

Halliwell was forensically aware. He changed cars regularly and destroyed forensic evidence whenever possible. He concealed Becky and Sian’s bodies with great skill. He was physically strong, had been a builder, grave-digger, and ground worker and could probably dig a shallow grave in an hour or so. Had he not taken detectives to the gravesites, their bodies would never have been found. The absence of a body is therefore entirely consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi. The implication of this is that Halliwell must be a suspect in the disappearance of any woman in an area that Halliwell was known to frequent or operate in.

When he was working as a taxi driver, Halliwell was smartly dressed, clean and tidy in appearance, quiet spoken and persuasive. He had no difficulty persuading women to get in his vehicle.

The authors believe that he deliberately varied his modus operandi, and abducted victims in one force area, then deposited the body in another, to complicate the police investigation and make it more difficult to link his crimes

Table 1

[Link to Table 1, here]

This compares Halliwell’s modus operandi against the murders in the North West and Yorkshire clusters. As can be seen there is a clear correlation.

The North West clusters

[The map here shows]:

• The route packages Halliwell would probably have used when living at Aughton Park, working in North Wales and returning to Swindon.
• The two abduction clusters in Manchester and Liverpool, and a deposition cluster along the A570, A580 and A579. Containing the key sites for the “East Lancs Ripper” murders of Helen Sage, Linda Donaldson, Maria Christina Requena, Julie Finlay, Julie Jones and additionally, the “Angel of the Meadows” case.
• The key points in the murder of Trevaline Evans, which are linked to the “East Lancs Ripper” murders by the associated route packages.

Considering the individual cases:

Linda Donaldson 

Linda Donaldson was a prostitute from Liverpool who was last seen at 11pm on Monday 17^th October 1988, by a Merseyside Police vice squad officer close to the Albert Dock RLD waiting for clients. Detectives deduced that she was enticed into a car by a client.

At noon the next day, an elderly couple discovered Linda’s body along a remote stretch of road at Lowton, a village in Greater Manchester. Linda’s body was concealed on the other side of a hedge, in a gully. A post-mortem examination would later conclude that she had died from multiple stab wounds.

The pathologist concluded that the woman was dead before many of the injuries had been inflicted, including trying to remove her breasts, which were never found and trying to remove her head and arms from her body. The murder weapon(s) and Linda’s clothes were not found.

Linda’s body had been washed down before it was dumped, probably to remove any forensic evidence. She was killed somewhere else and then dumped in the field.

Crimewatch UK programme on the murder here.

Trevaline Evans

Trevaline Evans disappeared from her antiques shop at Llangollen North Wales in June 1990. Her murder is included in the North West Cluster because Halliwell could have travelled to Llangollen to go fishing or travelling on a narrow boat, using the route packages from Aughton Park to North Wales and from North Wales to and from Swindon. The key indicators are:

• Halliwell had a striking facial resemblance to Sian O’Callaghan and Claudia Lawrence, which in turn meant she resembled Halliwell’s mother.
• Llangollen is a centre for fishing and narrow boating.
• Halliwell is known to have worked as a window fitter in the North Wales area.
• A man resembling Halliwell was seen acting suspiciously near her shop.
• Halliwell had served a prison sentence for burglary in which he specialised in stealing antiques. He may have been trying to sell stolen antiques to Trevaline.
• Trevaline disappeared.

A recent television documentary in which Tim participated (here) gives the full facts and the latest information.

Trevaline’s murder is to be covered in detail in the next article in the series.

Maria Christina Requena

Maria Christina Requina (aged 26) was a prostitute who worked the Minsull Street RLD in Manchester. She disappeared on 1^st January 1991.

Her dismembered body was found in five bin-bags by two youngsters fishing on the shores of Pennington Flash, off Slag Lane, on the 6^th of January 1991. Maria had been stabbed to death, decapitated and her body cut up with power tools before being wrapped in a mattress cover and thrown into the lake. Her clothes and the murder weapon had been removed from the scene.

The Mirror report with more information here.

Julie Finley 

Twenty three year old Liverpool prostitute Julie Finley was last seen alive about 11.00pm on Friday the 5^th of August 1994, at the rear of the Liverpool Royal University Teaching Hospital, close to both the Albert Dock RLD and the Liverpool end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. She was witnessed talking to ‘an unknown white man, of average height and build, and aged in his 20s to 30s‘. A general description that nevertheless fits Halliwell.

She was found by a cyclist at lunchtime on Saturday the 6^th of August 1994 in a field off the Rainford bypass. She had been strangled. There was no sign of her clothing at the scene and she had been murdered elsewhere.

A few hours before Julie’s body was discovered, a witness told police he saw someone matching her description arguing with a man at about 12.30am on Saturday, 6th August 1994 outside the Wheatsheaf Public House, situated only 50 yards from where her body was found. The unknown man was attempting to force this young woman into a white Transit van. Halliwell was driving a D-registration white van at the time.

Shortly after Julie’s murder, a woman calling herself Tina called police and told them that on the night of her murder, Julie said she was going to meet a taxi driver from Prescot. This man may have been a regular client. Halliwell is known to have worked as a taxi driver and was a regular client of Becky Godden-Edwards. Prescot is 6.5 miles from the deposition site at Rainford By-Pass.

Twenty people have been arrested in connection with this crime over the years, but no-one has been charged.

Liverpool Echo report with more information here.

Helen Sage

Helen Sage was a single mother who was devoted to her six month old daughter. She was forced to prostitute herself to make ends meet and was last seen in Manchester’s red light district in August 1997.

Helen was at one time suspected of being the Angel of the Meadows murder victim, but was eliminated.

Helen is still classified as missing, although the authors both believe she has been murdered. GMP commented. Detective Sergeant Clare Carr, from GMP’s Cold Case Unit, said:

“At the time of Helen’s disappearance a number of hypotheses were explored to establish what happened to her. 

As with cases of this nature, this is normal procedure to make sure that every outcome is considered to try and find that person.

Helen’s disappearance is not currently being treated as murder as there has never been any physical evidence to suggest she was killed.

Of course, if any new information came to light we would review this.”

The proposition put forward by GMP above that after twenty six years with no proof of life that Helen is still alive clearly beggars’ belief. It is quite obvious she has been murdered and her body concealed:

• Helen was a devoted to her baby. It is highly unusual for mothers to abandon their children and this is normally the key indicator of a “no body” murder, which GMP isignoring.
• There was no reason for Helen to disappear.
• Helen’s only source of income was prostitution, yet has never come to the attention of the police since her disappearance.
• Prostitutes have to get into a car with an unknown man. This left Helen vulnerable to abduction and then murder at a remote crime scene. It is therefore impossible to detect physical evidence of crime at the pick-up point, because no crime is c omitted there. The crime occurs afterwards and consequently the crime scene in these cases is far away from the place the victim was last seen, secluded and undetectable by the police. In the case of a prostitute murder, the absence of any physical evidence does not rule out the possibility of murder.

The Helen Sage case is the same as the disappearance of Becky Godden-Edwards, which was only resolved eight years later when Christopher Halliwell led Wiltshire Police to her grave. There was no physical evidence of crime in that case either. The absence of physical evidence should not be used as the sole elimination criteria to automatically prevent the re-classification of Helen Sage’s disappearance as murder.

The conclusion is inescapable that Helen has been murdered and GMP is classifying her as a missing person to manipulate its crime figures to conceal an unsolved prostitute murder and avoid expending effort on a “fish and chip” murder. A classic case of misogynistic police attitudes to prostitutes.

Julie Jones

Julie Jones was a 32-year-old prostitute and mother of two, who worked the Whalley Range and Minshull Street RLDs in Manchester.

Her naked body was found under bushes at Shudehill Manchester on the 13^th of July 1998, six days after she was reported missing. Like Linda Donaldson she was wrapped in a carpet. She had suffered crush injuries to her chest. Her clothes were never recovered.

MEN report with more information, details of the reward of £50,000 and the police appeal here.

The “Angel of the Meadows”

In 2010, builders found the body of an unidentified woman in an area known as Angel Meadow, central Manchester. She became known as the “Angel of the meadows”.

The body was wrapped in carpet, which probably came from a Ford Cortina. The carpet was burned, indicating an attempt to destroy forensic evidence, which is consistent with Halliwell. The post-mortem established she had been beaten to death and had a fractured neck, collarbone and jaw. The body had been stripped, some clothes were found nearby and she may have been sexually assaulted. She had probably been murdered between 1977 and 1988.

Initially there was speculation that the body may have been Helen Sage, but she was quickly ruled out. Despite extensive enquiries, the identity of the victim was never discovered. GMP interviewed murderers Ronald Castree, Peter Tobin and the “Rotherham Shoe Rapist” James Lloyd in connection with the murder.

The authors have included the “Angel of the Meadows” case in this analysis because Halliwell travelled widely and could have been in Manchester. The body had similar injuries to those of Sian O’Callaghan and had been buried. An attempt had been made to burn evidence. Like Sian O’Callaghan, footwear was removed from the scene.

The fact that the victim has not been identified may indicate that the body was brought in from outside of the city, or that the “Angel of the Meadows” was of no fixed abode or a prostitute.

MEN article with more information here.

The deposition cluster

Analysis of the deposition cluster is revealing. It is linear along 12 miles from the A570, A580 and A579.

Insert: The A570/580/A579 Linear Deposition Cluster Map

It is unclear when Halliwell was living at Aughton Park and working in North Wales, but because of his itinerant lifestyle, use of prostitutes and interest in fishing and narrow boating, it is entirely possible that he could have been familiar with all the abduction points and deposition sites in the clusters.

Other than Trevaline Evans, all the victims were of slight build, meaning that they would be easy to overpower.

Halliwell had an interest in fishing and narrow boating. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal goes from close to the Albert Dock RLD in Liverpool, passes Rainford and then on to the Pennington Wharf Marina at Leigh, where it becomes the Bridgewater Canal. The Bridgwater Canal then joins the Rochdale Canal which lead into the City Centre of Manchester. The Whalley Range RLD is 2.6 miles from the Rochdale Canal, the Minshull Street RLD is 100 yards from it. The Shudehill/Angel Meadows deposition site is 0.4 of a mile from the Rochdale Canal. Halliwell may have gone fishing at Pennington Flash while living in the Liverpool area or while his canal boat was moored at Pennington Wharf Marina.

If Halliwell used the RLDs in Liverpool and Manchester while he was at Aughton Park, he would have been familiar with these RLDs and the routes to and from them, including the, A570, A580 and A579.

Linda Donaldson was abducted in Liverpool in the Merseyside Police force area, but her body was dumped in the GMP force area. As with the murders of Sian O’Callaghan and Becky Godden-Edwards, this indicates an intention to complicate the investigation by crossing force boundaries.

Linda Donaldson’s body had been washed down to remove forensic evidence. This is entirely consistent with a forensically aware offender, such as Halliwell.

Maria Christina Requena’s body had been dismembered and wrapped in bin bags, which is consistent with the murder of Melanie Hall in Bath, that Halliwell has been linked with.

Three deposition sites were in rural areas, within 19 miles of the abduction point, which is entirely consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi.

We know that Halliwell visited the sites of Becky Godden-Edwards grave and Sian O’Callaghan’s body, probably to obtain perverse sexual gratification. The pond at Ramsbury he used as a trophy store is a fishing spot which gave Halliwell a reason to visit it and loiter there. Halliwell may have deposited bodies and trophies close to the canal network so that he could visit the sites for the same purpose. Pennington Flash has good fishing. Halliwell worked at various jobs including bin man. There is a Waste & Recycling Centre about two miles from Pennington Flash.

The Intake Lane body search

According to this Daily Mirror article Merseyside Police re-opened the investigation into the murder of Julie Finlay in 2020 with Halliwell as a suspect. In November 2020 they conducted a search near Intake Lane, which is within 3 miles of the Rainford Bypass and 4 miles of Aughton Park. It is unclear if these two events are connected, but Merseyside Police issued this media statement:

“Officers were responding to reports suggesting a body had been historically buried on the land. An extensive search of the area has been carried out over the past seven days but nothing has been located.

The search was not linked to any historical Merseyside Police investigations.”

It is unclear who the victim is or where he or she was murdered, other than it wasn’t Merseyside. Although the body was presumably transported there from another force area, had been concealed and was searched for at one end of the deposition cluster. There is not enough evidence to link it to Halliwell.

Apart from Julie Finlay, so far as can be ascertained, Halliwell has never been considered as a suspect in any of these murders. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Merseyside Police have never formally linked any of these cases.

It would therefore appear that either a) the deposition of three or four bodies along a short stretch of road is coincidental, or b) the murders were committed by the same man.

Halliwell is a very strong candidate.

Maps by FAD

Appeal for Information

Anyone with information which could help the investigation team should contact Merseyside Police @ CrimestoppersUK, or via its social media desk @ MerPolCC, call 101, or the GMP Cold Case Review Unit (remainder) on 0161 856 5978, or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

If you think you can add to our analysis, please contact the NYE using our email address: news@nyenquirer.uk. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

UK Police Force Boundaries Map

5.3. The other Northern and Midlands Cases

by Chris Clark & Tim Hicks

Introduction

The North Yorks Enquirer (NYE) has been running a series of articles on convicted serial killer Christopher Halliwell, to assess the wider range of crimes he may have committed in North Yorkshire and beyond.

Serial killers prefer to operate in areas they are familiar with and know their way around. It follows from this piece of human psychology that to assess other crimes committed by Halliwell, it is necessary to identify where he lived and was familiar with, and then compare his modus operandi to unsolved crimes committed in those areas. To illustrate the complexity of this task, please see here a similar investigation by former Sussex Police Detective Constable Mark Williams-Thomas, into serial killer Peter Tobin.

Halliwell lived in several addresses in Swindon, the Liverpool area and Northampton. He may also have stayed with his father in the Huddersfield and York areas.

• Swindon is three-and-a-half hours drive to Grantham and about two hours twenty-minutes to Wolverhampton.
• Liverpool is a half-hour drive to Manchester and two-and-a-half hours to Sheffield.
• Northampton is one and a half hours drive to Grantham and about an hour and forty-five minutes to Wolverhampton.
• York is an hour and twenty minutes’ drive to Sheffield, an hour and forty minutes to Manchester, three hours to Wolverhampton and two hours to Grantham.
• Huddersfield is an hour’s drive to Manchester an hour and five minutes to Sheffield, two hours’ to Grantham and two and a half hours to Wolverhampton.

Halliwell had many jobs, including window cleaner, builder, ground worker, chauffeur, taxi-driver and bin man, his hobbies were narrow boating and fishing. These activities took him all over the country, giving him a good knowledge of many Northern and Midlands cities and the area around them. Consequently his geographic knowledge and area of operations was enormous; centered not just on Swindon, but along the canal network, at fishing spots and locations he worked at.

Adding to the complexity of this investigation, Halliwell was forensically aware. He changed cars regularly and destroyed forensic evidence whenever possible. He had also been a car thief and could steal cars to commit crime if he wished. The authors believe that he deliberately varied his modus operandi and abducted victims in one force area, then depositing the body in another. Thereby complicating the police investigation and making it more difficult for police intelligence analysts to link his crimes.

The authors have analysed Halliwell’s modus operandi, based on the circumstances of Halliwell’s two known murders [Miss Becky Godden-Edwards (Case 24) and Miss Sian O’Callaghan (Case 28)] and two deposition sites at Ramsbury Wilts. This has been compared to unsolved and undetected crimes in areas he was familiar with. This analysis is summarised below, in tabular format:

All of the cases considered in this article comply with Halliwell’s modus operandi, potential geographic area of operations and victim selection criteria.

Because of the size of this investigation, the NYE is covering it in a series of articles:

The NYE Christopher Halliwell Series:

1. The breaking of Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher – by Tim Hicks
2. Book review: “Catching a serial killer” by Stephen Fulcher – by Tim Hicks
3. Christopher Halliwell and Peter Sutcliffe compared – by Chris Clark & Tim Hicks
4. Christopher Halliwell how many victims? – by Chris Clark & Tim Hicks
5. Christopher Halliwell: The Secret Murders – by Chris Clark & Tim Hicks. Parts 1 – 7.
   • Scotland
   • Is Halliwell the “East Lancs Ripper”?
   • The other Northern and Midlands cases
   • The River Tees and Middlesbrough murders
   • York: Did Halliwell murder Claudia?
   • The Swindon cases
   • Outside Justice. Who murdered Linda Razzell?

The two Manchester City Centre cases.

Unknown: The Angel Meadows body (Case 1)

Julie Jones (Case 20)

The authors believe the two Manchester City Centre cases are linked to a series of murders and suspicious disappearances occurred in the quadrilateral shaped area defined by Liverpool, Rainsford, Leigh and Manchester, which may have been committed by Stephen Halliwell. They fall into three distinct groups:

• The murders of Linda Donaldson (Case 4), Maria Christina Requena (Case 6), Julie Finlay (Case 12) and Vera Anderson which have been suspected to be the work of a serial killer dubbed “The East Lancs Ripper” in the press. (Covered in the NYE article “Is Halliwell the East Lancs Ripper”).
• The suspicious disappearance of Helen Sage (Case 17), (Covered in the NYE article “Is Halliwell the East Lancs Ripper”).
• The murders of Angel Meadows (Case 1) and Julie Jones (Case 20) that took place in Manchester City Centre.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Merseyside Police have never formally linked any of these cases. Murderers Duncan McLuckie and David Smith have been interviewed in connection with the murders of Linda Donaldson and Maria Christina Requena, but not charged.

Unknown: The Angel Meadows body (Case 1)

The victim of this murder has never been identified. Her body was discovered by builders in Manchester City Centre. She had been badly beaten, then partially stripped wrapped in carpet and dumped in the ‘Angel Meadows’ area of Manchester. Construction workers discovered the body in 2010. A shoe was taken possibly as a trophy.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have established the following about her:

• She was born sometime between 1950 and 1954 and was aged between 18 and 30 when she was murdered.
• Her death is believed to have occurred in the 70s or 80s.
• The victim was between 5ft 1in and 5ft 8in tall and was a size 12.
• She was probably European but could have come from the Middle East or Indian sub-continent.
• She had fillings and was missing the first upper right pre-molar, which would have been visible when she smiled broadly.
• The woman’s body was found alongside her green pinafore dress with large buttons, blue bra, jumper and tights. A jacket and a shoe were also recovered. The handbag was empty.
• There were three different colours of carpet at the scene – orange, blue and dark blue. The blue carpet appeared to have been cut to fit a Ford Cortina, with holes for a gear-stick. Some of the carpet was burned.

Scientists have recreated an image of her face and it is shown below:

The Angel Meadows body – Do you recognise her?

Daily Mail report with more information here.

She was thought at one point to be Helen Sage (Case 18) but this possibility was eliminated. BBC Report here.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect

• Halliwell may have visited Manchester on narrowboat holidays on the Bridgewater, Ashford and Rochedale Canals, or he may have worked in the city as a builder. It is entirely possible he had knowledge of Manchester.
• The body of Julie Jones (Case 20) was also found wrapped in carpet.
• The Angel Meadows murder was committed in the 1970s or the 1980s. Halliwell was born in 1964. He was imprisoned between 1985 and 1987 for car theft and burglary. He confessed to having strangled a woman to a cellmate. So Halliwell could have been active as a serial killer in the relevant timeframe up to 1985 and then from 1987 to 1989.
• Halliwell burned clothes and discarded seat covers and floor mats from his car after abducting Sian O’Callaghan, to destroy forensic evidence. This is consistent with destroying or dumping the carpet from the car used to transport the deceased.
• Halliwell tried to destroy evidence and this is consistent with the handbag being emptied.
• The deposition site at Angel Meadows is 0.6 of a mile from the Rochdale Canal, which connects the Leeds and Liverpool Canal via the Bridgwater Canal and 0.5 of a mile from the River Irwell. Both are fishing spots.

GMP have considered killers Ronald Castree and Peter Tobin and serial rapist James Lloyd as suspects, but they have not been charged.

Julie Jones (Case 20)

Julie Jones was a prostitute and mother of two, whose naked body was found under bushes at Shudehill, Manchester, six days after she was reported missing on the 3^rd of July 1998. She had suffered crush injuries to her chest.

Like Michaela Hague (Case 20) and Sharon Harper (Case 11), Julie Jones body was found in a car park.

At the time, police did not link her disappearance with missing prostitute Helen Sage, (Case 16), who was last seen in Manchester’s red light district in August 1997, although it was recognised that there were similarities. (Covered in the NYE article “Is Halliwell the East Lancs Ripper”), because of its similarities to other offences in the Liverpool/Rainford/Leigh/ Manchester Quadrilateral.

Manchester Evening News report with more information, details of the reward of £50,000 and the police appeal here.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect:

• The Helen Sage and Julie Jones cases are both consistent with Halliwell’s Modus operandi (See Table 2).
• The Angel Meadows body (Case 1) was also found wrapped in carpet.
• Julie Jones worked in the Whalley Range (2.6 miles from the Rochdale Canal) and Minshull Street (100 yards from the Rochdale Canal) Red Light districts. The deposition site at Shudehill is 0.4 of a mile from the Rochdale Canal, which connects the Leeds and Liverpool Canal via the Bridgwater Canal.
• Helen Sage and Julie Jones were prostitutes, enticed into a car. The circumstances are very similar to the abduction and murder of Becky Godden-Edwards.
• Halliwell used prostitutes and may have used them in Manchester, while working or visiting there, or on a narrowboat holiday. This would give him knowledge of the abduction point(s).
• Helen Sage and Julie Jones perfectly fitted his victim preferences.

In response to a media enquiry from the NYE asking GMP to confirm if Halliwell had ever been considered as a suspect in any of these cases, the GMP Press Office stated:

“We never confirm or deny the names of suspects or where they are believed to have lived, in accordance with national policy.”

Anyone with information about either murder is asked to call the GMP Cold Case Review Unit on 0161 856 5978, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The two Sheffield City Centre cases

Dawn Shields (Case 9)

Michaela Hague (Case 22)

Dawn Shields (Case 9)

Dawn Shields was a prostitute who disappeared on Friday the 13^th of May 1994, while working Sheffield’s red-light area at Broomhall Road. She soon attracted one client who picked her up in a cream-coloured car. Dawn charged between £15 and £25 pounds and did not allow her clients to linger. By 12.45am, she was seen back on Broomhall Road and getting into a dark-coloured hatchback.

A friend who was looking after Dawn’s 11-month-old son, reported her missing at 7.30am on Saturday, May 14, 1994, and then notified Dawn’s mother.

On the 20^th of May 1994 Dawn’s body was discovered by a National Trust warden who was test-driving a four-wheel drive vehicle over the grassy hill of Mam Tor, a peak near Castleton in the Peak District, 18 miles from Broomhall Road. It was naked and had been partially buried and concealed with rocks and debris. Dawn had suffered severe head injuries and was strangled. Police believe her body may have been buried for up to a week and subjected to a week of persistent rain, which effectively destroyed any forensic evidence.

Police searched the hillsides for the black mini skirt, see-through black blouse, black bra and ankle boots she was wearing when she died. Police believe she was killed elsewhere before her body was taken to the remote Mam Tor and hidden. They were unable to trace the owner of the hatchback.

The Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent David Foss of Derbyshire Police said:

‘It was only luck that her body was discovered so soon. It was some 150 yards off the road and there was a barrier to stop cars because the road was subsiding. The area is popular with walkers but the week before had been very cold with torrential rain. We have failed to trace the owner of the hatchback. He would probably have been her last client because Dawn liked to get home by 1.30am to take over from her babysitter.’ 

 The offender had abducted Dawn Shields in one police force area (South Yorkshire Police) and deposited her in the adjacent Derbyshire Constabulary area.

Michaela Hague (Case 22)

Michaela Hague was a prostitute who was stabbed multiple times in the early evening of 5 November 2001 in Sheffield. She was picked up at Bower Street and murdered at Spitalfields in Sheffield. She was able to give a description of her murderer to a Police Constable before she died.

At the time, police considered links with the murder of Dawn Shields (Case 9) above

Like Julie Jones (Case 20) and Sharon Harper (Case 11), Michaela Hague’s body was found in a car park.

BBC report with more information and police appeal here.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect in both murders:

• Halliwell may have visited Sheffield on narrowboat holidays on the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, which eventually connects to the Ashford Canal at Manchester and then on to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. (See Canal and River Trust map of the canal system here). He may have worked in the city as a builder or groundsman. It is entirely possible he knew Sheffield.
• Dawn Shields and Michaela Hague were prostitutes, enticed into a car. The circumstances are very similar to the abduction and murder of Becky Godden-Edwards who Christopher Halliwell murdered and buried in a shallow grave in a field at Eastleach in South Gloucestershire.
• Dawn Shields and Michaela Hague perfectly fitted his victim preferences.
• The abduction point for Dawn Shields at Broomhall Street is situated less than two miles from the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal moorings at Sheffield Basin.
• At the base of the deposition site for Dawn Shields at Mam Tor and nearby, are four show caves: Blue John Cavern, Speedwell Cavern, Peak Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern where lead, Blue John, fluorspar and other minerals were once mined. The Blue John Cavern is one of the four show caves in Castleton, Derbyshire, England. The Speedwell Cavern is a Tourist attraction for boating enthusiasts like Christopher Halliwell. It consists of a horizontal lead miners’ adit (a level passageway driven horizontally into the hillside) leading to the cavern itself, a limestone cave. The adit is permanently flooded, resulting in Speedwell Cavern’s (locally unique) feature: after descending a long staircase, the visitor makes the journey into the cave by boat. Originally the guide propelled the boat by pushing against the walls with his hands, later the boat was legged through, now it is powered by an electric motor. It is two miles Mam Tor and on the direct route from Mam Tor deposition site to the abduction point in Sheffield.
• Nine miles from deposition site for Dawn Shields at Mam Tor is Ladybower Reservoir, which is a well-known fishing location, that Halliwell may have been fishing in. One of the routes from Sheffield to Mam Tor goes right past it.

• Michaela Hague was picked up at Bower Street (1.1 miles from the Sheffield and Tinsley Canal moorings at Sheffield Basin) and murdered at Spitalfields (0.5 miles from Sheffield Basin).
• Michaela Hague described her assailant to a Constable as being of medium build, about thirty eight years old, 5 foot 8 inches tall with glasses and wearing a wedding ring. He also had a gold sovereign ring on his left hand and a thumb ring with a dolphin on it on his right. Christopher Halliwell bears a very close likeness to both artists impressions of the prime suspect issued by the police, which can be seen here and here. Both likenesses are very similar to the artists impression of Caroline Glachan’s murderer, which can be seen here. There are photographs of Halliwell wearing sun glasses on holiday and various items of jewellery including necklaces and a ring. He was thirty seven years old in 2001.
• The prime suspect in Michaela Hague’s murder had been seen by other prostitutes in Sheffield in the months before Michaela’s abduction, but not since. Indicating a visitor or itinerant worker, consistent with Halliwell’s lifestyle.

In response to an enquiry from the NYE, a South Yorkshire Police spokesperson commented:

“Our Major Incident Review Team revisits all of the Force’s historic murder investigations bi-annually, to establish any new lines of enquiry and allocate dedicated resources to look in to these.

Our reviews are extensive and look at all the information we have obtained through our enquiries to date. Reviews can be quite a lengthy process however any relevant and significant lines of enquiry in this investigation will be pursued. 

We would always encourage anyone with information, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, to please contact us on 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.”

The West Yorkshire case: Lindsay Jo Rimer (Case 13) Hebden Bridge West Yorkshire

Lindsay Jo Rimer was thirteen years old when she disappeared on 7^th November 1994. The last sighting of her was CCTV doing some shopping in the Spar shop at Crown Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. She was reported missing the next day. Despite searches, no trace was found of her. There was local speculation that she had been unhappy at home and may have run away.

On the 12^th of April 1995 Lindsay Jo Rimer’s body was found by two canal workers in the Rochdale Canal, about a mile upstream from Hebden Bridge. It was weighed down with a boulder. She had been strangled. BBC report here. There were no signs of a sexual assault.

The murder of Lindsay Jo Rimer is very similar to the murder of fourteen year old Caroline Glachan in August 1996. Both were found in a waterway a mile away from home, having disappeared late at night. Both victims were in their early teens.

Over the years, West Yorkshire Police has never given up on the investigation and an appeal for information can be seen here. Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder, but never charged. One was arrested in November 2016 and given police bail.BBC report here. Another was arrested in April 2017 and then released. BBC report here.

Unusually a retired detective from Cleveland Police has criticised the West Yorkshire Police investigation for not considering a suspect he had indicated to the investigation.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect:

• There are similarities with the murder of Caroline Glachan, which the authors believe was also perpetrated by Halliwell. (Please see the artists impression of the prime suspect in the Caroline Glachan murder here, which is a very strong likeness to Halliwell).
• When Wiltshire Police searched Halliwell’s home and computer, they found evidence that he enjoyed researching murder, hard-core pornography, including child abuse, violent sex and rape. He was known to have been worried that police were investigating him over allegations involving young girls, although there was no such investigation underway. Wiltshire Police were unable to identify what offences and underage victims Halliwell was referring to. Although both Caroline Glachan and Lindsay Jo Rimer were both in their early teens, it is clear from this that they both fitted Halliwell’s victim preferences for young, slim girls.
• Halliwell enjoyed narrow boating and fishing. He may have used the Rochdale Canal making him familiar with the deposition site. He may also have been fishing there late at night.
• If Halliwell had used the canal in a narrow boat, he may have gone to the local Spar shop for supplies, making him familiar with the abduction point.
• Having assessed the case, Chris is of the opinion that this is the only case we have covered where the abduction involved a narrow boat, not a car. If this is so, then it would explain the skill and care with which the body was concealed, evading detection for five months, despite a large search.
• After five months immersed in water, there was no forensic evidence available from the body, indicating a forensically aware criminal.

Anyone with information about the murder is asked to West Yorkshire Police on 01924 821 441, or 01924 334 604, or text 07786 200805, or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The two Midlands cases

Janine Downes (Case 7)

Sharon Harper (Case 11)

Janine Downes (Case 7) Wolverhampton

The body of Wolverhampton prostitute Janine Downes was found on the 2^nd of February 1991, dumped behind a hedge on a lay by on the A464 Shifnal to Wolverhampton Road. She had been strangled. Her body was naked from the waist down and some of her clothes were not recovered.

Philip John Smith and Alun Kyte were questioned about the murders, because they had convictions for murdering prostitutes.

Shropshire Star report with more information here.  BBC Report here.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect:

• The victim fits Halliwell’s victim preferences and was a prostitute, enticed into a car.
• The circumstances are very similar to the abduction and murder of Becky Godden-Edwards and the deposition site is similar to the one Halliwell used for Sian O’Callaghan.
• Halliwell used prostitutes and may have used them in Wolverhampton, while working or visiting there, or on a fishing or narrowboat holiday. This would give him knowledge of the abduction point.
• The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal goes into Wolverhampton and the Shropshire Union Canal stops just North of Wolverhampton. The Wyrley and Essington Canal and Birmingham Canals Navigation Main Line Canal meet at Horseley Fields Junction to the East of Wolverhampton. Halliwell may have used both canals for Narrow boating holidays, making him familiar with Wolverhampton.
• The deposition site is 10.6 miles from the Shropshire Union Canal and the direct route to the deposition site from Wolverhampton passes over the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal at Tettenhall New Bridge.
• There is extensive fishing at Shifnal including along both canals. The Shropshire Union Canal is 10.5 miles away from Shifnal and 8.4 miles from the deposition site, the route to both locations from the Shropshire Union Canal is along the A464.
• Halliwell lived in Swindon and in Northamptonshire, which are only two hours by car from Wolverhampton.

In response to an enquiry from the NYE, a spokesperson for West Mercia Police confirmed:

“The case of Janine Downs is still under investigation and we would urge anyone with information to call West Mercia Police on 101. Alternatively, information can be provided anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

With regards to Christopher John Halliwell, our policy is to neither confirm nor deny the identity of anyone under investigation.”

Sharon Harper (Case 11) Grantham

Barmaid Sharon Harper went missing just after she left her work as a barmaid at the Market Cross pub in Westgate, Grantham at midnight on Saturday the 2^nd of July 1994. Like Julie Jones (Case 20) and Michaela Hague (Case 22), Sharon Harper’s body was found in a car park. Her body was partially concealed with ornamental shrubbery; she had been beaten about the head and strangled. She had sex before she was killed.

Although five people were arrested, no-one was ever charged.

Grantham Journal report with more information here.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect:

• Halliwell may have visited Grantham on a narrow boat or fishing holiday, or for work. He could therefore be familiar with the area.
• The victims route home took her along Westgate and Harlaxton Road, which run parallel with the Grantham Canal, and then along Trent Road which crosses the Grantham Canal.
• Police investigated a witness report that a man described in his 30s had been seen arguing with Sharon near the Archways service station on Harlaxton Road Road, which is about half a mile from the point where Trent Road crosses the Grantham Canal. Halliwell was thirty in 1994.
• The deposition point in Earlesfield Lane is about 100 yards from the Grantham Canal. and about a mile from the River Witham which is a well-known fishing location.

NYE appeal for information on Christopher Halliwell.

If you think you can add to our analysis, please contact the NYE using our e mail address: news@nyenquirer.uk. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

5.2: Is Halliwell the “East Lancs Ripper”?

by Chris Clark & Tim Hicks

~~~~~

Introduction

The North Yorks Enquirer (NYE) has been running a series of articles on convicted serial killer Christopher Halliwell, to assess the wider range of crimes he may have committed in North Yorkshire and beyond.

Serial killers prefer to operate in areas they are familiar with and know their way around. It follows from this that to assess other crimes committed by Halliwell, it is necessary to identify where he lived and was familiar with. Then compare his modus operandi to unsolved crimes committed in those areas.

Halliwell lived in Dalbeattie, Scotland, several addresses in Swindon, the Liverpool area and Northampton. He may also have stayed with his father in Huddersfield and York areas, giving him a good knowledge of many northern cities and the areas around them.

Halliwell worked in dozens of jobs, including window cleaner, builder, ground worker, chauffeur, taxi-driver and bin man. His hobbies were narrow-boating and fishing. He travelled widely by car and narrow-boat. Consequently, his geographic knowledge and area of operations was enormous.

The authors have analysed Halliwell’s modus operandi, based on the circumstances of Halliwell’s two known murders (Miss Becky Godden-Edwards (Case 24) and Miss Sian O’Callaghan (Case 28) and his deposition sites at Ramsbury, Wilts. This has been compared to unsolved and undetected crimes in areas he was familiar with. This analysis is summarised below, in tabular format:

All of the cases in this article comply with Halliwell’s modus operandi and victim selection criteria.

Adding to the complexity of this investigation, Halliwell was forensically aware. He changed cars regularly and destroyed forensic evidence whenever possible. The authors believe that whenever possible he deliberately varied his modus operandi, and abducted victims in one force area, then deposited them in another. Thereby complicating the police investigation and making it more difficult for police intelligence analysts to link his crimes.

Because of the size of this investigation, the NYE is covering it in a series of articles:

The NYE Christopher Halliwell Series:

1. The breaking of Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher. By Tim Hicks
2. Book review: “Catching a serial killer” by Stephen Fulcher. By Tim Hicks
3. Christopher Halliwell and Peter Sutcliffe compared. By Chris Clark & Tim Hicks
4. Christopher Halliwell how many victims? By Chris Clark & Tim Hicks
5. Christopher Halliwell: The Secret Murders. By Chris Clark & Tim Hicks. Parts 1 – 7.
   • Scotland
   • Is Halliwell the “East Lancs Ripper”?
   • The other Northern and Midlands cases
   • The River Tees and Middlesbrough murders
   • York: Did Halliwell murder Claudia?
   • The Swindon cases
   • Outside Justice. Who murdered Linda Razzell?

The Liverpool/Rainsford/Leigh/Manchester Quadrilateral

This analysis has revealed a series of crimes, which the authors believe may have been committed by Christopher Halliwell. They fall into three distinct groups:

• The murders of Linda Donaldson (Case 4), Maria Christina Requena (Case 6), Julie Finlay (Case 12) and Vera Anderson which have at various times been suspected to be the work of a serial killer dubbed “The East Lancs Ripper” in the press.
• The suspicious disappearance of Helen Sage (Case 17) from Manchester City Centre’s Red Light District.
• The Manchester City Centre murders of Angel Meadows (Case 1) and Julie Jones (Case 20), which for reasons of space will be covered in article 5.3. “The other Northern and Midlands cases”.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Merseyside Police have never formally linked any of these cases. Murderers Duncan McLuckie and David Smith have been interviewed in connection with the murders of Linda Donaldson and Maria Christina Requena, but not charged.

The Leeds & Liverpool Canal goes from Liverpool, passes close to Rainford, then to Wigan and then on to the Pennington Wharf Marina at Leigh, where it becomes the Bridgewater Canal. The Bridgwater Canal then joins the Rochdale and Ashton canals which are in the City Centre of Manchester. This canal network is contained within the “Liverpool/Rainsford/Leigh/Manchester Quadrilateral”, and contains along it the abduction points, disappearance point and deposition sites from the above cases. These crime scenes are clustered around four points on this canal system the authors believe he may have been familiar with.

Map of the Liverpool/Rainsford/Leigh/Manchester Quadrilateral superimposed on the canal network

Key

L1 Liverpool Red Light District abduction points

Linda Donaldson

Julie Finlay

L2 Rainford By-Pass

Julie Finlay deposition site

L3 Pennington Marina area deposition sites

Linda Donaldson

Maria Christine Requena

L4 Manchester Red Light District

Angel Meadows – Deposition site

Helen Sage – Abduction point

Julie Jones – Abduction point

Julie Jones – Deposition site

Maria Christina Requena – Abduction point

The “East Lancs Ripper” cases.

• Vera Anderson
• Linda Donaldson (Case 4),
• Maria Christina Requena (Case 6)
• Julie Finley (Case 12)

Manchester Evening News report on the “East Lancs Ripper” with more information here. 

Vera Anderson

Mrs Anderson was found in her car, with her throat cut, in Penketh, near Warrington on the 25^th of August 1991. The modus operandi is very different from the other three murders and the authors have eliminated Christopher Halliwell as a suspect.

Linda Donaldson (Case 4) 

Linda Donaldson was a prostitute from Liverpool who was last seen at 11pm on Monday October 17, 1988, by a Merseyside Police vice squad officer who knew her. She was on Canning Street close to Albert Dock waiting for clients. Detectives can only assume in those pre-CCTV days that she got into a car and was driven away to be brutally murdered.

At noon the next day, an elderly couple made the gruesome discovery of Linda’s body in Winwick Lane in Lowton, in a gully close to the field side of the hedge lay Linda’s body. It is just off the motorway and around two miles from Leigh and the Pennington Marina on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The deposition site is some twenty miles from where Linda was last seen. She had died from multiple stab wounds. Speaking at the time of the murder, GMP Detective Chief Supt Ken Clarke said:

“We are looking for a maniac – a sadistic killer who could strike again. The type of man who could do this to another human being defies description. The mutilation was probably done in a bid to conceal identity.”

The pathologist concluded that the woman was dead before a lot of the injuries had been inflicted, including trying to sever her head from her body. A murder weapon has never been found; nor have Linda’s clothes. When last seen she was wearing a black jacket, black skirt and black ankle boots. The murder scene was not found and detectives believe she was killed somewhere else and the body dumped in the field.

Linda’s body had been washed down before it was abandoned, most likely in a bid to remove any forensic evidence of the murderer. Apart from leaving it behind a hedge, no effort had been made to conceal the remains. A maroon-coloured Ford Granada Mark Two was seen parked at the entrance to the field where the body was found at 5.45am – six hours before the discovery. It was at the same spot an hour later.

Crimewatch UK programme on the murder here.

Maria Christina Requena (Case 6) 

The dismembered body of twenty-six-year-old Manchester prostitute Maria Christina Requena was found in bags by two youngsters fishing on the shores of Pennington Flash off Slag Lane on the 6^th of January 1991. Her body had been cut up with power tools and placed in five bin bags before being thrown into the lake.

Mirror report with more information here.

Julie Finley (Case 12) 

Twenty-three-year-old Liverpool prostitute Julie Finley was abducted in Liverpool and found at midday on Saturday the 6^th of August 1994 naked in carrot field off the St Helens-bound carriageway of the Rainford bypass. She had been strangled. There was no sign of her clothing at the scene.

Julie was last seen at about 11.00pm on the previous night, Friday, 5 August 1994, in Pembroke Place, at the rear of the Liverpool Royal University Teaching Hospital, less than a mile from the Liverpool end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. She was witnessed talking to ‘an unknown white man, of average height and build, and aged in his 20s to 30s‘.

A few hours before Julie’s body was discovered, a witness told police he saw someone matching her description arguing with a man at about 12.30am on Saturday, 6 August, 1994 outside the Wheatsheaf Public House, situated only 50 yards from where her body was to be found the following day. The unknown man was attempting to force this young woman into a white Transit van. Police had appealed with regard to a white Transit van which was seen by a passer-by near to the entrance of the field where Julie was found. She was not murdered at the deposition site.

Twenty people have been arrested in connection with this crime over the years, but no-one has been charged.

Liverpool Echo report with more information here.

In response to an enquiry from the NYE, Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Inspector Colin Rennison, said:

“It is now 24 years since the tragic murder of Julie in August 1994, and we continue to appeal for any information which can help her family find some closure after all these years.

We are as determined as ever to find the person, or persons, responsible and are still offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible. If you have information which could help Julie’s family find justice I would urge you to come forward.

We are still keen to speak to a friend of Julie, called Tina, who contacted the investigation team shortly after the murder. Tina told officers that on the night of the murder Julie had said she was going to meet a taxi driver from Prescot. Tina promised to recall the officers she had spoken to, but never phoned back. I would appeal to Tina to search her conscience and recontact us, as she could have vital information which could help Julie’s family in their fight for justice to be done.” 

Anyone with information which could help the investigation team should contact Merseyside Police via its social media desk @MerPolCC, call 101, or @CrimestoppersUK, or anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect in all three murders:

• The abduction of Linda Donaldson crossed force boundaries, with the abduction in the Merseyside Police force area and the deposition in the Greater Manchester Police force area, which is also consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi. (See Table 2 Column 39).
• All three victims fitted Halliwell’s victim preferences and were prostitutes, enticed into a car.
• Halliwell lived in the Liverpool area, he may have travelled through Liverpool on narrow boat holidays on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which is situated three miles from the abduction points for Linda Donaldson and Julie Finlay.
• Julie Finlay was witnessed talking to ‘an unknown white man, of average height and build, aged in his 20s to 30s’. Christopher Halliwell was thirty in 1994 and fits this general description.
• Shortly after the murder of Julie Finlay a woman calling herself Tina called police and told them that on the night of her murder, Julie said she was going to meet a taxi driver from Prescot. Halliwell is known to have worked as a taxi driver and Prescot is 6.5 miles from the deposition site at Rainford.
• The taxi-driver from Prescot may have been a regular client of Julie Finlay. Halliwell was a regular client of Becky Godden-Edwards before he murdered her, so this is again consistent with his use of prostitutes and his modus operandi. He also worked as a taxi-driver.
• Halliwell lived in the Liverpool area and travelled widely. It is probable that he knew Manchester. He may have holidayed on the Rochester Canal, which would take him into Manchester City Centre close to the abduction point for Maria Christina Requena.
• Halliwell used prostitutes, so may also have been familiar with all three abduction points from picking up prostitutes while living in Liverpool, visiting Manchester, or being in both cities on a narrowboat holiday.
• The deposition site for Maria Christina Requena’s body at Pennington Flash is within a third of a mile of Pennington Wharf Marina on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Leigh Branch. The deposition site for Linda Donaldson at Winwick Lane, Lowton is 3.6 miles from Pennington Wharf Marina.
• Halliwell may have gone fishing at Pennington Flash while living in the Liverpool area or on a narrowboat holiday, while moored at Pennington Wharf Marina.
• Halliwell worked at various jobs including bin man. Pennington Flash where Maria Christina Requena’s body was found is about a mile from the Leigh Waste & Recycling Centre on Slag Lane. Linda Donaldson’s body was found about two miles away from it.
• Linda Donaldson’s body had been washed down to remove fibres that could provide forensic evidence. Halliwell burned clothes and discarded seat covers and floor mats from his car after abducting Sian O’Callaghan (Case 29), to destroy forensic evidence. This is entirely consistent with a forensically aware offender, such as Halliwell. (See Table 2, row 40).
• Maria Christina Requena’s body had been dismembered and wrapped in bin bags, which is consistent with the murder of Melanie Hall (Case 15). Again consistent with a forensically aware offender.
• The deposition site for Julie Finlay at Rainford By-Pass is 10.6 miles from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Waddicar, 11.7 miles from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Wigan and 13 miles from Liverpool City Centre. Halliwell lived in the Liverpool area, so he may have known the by-pass deposition site, which may have been selected in advance.
• All three deposition sites were in rural areas, which is entirely consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi.
• Maria Christina Requena’s body had been put into water, which is consistent with the murders of Carol Clark (Case 8), Lindsay Jo Rimer (Case 13) and Caroline Glachan (Case 16).

The disappeared of the “Liverpool, Rainford, Leigh, Manchester Quadrilateral”:

• Georgina Moore
• Pauline Curry
• Helen Sage (Case 17)

 Chris’s research focussed on press reports concerning three suspicious disappearances which are consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi and took place in the “Liverpool, Rainford, Leigh, Manchester Quadrilateral” that the “East Lancs Ripper” is alleged to have operated in.

This February 2007 Manchester Evening News report raises concerns that three devoted young mothers disappeared mysteriously from Manchester, Wigan and Leigh. The authors have investigated these three cases and our conclusions are as follows:

Georgina Moore and Pauline Currie

Georgina Moore was a divorced mother of two who disappeared from Wigan in 1998.

Pauline Curry was a hairdresser and single parent, who disappeared from Lowton, near Leigh in November 2006.

According to the MEN, both women were still listed as missing in February 2007.  However, in response to an enquiry from the NYE, the GMP Press Office has confirmed that both women were found alive and well.

Helen Sage (Case 17)

Helen Sage was a mother and a prostitute who was last seen in Manchester’s red light district in August 1997.

She was at one time suspected of being the Angel Meadow (Case 1) murder victim, but was eliminated.

GMP have not formally linked her disappearance with murdered prostitute Julie Jones, (Case 19), although it was recognised that there were similarities.

Helen is still classified as missing, although the authors both believe she has been murdered. We put this to GMP and received this response:

“Detective Sergeant Clare Carr, from GMP’s Cold Case Unit, said: “At the time of Helen’s disappearance a number of hypotheses were explored to establish what happened to her. 

As with cases of this nature, this is normal procedure to make sure that every outcome is considered to try and find that person. 

Helen’s disappearance is not currently being treated as murder as there has never been any physical evidence to suggest she was killed. 

Of course, if any new information came to light we would review this.”

Why the authors believe the disappearance of Helen Sage should be re-classified as a murder.

• There was no reason for Helen Sage to disappear.
• She has been missing for twenty-one years and no trace has ever been found of her and despite being a prostitute, she has never come to the attention of the police since her disappearance.
• According to the MEN Helen Sage was a devoted mother with a six-month-old child that she adored. It is highly unusual for mothers to abandon their children and normally an indicator of crime.
• Prostitutes have to get into a car with an unknown man. This left her vulnerable to abduction and then murder at a remote crime scene. It is therefore not possible to detect physical evidence of crime at the pick-up point, because no crime is comitted there. The crime occurs afterwards and consequently the crime scene in these cases is far away from the place the victim was last seen, secluded and undetectable by the police. The absence of any physical evidence does not rule out the possibility of murder.
• The absence of physical evidence does not prevent a disappearance being treated as murder. Sally Anne John (Case 14) disappeared on the 8^th of September 1995, but Wiltshire Police reclassified her disappearance as a murder, as did North Yorkshire Police in the Claudia Lawrence enquiry. There is no physical evidence of crime in either case.
• Helen Sage was a prostitute, which left her more likely to suffer violence than a woman following a different occupation. There must be a much greater presumption of crime in cases where prostitutes suddenly and inexplicably disappear when they are working. North Yorkshire Police (NYP) recently launched a campaign to protect them (very good NYP policy statement here) which explicitly recognises this. Under these circumstances the authors believe there should be a presumption of crime in prostitute disappearances.
• The Helen Sage case is the same as the disappearance of Becky Godden-Edwards, which was only resolved eight years later when Christopher Halliwell led Wiltshire Police to her grave. There was no physical evidence of crime in that case either. The absence of a body or any physical evidence should not be used as the sole elimination criteria to automatically prevent the re-classification of Helen Sage’s disappearance as murder.

Why the authors believe Halliwell should be considered as a suspect in the murder of Helen Sage

• The case is consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi (See Table 2). The absence of a body or any physical evidence is also consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi.
• Helen Sage was a prostitute, enticed into a car. The same as the disappearance of Becky Godden-Edwards, which was only resolved eight years later when Halliwell led Detective Superintendent Stephen Fulcher to her grave, following a very skilful interview by Fulcher.
• Halliwell lived in the Liverpool area and travelled widely. Manchester is about an hour’s drive both from Liverpool and Huddersfield (where his father lived).
• Halliwell may have holidayed on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, which connects to the Bridgewater Canal and then to the Rochdale Canal, which goes into Manchester City Centre and the abduction point for Helen Sage.
• Halliwell used prostitutes. He may have been familiar with Helen Sage’s abduction point from picking up prostitutes there while visiting, or on a narrowboat holiday.
• Halliwell attacked prostitute Becky Godden-Edwards and attacked Sian O’Callaghan mistakenly believing her to be a prostitute. He may have targeted prostitutes because they were often not missed or not reported as missing (as in the case of Becky Godden Edwards). If so, then this was a master stroke on Halliwell’s part. It meant that the police may not even be aware that anything is wrong and would not open up a murder enquiry because of a lack of physical evidence. Even if the police are notified, that someone was missing, there would always be doubt that the person had just decided to go missing (thousands of people do this every year). The authors believe this aspect of Halliwell’s modus operandi was a major factor in his ability to go on offending for so many years, without detection.

Some policy implications for investigating suspicious disappearances.

In the article Christopher Halliwell: How many victims, the authors expressed the concern that:

“There is no national guidance or policy from the College of Policing or the National Police Chief’s Council on how to assess the full range of a convicted serial offender’s crime.”

In particular there appears to be no guidance from the College of Policing, the Home Office, the National Crime Agency or the National Police Chief’s Council on when a missing person’s enquiry should be re-classified as a no body murder.

To some extent this suits individual police forces, which have enormous pride in having a high detection-rate for murders. Reclassifying ‘missing persons’ enquiries as murders will adversely affect individual forces major crime figures. So there is institutional resistance to reclassifying missing person’s enquiries to murders. The most infamous example of this occurred when senior officers from the Metropolitan Police would not allow two missing children that were discovered dead, to be re-classified from a missing person’s enquiry to a murder, because it would lower the clear up rates. (See “Babes in the Wood Video” at 18 minutes). This allowed serial killer Ronald Jebson to go on to brutally murder eight-year-old Rosemarie Papper.

The authors believe there is a very strong case for the issuance of clear national guidelines by the College of Policing on when missing person’s investigations should be reclassified as murders.

Christopher Halliwell

Summary

All of these cases are consistent with Halliwell’s modus operandi and took place in areas he was probably familiar with and/or had a reason to visit. He fits the description of the suspect seen talking to Linda Donaldson. He may have been the taxi-driver from Prescot that Julie Finlay had an assignation with. The deposition sites for Maria Christina Requena and Linda Donaldson are on the direct route from Prescot to Pennington Wharf Marina, which passes close to the Rainford by-pass deposition site for Julie Finlay.

Because Halliwell selected prostitutes as his victims, it must be a concern that there are other victims from the Liverpool and Manchester ‘Red Light’ Districts who are listed as missing, or – like Becky Godden-Edwards – have never been reported as missing and of whose disappearance the police unaware.

In response to a media enquiry from the NYE asking GMP to confirm if Halliwell had ever been considered as a suspect in any of these cases, the GMP Press Office stated:

“We never confirm or deny the names of suspects or where they are believed to have lived, in accordance with national policy.”

Appeal for information

Anyone with information on these crimes should contact Merseyside Police (Julie Finlay) details above, or the GMP Cold Case Review Unit (remainder) on 0161 856 5978, or anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

If you think you can add to our analysis, please contact the NYE using our email address: news@nyenquirer.uk and typing the word ‘HALLIWELL’ in the Subject-Line. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

The NYE would like to thank the GMP and Merseyside Police Press Offices for their help in preparing this article.