At around 3:30pm on January 14th, 2008, Greater Manchester Police received a call from a distressed teenager that had returned home from school to find her mother – 34 year old Sarah Melia – stabbed to death at the foot of the stairs inside their family home in the town of Horwich.
In mid 1985, 37-year-old Sandra Phillips was brutally murdered inside the adult shop in which she worked — a case that still haunts South Wales to this day. Despite multiple arrests, new DNA testing, and decades of speculation, her killer has never been brought to justice.
In the early 2000’s, London’s district of Soho was home to a number of clip joints – establishments posing as adult entertainment venues, with hostesses enticing male customers inside. The unsuspecting customers would then be presented with extortionate bills after spending just minutes conversing with the hostess – often with threats made by the club’s bouncers. In 2004, an angry customer returned to a clip joint shortly after being conned and proceeded to stab the 23 year old hostess – named Camille Gordon – that convinced him to enter the building. Despite the murderer’s movements following the attack being caught on CCTV, police were unable to identify the suspect.
In 1994, Karen Reed was enjoying a quiet evening at her home in Woking, sharing a glass of wine with a friend, when a knock came at the door. On the step stood a man holding a pizza box. After confirming her address, he raised a gun and shot her dead. The execution was quick, clinical, and unmistakably professional. But soon detectives uncovered a chilling twist: the killer had targeted the wrong woman. The true mark was her sister — whose husband had recently been convicted of arranging the assassinations of two men connected to the Chechen government, in a web of arms deals, espionage, and former KGB operatives. What followed was one of Surrey Police’s most complex murder inquiries: a case of mistaken identity, international intrigue, and a contract killer who slipped away without a trace. Two years later, just miles away, 18-year-old Rachel Tough was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The man who owned the house became the prime suspect in both cases – and rumours linked him to even more local killings. After a week-long manhunt, he was found dead having hung himself. DNA would later place Thompson at the scene of Julie’s murder, but police remain convinced a number of others were present and still remain at large.
In October 1996, firefighters in Leadgate extinguished a blaze at the home of 27-year-old Julie Smailes. Inside, she was found dead in bed – bound and stabbed over 40 times. The fire had been set to cover up her murder.
Two years later, just miles away, 18-year-old Rachel Tough was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer. The man who owned the house became the prime suspect in both cases – and rumours linked him to even more local killings.
After a week-long manhunt, he was found dead having hung himself.
DNA would later place Thompson at the scene of Julie’s murder, but police remain convinced a number of others were present and still remain at large.
Two days before Christmas in 1994, the unassuming village of Eaton in Cheshire was thrust into the national spotlight, when a local resident came across a woman on the steps of the village church that had been doused in petrol and set alight.
Tracy Mertens spent the final 12 agonising hours alive describing her ordeal before sadly passing away having sustained severe burns to over 90% of her body.
She had been abducted over 60 miles away, bundled in to a car by two men and then blindfolded before being set on fire.
One crucial detail the victim managed to give investigators was that her killers stated they were looking for her long term partner, Joey Kavanagh – a known drug addict whose financial debt is said to have prompted the family’s recent move to Rochdale.
On December the 8th 1984, a concerned mother in the small town of Leigh took to the streets in search of her teenage daughter who had failed to return home from a small gathering with friends by the agreed time of 10:30pm. The teen was sadly found dead in an alleyway just a few hundred meters from her home close to midnight. She had been violently assaulted and strangled to death with an item of clothing. A spate of attacks on young women and girls within the same area in the months prior to the murder led investigators, the media and the local community to question if a serial offender had escalated their behaviour – and, whether they would strike again.
In late 1981, the small Scottish town of Johnstone was shocked by the brutal murder of a popular 16 year old schoolgirl who was found strangled to death with a length of twine around her neck in a wooded area, just a few hundred meters from her home. A local 19 year old known for habitually exposing himself to young girls quickly became the prime suspect. He would go on to be convicted following two confessions which he later retracted, claiming they were beaten out of him by investigating officers. Further doubt was cast over the conviction when a second murder victim was found beaten and strangled to death two years later only half a mile from the first crime scene.
In the early hours of December the 23rd, 1989, a pair of police officers stumbled across the scene of a brutal double murder in a public car park located within London’s Epping Forest. The victims were a seemingly normal couple in their 30’s that had been dating for several years. It was later revealed the male victim may have had ties to criminal activity. Six months later, a second murder scene was discovered just two miles away. The victim on this occasion was identified as a wealthy north London woman who was found to be a high end escort, with clients that included prominent judges and TV personalities.
On Saturday the 15th of June, 1996, a pair of female students were enjoying a night out at local pubs in the north west city of Preston. Sadly, only one of them made it home safely, as the other was found floating face-down in a local river the following day.
