List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom

This is an incomplete list of unsolved murders in the UK. Victims believed to have been murdered by the same perpetrator(s) are grouped together. This does not include the 1,500 unsolved murders in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Pre World War II

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
1717	James Fleming (1682-1751)	Dublin	Shot in his sedan chair.
1752	Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure	Appin	“Appin Murder”.
1857	Emile L'Angelier	Glasgow	His lover Madeleine Smith was accused of poisoning him with arsenic. The verdict was “not proven”.
1876	Charles Bravo	Balham, London	Known as the Charles Bravo Murder or the Murder at the Priory. Charles Bravo, a lawyer was poisoned with antimony: he took three days to die but gave no indication of the source of the poison. No-one was ever charged for the crime.
1888–1891	Emily Horsnail, Fairy Fay, Annie Millwood, Ada Wilson, Emma Smith, Malvina Haynes, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, Mrs. Murphy, Annie Farmer, Rose Mylett, Elizabeth Jackson, Alice McKenzie, Rosina Smith, Frances Coles, Catherine Wohler, Mary Ann Austin,	Whitechapel, London	Murders and attempted murders mentioned in connection with “Jack the Ripper”.
December 1888	John Gill	Bradford, West Yorkshire	8 year old John Gill's body was found in Manningford Lane in Bradford on the 28 December 1888. His throat had been cut, his abdomen cut open and stabbed, his arms and legs hacked off and his ears removed. William Barrett was arrested for the murder but later found not guilty. Newspapers suggested a connection to the Jack the Ripper murders, but the doctors found no connection.
10 February 1889	Louisa Smith	Lewisham, London	Prostitute Louisa Smith was found in Algernon Road, Lewisham, with a severe fractured skull caused by a blow with a blunt instrument.
1892	Unknown Female	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire	Body parts of a woman found in the canal, at the Wilford Canal towpath. She had been murdered then cut up.
1902	Rose Harsent	Peasenhall, Suffolk	William Gardiner, a married man who was thought to be having an affair with the pregnant victim, was twice tried inconclusively and then set free.
1905	Mary Sophia Money	Merstham, Surrey	Body found in the Merstham railway tunnel. The autopsy showed a scarf had been thrust into her mouth and marks were discovered on the tunnel wall showing Miss Money had been thrown to her death from a moving train.
1907	Emily Dimmock	Camden Town, London	Known as the Camden Town murder. Prostitute Emily Dimmock was found with her throat cut. Robert Wood was accused and acquitted after a brilliant defence by Edward Marshall Hall.
1908	Marion Gilchrist	Glasgow	Oscar Slater was wrongfully convicted in 1909 and this conviction was quashed in 1928: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was prominent in securing his release.
1908	Caroline Luard	Ightham, Kent	Known as the Seal Chart Murder. Mrs Luard was shot in a summerhouse in the middle of a wood near Sevenoaks, Kent. Her husband was accused by some, and he later committed suicide in despair. Later it was suggested that murderer John Dickman, hanged for a shooting on a train in 1910, was the guilty party.
1909	George Harry Storrs	Gorse Hall, Stalybridge	Two men were tried but neither was convicted.
1911	Joseph Wilson	Lintz Green railway station	Railway porter Samuel Atkinson was charged but no evidence was offered against him.
1919	Bella Wright	Little Stretton, near Leicester	Known as the Green Bicycle Case as the victim was last seen with a man owning one. A green bicycle was found in a canal and its owner Ronald Light {1885–1975} traced. He stood trial, but was found not guilty of murder, thanks to the brilliant defence by Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC, who had Light in the witness box admitting to every allegation made against him, except her murder.
1920	Mabel Greenwood	Kidwelly	Harold Greenwood (1874–1929) was accused of poisoning his wife Mabel with arsenic. He was acquitted at Carmarthen Assizes in 1920 after a defence by Edward Marshall Hall.
1931	Julia Wallace	Liverpool	Known as The Wallace Case. Julia's husband William Herbert Wallace was convicted, but this was quashed when he successfully appealed. Recent books have named a suspect.
1931	Hubert Chevis	Aldershot, Hampshire	Chevis was poisoned after eating partridge laced with strychnine.
1934	Unknown female	Brighton	Torso found in a trunk at Brighton Station. This is known as the Brighton Trunk Crime no. 1. See Brighton trunk murders.

1939–1969

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
1943	Unknown female, informally known as "Bella"	Wychbury Hill, Hagley, Worcestershire	“Bella in the Wych Elm”.
1945	Charles Walton	Meon Hill, Upper Quinton, Warwickshire	On Valentines Day 1945 the body of local farm labourer Charles Walton was found murdered with his own trouncing hook and pinned to the ground with a pitchfork. The body had had a large cross engraved into the chest and neck which caused many rumours to circulate linking the murder to witchcraft or satanism.
1949	Emily Armstrong	London	Emily Armstrong was a British victim of an unsolved murder in which she had been beaten to death and later found at her place of employment, a dry cleaner's shop on St John's Wood High Street. Police later determined she had been killed roughly an hour before her body was found at around 4:00 pm. A post-mortem examination also showed that her skull had been shattered by at least 22 blows from a blunt object, later believed to be a claw hammer.
1949	Gertrude O'Leary		In the summer of 1949 the vicious murder of a well-liked, 66-year-old local licencee – Gertrude O'Leary – shocked the residents of Stokes Croft to the core. Her killer was never found.
September 1954	Jean Townsend	Ruislip, Middlesex	On 15 September 1954, 21 year old Jean Mary Townsend was found murdered on what was then waste land near to the junction of Victoria Road and Angus Drive. The autopsy report stated that she had been strangled with her own scarf. In 1982 the Metropolitan Police announced that they were to review their files on the case following some anonymous telephone calls. To this day, no one has been charged with Jean's killing and it remains unsolved. Britain's National Archives have indicated that the police files on the case are likely to be made available for public inspection in 2031.
March 1959	Real Tessier		Real Tessier, 33, was last seen alive 31 March at the Empire Hotel in St. Thomas. He was found shot dead beside a vehicle outside the city less than an hour later.
1959–1965	1959: Elizabeth Figg 1963: Gwynneth Rees 1964:Laurie James Raymond Venables Birmingham Hannah Tailford, Irene Lockwood, Helene Barthelemy, Mary Fleming & Margaret McGowan 1965: Bridget O'Hara	West London	'Jack the Stripper' victims.
1966	Yolande Waddington	Beenham, Berkshire	Yolande Waddington, age 17, was found dead in the village of Beenham in October 1966. On 16 November 2011, 64-year-old David Burgess, formerly of Beenham, was arrested by officers from Thames Valley Police's major crime review team. Mr Burgess has been remanded in custody to appear before Newbury magistrates on 22 November 2011.
1967	Herbert Wilkinson	Middlewich, Cheshire	In October 1967, the body of a solicitor was discovered in a shallow grave by the side of the Trent & Mersey Canal. 54-year-old Herbert Wilkinson, a lonely bachelor, allegedly with homosexual tendencies, who, seven months earlier, had been struck off by the Law Society because of problems with his practice in Middlewich.
1968–1969	Patricia Docker, Jemima McDonald & Helen Puttock	Glasgow	“Bible John” victims.
1969	April Fabb	Metton, Norfolk	On 8 April 1969 13-year-old April Fabb left her parents house to cycle to Roughton, two miles away, to take a package of cigarettes as a birthday present to her brother-in-law. She never arrived. Her blue and white bicycle was found dumped behind a hedge half a mile from her home at 2.12pm. She has never been found to this day.
1969	Annie Walker	Heather, Leicestershire	Beaten to death in her home. By re-examining evidence gathered at the scene, police have now been able to extract DNA samples which would positively identify the murderer, but have yet to find a match for the killer's DNA profile.
1969	Lucy Tinslop	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire	Murdered on 4 August in St Mary's Rest Garden on Bath Street, Nottingham. Became known locally as the 'Birthday Girl Murder' as it took place on the victim's 21st birthday. She left home after a birthday party at her parents house. Screams were heard coming from the rest garden. Lucy's body was found strangled. She had been raped and her killer had ripped her abdomen open and stabbed her vagina over 20 times. Some speculate that the killer was Arnold Booth, a resident of Sneinton in Nottinghamshire, though it is unclear whether any evidence exists to link Booth to Lucy's murder. In 1977 Booth was sentenced to life imprisonment having been convicted of the murder of Renee Howard.

1970s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
March 1970	Jackie Ansell-Lamb	Mere, Cheshire	An 18-year-old hitch-hiker who disappeared on 8 March 1970. Six days later the girl's body was discovered by a farmer in Square Wood, near Knutsford. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
October 1970	Barbara Mayo	Ault Hucknall near Bolsover, Derbyshire	In October 1970 Barbara Mayo set off from her London home to hitchhike north. Six days later the 24-year-old's body was found in a wood by the north-bound carriageway in view of Hardwick Hall. The teacher had been raped and then strangled. Twenty years later, in 1990, detectives were able to confirm using DNA that Mayo's killer was the same man who raped and strangled 18-year-old Jackie Ansell-Lamb.
1970	Susan Long	Aylsham, Norfolk	On 10 March the Norwich Union worker had been out dancing at the Gala Ballroom in Norwich and caught the last bus home to Aylsham. She arrived at around 11.10pm and began the seven-minute walk to her parents’ home, but never arrived. The headlights of a milk-float picked the shape of her body lying in a pool of rainwater in a lovers’ lane the following morning.
1971	Unidentified man	Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire	On 26 March 1971, Former Constable David Nathan found a skull in a field off Newton Road. After police excavated, a body was found, the murdered man had his hands tied behind his back and his feet lashed. He was in a sitting position and was naked except for a pair of mustard coloured socks and a golden ring. he had undergone extensive dental work less than six months before his death. He was white, with short, brown hair and about 5 ft 8 ins tall, had a prominent bottom jaw and suffered from torticollis – a neck condition that would have caused his head to lean to the right. In November 2006, his face was reconstructed in the hope he would be recognised, but to no avail. In October 2008, a book was published in the hope someone would be able to solve the murder.
1971	Gloria Booth	Ruislip, Middlesex	On the morning of Sunday 13 June, the naked body of Gloria Booth was discovered on a recreation ground off Nairn Road, approximately half a mile from South Ruislip Underground Station and a mile from the scene of the Jean Townsend killing 17 years earlier. Like Jean Townsend, Mrs Booth – a 29 year old housewife from Ealing – had died from strangulation and it appeared that – as in the Townsend killing – a scarf had been used.
1972	Judith Roberts	Tamworth, Staffordshire	A 14-year-old girl was battered to death not far from her family home in Tamworth. A young soldier stationed at Whittington Barracks confessed to the murder and served 25 years in jail. However, he later claimed that his confession was a result of psychological problems he was experiencing at the time; there being no other evidence against him, his conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal. The real killer remains unknown.
September 1973	Wendy Sewell	Bakewell, Derbyshire	A 32-year-old legal secretary was savagely beaten in a churchyard, and later died of her wounds. The church groundskeeper Stephen Downing was convicted and served 27 years for the murder, but the verdict was eventually overturned on appeal. The case was re-investigated by police, but no further arrests were made.
1974	Glenis Carruthers	Clifton, Bristol	A 20-year old woman from Amersham was found strangled on Clifton Down after she had left a friend's 21st birthday on Friday 18 January at 10pm.
1974	Unidentified headless woman	Cockley Cley, Norfolk	Concealed in weeds off the Cockley Cley road, near Swaffham, the badly-decomposed and headless body of a young woman was found by a farm worker. She was wearing a pink, frilled Marks & Spencer nightdress, but a better clue was the brown plastic sheet in which she was wrapped, bearing the letters NCR (National Cash Register). Only six such sheets were made by a Scottish company between 1962 and 1968, but police never identified the woman, let alone her killer. Today, there is no grave or headstone, just an unmarked spot in a Swaffham churchyard.
1975	Eve Stratford	Leyton, London	Stratford was found dead on 18 March 1975 the Bunny girl who worked at the Playboy Club in Park Lane where she had been pictured with Eric Morecambe and Sid James, had her throat cut between eight and 12 times by an unknown attacker. She had also been tied up and gagged and was found by her boyfriend lying on the floor in her apartment in Lyndhurst Drive, Leyton, London the case would remain a cold one until in late 2007, the investigators in the case found links between the Playboy Bunny murder and another one of 16 year old Lynne Weedon. Weedon had been beaten over the head with a blunt object as she took a short-cut to her home in Hounslow six months after the model’s death the same year. Despite horrific injuries Weedon was alive when found the next morning but died a week later in hospital without regaining consciousness. Both cases where featured on the BBC Crimewatch programme in the UK in September 2007, where DCI Andy Mortimer appeared said to presenter Fiona Bruce that both murders were definitely sexually motivated. The cold case was in 2007 opened on new to try to find the killer and investigators says that they are sure the both women where murdered by the same person. The investigators say that the breakthrough in the case was because of new DNA technology which proves the two murders were committed by the same person.
1976	Renee MacRae and Andrew MacRae	Dalmagarry, Highland	Described as one of the most baffling mysteries in Scottish criminal history, the murder of Renee MacRae and her three-year old son Andrew, shocked and scandalised the Highlands, and it mesmerised the small, tight-knit community in Inverness. MacRae had planned to spend the weekend with her lover in Perthshire, a married man, who was also Andrew's father. On the evening of Friday, 12 November 1976, MacRae left Inverness and headed south on the A9. At ten o'clock that evening a train driver reported a car ablaze on a lay-by adjacent to the A9 trunk road at Dalmagarry. The bodies have never been found, though traces of blood matching Renee and Andrew's blood type were discovered in the boot of the burnt out car. Attention focused on the nearby Dalmagarry quarry, were a senior member of the police believed they were buried. A 2004 excavation of the area found nothing of interest, however a local farmer has opined that the bodies could be buried under the A9, which was in the middle of a major programme of upgrading at the time of the disappearance. The farmer called for the road to be excavated at the spot where a radar survey he commissioned found “anomalies”.
1978	Genette Tate	Aylesbeare, Devon	13-year-old Genette Tate went missing at 3.35pm BST on 19 August 1978 whilst delivering newspapers. Her bicycle and sack containing the newspapers were found lying in the middle of the road, on a quiet country lane but her body has never been found and her abductor has never been brought to justice.
1978	Carl Bridgewater	Yew Tree Farm, Kinver, Staffordshire	The Bridgewater Four were originally convicted in 1979, but they were acquitted in 1997.
1978	Georgi Markov	London	Agents of the Bulgarian secret police, Darzhavna Sigurnost, assisted by the KGB had previously made two failed attempts to kill Markov before a third attempt succeeded. On 7 September 1978, Markov walked across Waterloo Bridge spanning the River Thames, and was waiting at a bus stop on the other side, when he was jabbed in the calf by a man holding an umbrella. The man apologized and walked away. Markov would later tell doctors that the man had spoken with a foreign accent. The event is recalled as the "Umbrella Murder" with the assassin claimed to be Francesco Gullino, codenamed "Piccadilly".
1979	Sally Ann McGrath	Peterborough	Sally was found murdered in March 1980 having disappeared from Peterborough on 11 July 1979. Her body was found in a shallow grave in woods in Castor Hanglands in Peterborough. On 9 October 2011, a man was charged with her murder.
1979	Unidentified woman	Bedgebury Forest, Kent	On 23 October 1979, a mystery woman aged between 30 and 35 was found in Bedgebury Forest having been beaten to death. The discovery lead to a murder enquiry but she was never identified. It was thought she had come from Eastern Europe and had one child. She was white, about 5 ft 1 in, of thin build, with brown eyes and dark brown, shoulder-length straight hair. When found she was wearing black shoes, a floral dress and a black polo neck jumper. Police had re-investigated the case in 1999, and in May 2000 Harry Pennells from East Sussex stood trial for her murder but was acquitted after a four-week trial. Still more than 20 years on, her identity remains a mystery and the crime unsolved.
1979	Lynda Farrow	Whitehall Road, Woodford Green, London	On 19 January 1979, heavily pregnant mother of two Lynda Farrow was found brutally murdered in her home in Whitehall Road. Her throat had been slashed and she had been raped. Earlier that day, Farrow had been shopping with her mother, now eighty-six, and had bought a new pair of shoes and a coat made for pregnant woman. She then went to her partner's fruit stall before returning home by car. It is believed that Farrow either ran into her home to answer her ringing phone, leaving the door opened behind her, or that she knew her attacker and let him in willingly. Farrow's body was found by her two daughters. In 2010, Farrow's killing was reconstructed on BBC's Crimewatch. The appeal featured her partner, now re-married, and her two daughters. The only sighting of Farrow's killer was by her neighbour, who saw a man wearing a long black coat entering Farrow's home at around 2pm. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. The only other clue to the killer is a set of footprints leading to Farrow's house. So far, nobody has been convicted for her murder.

1980s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
1980	Jessie Earl	Eastbourne	Aged 22, disappeared around 15 May 1980. Her skeletal remains were found 9 years later in April 1989 in bushes at Beachy Head. British Serial Killer Peter Tobin is now suspect of the unsolved killing of Earl, as he lived in Eastbourne the in the early 1980s. Police later commented however that "cannot prove anything unless Tobin confesses".
1981	Unidentified woman	Yorkshire	A woman's naked and decomposed body was found dumped in bushes next to a country road near Sutton Bank on 28 August 1981 after police received an anonymous tip off from a "well spoken man" who refused to give his name for "national security reasons". It was later established the woman was 5ft4, aged about 40 and probably had two or three children. The case became known as the "Nude in the Nettles" due to the location of the body. In November 1981, medical students constructed a waxwork of the woman, but the case remains a mystery three decades on. In 2012, the body was exhumed for DNA testing against samples from five families potentially related to the woman as well as the British national DNA database.
1982	Roberto Calvi	Blackfriars Bridge	Italian banker, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano which collapsed in one of modern Italy's biggest political scandals, found hanged. The death was ruled as murder after two coroner's inquests and an independent investigation, and, in June 2007, five people were acquitted of his murder after a trial in Rome. See also "In God's Name", a book by David Yallop, which relates Calvi's murder, and the 'suiciding' of his secretary, to corruption, and – possibly – the death of Pope John Paul I – Papa Albini.
1982	Yiannoulla Yianni	Hampstead, London	The 17-year-old schoolgirl was raped and murdered at her family home on 13 August 1982. There was no sign of a break-in and, therefore, police believe she knew her attacker. Yiannoulla, of Greek-Cypriot background, had spent the morning with her mother in the family’s shop before returning home to prepare lunch. Her body was found by her parents when they returned home at around 3 pm. Witnesses reported seeing Yiannoulla talking to a man on the doorstep. Advances in DNA technology led to the re-opening of the case in 2001 but as yet there have been no further developments.
1983	Janice Carole Weston	Cambridgeshire	At 0900 hrs on Sunday, 11 September 1983, the fully clothed body of an unidentified female was found in a ditch adjacent to a lay-by on the northbound carriageway of the A1 road, approximately 1 1/2 miles south of the Brampton Hut roundabout, Cambridgeshire. This body was identified to be the body of Janice Weston formerly living in London, a solicitor and partner of a well established firm in Lincolns Inn, London. She was last seen alive on Saturday, 10 September 1983, at her office in London.
1984	Melanie Road	Bath	In June 1984, seventeen-year-old Melanie Road was brutally strangled to death while walking home after a nightout in the nearby Bath city-centre. She had met her boyfriend and his brother earlier that evening, and had left the club with them at around 2.30am. Melanie's boyfriend offered to get her a taxi, but tragically, Melanie refused and began the 20-minute walk home to her home in St. Stephen's Court. Her body was discovered at 5.30am by a local milkman just 50 yards from her doorstep. Melanie had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled to death. In 2009, Melanie's murder was reconstructed on BBC's Crimewatch, but no new leads to the killer's identidy came to light and the murder remains unsolved.
1985	Sandra Phillips	Swansea	The mother of four was found beaten and strangled inside the sex shop she managed, which was locked up. Two brothers were wrongly convicted and spent seven years behind bars before their 1992 release, after which police apologised for investigational failings. A 2002 review and 2004 turned up new information but no killer, and in 2009 it was announced that the investigation would cease unless and until new information surfaced.
1985	Phil Nickson	Stoke Newington, London	A 32 year old civil servant killed by a blow to the head in Newington Green Road at about 5 pm on 6 November 1985. An extensive police investigation including a reconstruction on the BBC programme Crimewatch failed to solve the case.
1986	Ann Ballantine	Edinburgh	Ann was a 20 year old woman that was found in a canal wrapped in carpet. She had been raped then throttled.The killer kept her before dumping her in the canal.
1986	Suzy Lamplugh	Fulham, London	An estate agent aged 25 disappeared after she went to meet a "Mr Kipper". She was last seen at 12:40 BST on 28 July 1986. So far her body has not been found. Police have also investigated a link between the disappearance of Lamplugh and convicted killer John Cannan, who murdered newly-wed Shirley Banks in October 1987. It is known that Cannan's nickname in prison was Mr. Kipper. However, there was never enough evidence to connect him with the disappearance and assumed murder of Lamplugh.
1986	Nicola Fellows & Karen Hadaway	Moulsecoomb, north of Brighton	A local roofer, Russell Bishop, was tried for the rape and strangulation of the two schoolgirls, but was acquitted. Bishop was convicted in 1991 for the kidnapping and attempted murder of a seven year old schoolgirl.
1986	Linda Cook	Portsmouth	A 24 year old barmaid was raped and beaten to death in a school playground. Footprint evidence led to the conviction of an off duty sailor, Michael Shirley, and the case was dubbed the "Cinderella Murder". Shirley was sentenced to life in 1988, but eventually released in 2003 when DNA evidence proved he was not the killer.
1986	John William Malthouse	Cambridge	John Malthouse, of no fixed abode, living in and around Cambridge for several years. On 22 August 1986 his body was found in toilets at Victoria Avenue, Midsummers Common, Cambridge. he had been the subject of an extremely violent assault. No persons have been charged with this offence and the matter is still undetected.
1987	Helen Fleet	Weston-super-Mare	The brutal murder of Helen Fleet has left a lasting legacy in Weston-super-Mare. Even though nearly 25 years have passed since the frenzied attack, some townsfolk still fear returning to the beauty spot where she met her end. People continue to talk about the murder, apparently it was a motiveless attack on a defenceless pensioner.
1988	Lockerbie bombing	Scottish airspace	On 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from Heathrow to New York exploded over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. In January 2001, Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was found guilty of mass murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years. However, no-one else has been brought to court, leaving the case open. In August 2009, Megrahi was released from jail and sent back to Libya on compassionate grounds as he was said to have terminal prostate cancer. Some relatives of the dead welcomed the decision to release Megrahi, as they were convinced that he was wrongly convicted of the mass murder.
1989	James Hassard	Caol, near Fort William	The badly-beaten body of James "Jimmy" Hassard (47) was found in a car park in the Highland village of Caol, near Fort William, in the early hours of Saturday, 18 February 1989. Mr Hassard had been drinking in the nearby Lochaber Bar between about 8pm on Friday, February 17 and 1am on Saturday. Despite a lengthy police inquiry, no-one has ever been caught. In 2010, Northern Constabulary said they are conducting a review into the murder in the hope that some new evidence may come to light and ultimately resolve the case.

1990s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
June 1990	Leonard Gomm	Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire	Mr Gomm, 75, was a taxi driver found stabbed to death in the village of Hampden Gay, near Bletchingdon in Oxfordshire, at 10.50am on 13 June 1990. His Ford Granada taxi was found five yards away. Mr Gomm had radioed his employers four hours earlier (at about 6.35am) telling them he was taking a passenger to Bicester. Police believe he picked up the fare from Gloucester Green, Oxford at 6.15am. Two witnesses saw the victim driving his taxi with a passenger at around this time. No money or valuables had been taken from Mr Gomm or his taxi leaving the motive as to his murder a mystery. On the 20th anniversary of the murder, Thames Valley Police reported the uncovering of new forensic evidence which could shed light on the motive.
December 1990	Steve Johnson	Mow Cop, Staffordshire	On 22 December, insurance salesman and part-time taxi driver Johnson was last sighted at 3.30am collecting a fare in Hanley bound for Packmoor. His body was discovered by a dog walker four hours later with his throat cut 20 yards from his taxi.
1991	Penny Bell	Perivale, London	Body found in a car in Gurnell Grove Leisure Centre car park. The victim was a 43-year-old businesswoman and mother of two, who was stabbed 50 times as she sat behind the wheel of her car.
1991	Sandy Drummond	Fife, Scotland	Reclusive Drummond, 33, was found dead on a farm track close to the home he shared with his brother, an isolated cottage in St. Andrews, Fife, on 24 June 1991. Just days prior to his death, Drummond had withdrawn large amounts of cash from his accounts, although the money was later found in the house. He had also resigned from his job three days before his death. On the day itself, he was seen running from his house to fields opposite carrying a blue sports bag which has never been found. At 2.30pm, a man was seen on a bus near to Drummond's cottage with a blood stained bandage wrapped around his hand. This man was never traced. Several occasions before Drummond's death (and twice on the actual day), an orange Morris Marina was seen parked outside the cottage, but it is still unknown who owned this car or who visited him. Drummond's death was originally ruled as natural, but forensics later revealed he had injuries to his neck.
1991	Bolney Torso victim	Bolney, Sussex	In October 1991, the body of an unidentified man was discovered with its head and hands missing in woodland off Broxmead Lane in Bolney, Sussex. His head and hands had been removed to mask his identity. He was never identified and buried at Haywards Heath cemetery in 1994. In March 2009 police exhumed the body and gave a revised description of the man. He was between 5 ft 6 and 5 ft 8, aged possibly in 30s but believed to be as old as 45 and well built. They have issued pictures of his clothing, including a light-blue shirt, with a distinctive motif on its pocket. At the time of the crime, police said they were seeking the driver of a grey estate car who had been seen in the area shortly before the body was found. He was described as "Scandinavian looking" and in his 30s.
1992	Natalie Pearman	Norwich, Norfolk	16 year-old Natalie was strangled and her body dumped in woodland at Ringland Hills, on the edge of Norwich. At around 3.45am on 20 November, a lorry driver taking a short cut through Ringland Hills spotted Natalie’s body in a layby.
1992	Johanna Young	Watton, Norfolk	On 23 December 14-year-old Johanna left her home in Merton Road, Watton, at around 7.30pm and was seen outside her local fish and chip shop half an hour later. The alarm was raised the following morning when she failed to turn up for her paper round and, on Boxing Day, her body was found in a freezing pond near her home and clothes and shoes discarded nearby.
1993	Claire Tiltman	Greenhithe, Kent	16-year-old Claire took a short cut down an alleyway on her way to meet a friend. Just 100 steps from the safety of a busy main road, she was stabbed 40 times in an apparently random attack.
1993	Peter Stone	Cottenham, Cambridgeshire	Postman Peter Stone of Cottenham, a father of 2, was attacked near the Chequer's pub where he had been drinking on a Saturday night. He was found with serious head injuries in the early hours of the following morning. Mr Stone was taken to Addenbrooke's hospital where he died.
1993	Jean Bradley	Acton, London	Stabbed to death in Carbery Avenue. Victim was a 47-year-old businesswoman. A man was charged, but due to a lack of evidence the case was dropped.
1993	Karen Hales	Ipswich, Suffolk	Young mother Karen Hales was murdered in her own home in front of her young daughter. Karen, aged 21, was stabbed and her body set on fire during a vicious attack at her home in Lavenham Road, Ipswich, on Sunday 21 November 1993.
1993	Doris Shelley	Martlesham, Suffolk	Pensioner Doris Shelley died after she was attacked in her own home at Martlesham, near Woodbridge on 11 February 1993.
1993	Harry and Megan Tooze	Llanharry, South Wales	Shot at point blank range in their home at Ty Ar y Waun Farm. Jonathan Jones, the boyfriend of their daughter Cheryl was convicted of their murder, but the verdict was quickly overturned on appeal. Since then South Wales Police have made several attempts to solve the murder, but no further arrests have been made.
1994	Chris Little	Stockport	Shot whilst driving his car. Arran Coghlan was charged but cleared; the next decade Coghlan went on to be charged and cleared in two other murders and with cocaine smuggling.
1994	Lindsay Jo Rimer	Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire	Teenager, Lindsay Jo Rimer, lived with her parents at Cambridge Street, Hebden Bridge. She was a pupil at Calder High School. At around 10pm on 7 November 1994 she left home to visit the local Spar Supermarket in Crown Street, Hebden Bridge, to buy cornflakes. On the way to the shop she visited the Trades Club in Holme Street. According to CCTV footage in the supermarket Lindsay paid for the cornflakes at 10.22pm. Five months later on 12 April 1995, her body was recovered from the Rochdale Canal, approximately one mile upstream from Hebden Bridge town centre.
1994	Tracy Mertens	Eaton, Macclesfield, Cheshire	Aged 31, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, died 24 hours after being left on the steps of a church by her killers, who abducted her when she returned to pick up belongings from her former home in Nechells, Birmingham. She suffered horrific burns and was found by a man who heard her cries as he walked past the churchyard on 23 December 1994. It was a bitterly cold evening but her clothes were still smouldering. A petrol can was found nearby. Mertens was taken to hospital but died in the early hours of Christmas Eve.
1994	Dr Michael Meenaghan (Spike)	Blackbird Leys, Oxford	A lecturer at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford University, Dr Meenaghan, 35, was shot at about 4.30pm at his end-terrace home on the Blackbird Leys estate in Oxford. Police called it an apparently motiveless attack. He was shot through the kitchen window of his home at 4.30pm on 10 December by person or persons unknown.
1995	Janet Brown	Hall Farm, Spriggs Holly Lane, between Radnage and Chinnor, Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire border	Aged 51, a mother of three who worked as a nurse in Oxford, was found gagged and handcuffed at her home.
1995	Ian Stewart Grant	Cambridge	Ian Grant was a night club doorman working in Cambridge. He was shot dead on some waste ground near Fulborne Hospital in November 1995.
1996	Alan Holmes	Camden	Found fully clothed and tied face-down to his bed by police on 4 January after being there for ten days; he died in hospital the next day. Several people had used his bank cards to steal £1,000.
1996	David Spencer & Patrick Warren	Chelmsley Wood, West Midlands	13-year-old David Spencer and 11-year-old Patrick Warren went missing on Boxing Day 1996 after going out to play on Warren's new bike. In the afternoon, the boys went ice skating with a group of friends on Meriden Lake. At 3.40pm, a policeman warned them off. They went to a friend's house and eventually returned to Spencer's house at 11.30pm, but did not stay long. They said they were going to stay at Warren's brother's flat, but they never arrived. They were last seen at 12.30am scrounging for biscuits in a petrol station. The bike was found behind the petrol station. They were reported missing at 4am. No bodies have ever been found.
1996	Melanie Hall	Bristol	Melanie Hall, a 25-year-old psychology graduate from Bradford Leigh, Wiltshire, disappeared in June 1996 after a night out in Bath. Her remains were found on a motorway slip road near Bristol in 2009.
1996	Damien Nettles	Isle of Wight	The 16-year-old vanished in Cowes. The disappearance remains under investigation as murder and in 2011 several men were arrested and released on bail.
1996	Richard Watson	East Grinstead, Sussex	On the evening of 10 December, business tychoon Richard Watson was shot dead by an unknown gunman as he arrived home. Charges were brought against the victim's wife and stepdaughter, but these were eventually dropped. (Sussex Police later apologised to the two women and acknowledged their total innocence.) Another suspect has since been identified, but no charges have yet been brought.
1997	Patricia Grainger	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	Mother aged 25, murdered and dumped in a brook close to woodlands.
1997	Billie-Jo Jenkins	Hastings, East Sussex	Foster father Sion Jenkins was originally convicted of murder in 1998. This conviction was quashed in 2004 and a retrial was ordered. The first retrial in 2005 and a second retrial in 2006 both ended when the juries were unable to reach a verdict. Jenkins was formally acquitted.
1997	Kate Bushell	Exeter, Devon	Schoolgirl Kate Bushell was murdered as she walked a neighbour's dog a short distance from her home in Exwick, on the outskirts of Exeter. Bushell, aged 14, set off from her home in Burrator Drive, at 4.30pm on 15 November 1997. When she failed to come home, her parents called the police. A search located her body in a field next to Exwick Lane at 7.35pm that evening. She had been brutally murdered.
1998	Elsie Viva Freeman	Cambridge	The body of Elsie Viva Freeman was discovered on her bed at her home address at Mill Road, Impington at about 1212hrs on Saturday 7 March 1998 by a member of the family.
1998	Julia Webb	Sandiway near Northwich, Cheshire	Housewife Julia Webb, 52, was battered with a blunt instrument while walking her dog near her home in Sandiway on 22 July 1998.
1998	Lyn Bryant	Truro, Cornwall	Lyn Bryant was murdered as she was walking her dog along a country lane at Ruan High Lanes near Truro in Cornwall on 20 October 1998. Her body was found at 2.40pm. She had been stabbed several times.
1998	Saul Nahome	Finchley, London	Nahome was shot at his home several times in the back; upon collapsing, he was shot again in the head. The case is believed to be linked to the disappearance earlier in 1998 of business associate Gilbert Wynter.
1999	Vicky Hall	Trimley St Mary, Suffolk	Seventeen-year-old Victoria (Vicky) Hall went missing at about 2.30am on Sunday, 19 September 1999, as she walked towards her home in Faulkeners Way, Trimley St Mary. Vicky’s body was found, about 25 miles away, in a stream near Creeting St Peter (near Stowmarket) at 7.30pm on Friday, 24 September 1999.
1999	Jill Dando	Fulham, London	On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando left the home of her fiancé, Dr. Alan Farthing, and returned to her house in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. As she reached her front door at about 11:30, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered shortly afterwards by a friend, local resident Helen Doble, and she was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03 BST. After a huge amount of press coverage and a 13 month investigation police arrested Barry George, a convicted sex offender, for her murder. Originally convicted on 2 July 2001 to life imprisonment George appealed the conviction in November 2007. Following an eight week hearing he was acquitted on 1 August 2008.

2000s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
December 2000	Rachel Manning	Woburn Golf Club, Milton Keynes	The body of Rachel Manning, 18, was found at Woburn Golf Club, in Milton Keynes, on 12 December 2000. She had disappeared two days earlier after a 1960s-themed fancy dress party at Bradwell Village Hall, in the town. In December 2011 a 40-year-old man, Shahidul Ahmed, from Chestnut Crescent, Bletchley. was charged with her murder.
2001	Unknown boy	River Thames	“Torso in the Thames” victim
2001	David Barnshaw	Stockport	The drug dealer was abducted and forced to drink petrol. He died in a burning car. Arran Coghlan - previously cleared of the murder of Chris Little - was prosecuted but cleared after it emerged the prosecution held undisclosed evidence concerning another possible suspect. Coghlan went on to be charged and cleared with a third count of murder and cocaine smuggling.
2002	Unidentified man	Winsford Hill, Winsford, Somerset	The man's badly decomposed corpse was found on 13 March 2002 wrapped in bin bags, a green single bed sheet and a single duvet. He had been tied with a stereo wire that was found with the remains. He is thought to have died 2–3 years before being found. It is not clear if the body had been brought into the UK from abroad. In May 2002, Detectives appealed on Crimewatch UK in the hope someone would recognise him but nobody called in to say who he was. In September, a new reconstruction of the man's head was released in a fresh appeal to identify him. He was 25–35 years old with black or dark brown hair and 5 ft 8–5 ft 9ins tall. He was thought to be Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or North African. He was wearing a gold chain that had a 22-carat pendant with the verse 225 from the Koran, the Holy Text of Islam, inscribed in Arabic across it. In September 2006 a funeral was held for the mystery victim. His identity is still a mystery more than six years on.
2002	Michelle Bettles	Norwich, Norfolk	Mother of three small children, none of whom were in her care, Michelle was last seen alive in the Queens Road area of Norwich in March 2002. Her fully-clothed body was found in a woodland off Podmore Lane, Scarning, three days later.
2002	Unidentified man	Charnock Richard, Lancashire	The murder victim's skeletal remains were found submerged in a pond off Back Lane in Charnock Richard, Chorley on 26 July 2002. It is thought he had died between October 2001 and June 2002. He was 5 ft 6– 5 ft 8 ins tall and aged between 20 and 30. He had a deformnity to his legs that was probably the result of a childhood disease. There was no clothing at the scene, no vehicle abandoned nearby, no personal effects on the body. Tests on chemicals in the bones suggest the victim would probably have lived the last ten years of his life in the West Midlands. Investigators focus on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton areas. Earlier investigations showed him to be more than likely of Asian origin but could not rule out his being a white European. It's suspected that the person could have been an illegal migrant, possibly from India.
2002	Billy Sibbald	A1, near Musselburgh	Father of three Billy Sibbald went missing on 8 October 2002 from Joppa, Edinburgh, after telling his wife he was meeting business associates. Three months later, his decomposing body was found in woodland by a lay-by on the A1 near Musselburgh. There have been various theories for Billy Sibbalds murder including one that he may have been the victim of a gangland killing. Due to a lack of information coming through to the police, nobody has been arrested for his murder.
2003	Margaret Muller	Victoria Park, London	Muller, 27, was fatally stabbed while jogging in the park. Police suspect she may have been targeted in a robbery gone wrong.
2003	Shafilea Ahmed	Warrington, Cheshire	Ahmed disappeared on 11 September 2003 and had been missing for a week before her teachers informed the police; subsequently there was a major campaign to urge people who had any information to come forward. Actress Shobna Gulati was persuaded to front the media campaign, and read some of her poems on television. In February 2004, Ahmed's corpse was found in the River Kent near Sedgwick, in proximity to Kendal in the Lake District (70 miles away from Warrington). Police believed that members of her family knew something about the case but were withholding evidence, her parents were arrested and later released and eight of her extended family are currently awaiting trial for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to the case, in addition there is still confusion regarding exact events of the trip she made to Pakistan regarding an arranged marriage.
2003	Paul Savage	Mold, Wales	Postman Paul Savage, aged 30, died on 4 February 2003 after being attacked by two men while on his round in Mold, Flintshire. Mr Savage, originally from Sale in Greater Manchester died in Wrexham Maelor Hospital from head injuries. He had been struck on the head several times with a wooden baton and was found lying in a pool of blood on the driveway of the home of Flintshire councillor Ray Dodd.Police later said they knew why he was killed, but would not elaborate.His killers have never been caught, despite a £100,000 reward for information.
2004	Alistair Wilson	Nairn, Inverness	Alistair Wilson, 30, was shot dead on the doorstep of his home in Nairn near Inverness in November 2004. He was shot in the head at his home in Crescent Road one Sunday evening after his wife opened their door to the killer. Police have stated there appears absolutely no motive for the murder.
January 2005	Robert McCartney	Belfast, Northern Ireland	Robert McCartney, 33, was killed during an altercation in Magennis' Bar. He was dragged outside onto Verner Street in the centre of the city and beaten and stabbed. Allegations were made, particularly by friends and relatives of McCartney, that there was involvement of the IRA and Sinn Féin in both the murder and subsequent cover-up. McCartney died of his wounds the following morning.
April 2005	Emma Caldwell	Glasgow	Caldwell, 27, was reported missing on 4 April 2005 and her body found in a wooded area in Roberton, near Biggar on 8 May. She was a heroin addict and prostitute and was staying in a homeless hostel in the Govanhill area of the city, where she was last seen. Four Turkish men were arrested in connection with the murder but the case against them collapsed, although one of the men, Huseyin Cobanoglu, was later convicted of three sex attacks on prostitutes. It was revealed during the trial of Peter Tobin for the murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk that Father Gerry Nugent had twice been questioned about the murder of Caldwell.
March 2006	Carlton Alveranga and Richard Austin	Salford	The pair had been hired as hitmen to murder David Totton, and entered the Brass Handles public house to carry out their contract. Though Totton was shot, he survived. His assailants were then disarmed by the bar's patrons and shot dead with their own guns by a person or persons unknown. Alveranga and Austin's hirers were convicted of conspiracy to murder in 2007, but the actual killer or killers remain, as of 2009, unidentified.
October 2006	Jessie James	Moss Side, Manchester	Jesse was murdered in a drive by shooting in October 2006. It is believed his murder was a case of mistaken identity. Police have been worried about the lack of witnesses coming forward, possibly due to fear of the repercussions.
February 2007	James Andre Smartt-Ford	London	On 3 February at 10:55pm the Metropolitan Police received a call of a shooting at an ice rink, where around 300 were attending a disco. A youth had shot 17-year-old Smartt-Ford, who had staggered down stairs to the ice and collapsed. He died at midnight in hospital. Although there were multiple witnesses, the killer was not identified.
2008	Andrew Cunningham	Earlsfield, London	Andrew Cunningham, a 52 year old convicted paedophile, was found stabbed and castrated in his caravan outside a haulage yard where he worked. Despite 500 witness statements and a £20,000 reward, no trace of the killer has been found. Police dismiss the idea that it was a revenge killing, saying that it was instead a robbery that went wrong as the caravan was ransacked and a wallet containing £6,000 was stolen.
June 2009	Anthony Otton	Fulham, London	Otton, age 28, was killed by a single bullet through his heart just before 7.00pm on 4 June 2009, as he left Geranium House, in Fulham Court, London. On the day of a wake for Darcy Bruce, who was gunned down outside Wandsworth Prison on 1 May, officers from the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to the killers’ prosecution. Family members believe he was the victim of revenge shooting.
October 2009	Alan Wood	Lound, Lincolnshire	In October 2009 50-year-old Wood was found dead in his home, tortured - possibly for financial details – and with head wounds and a slit throat. A £60,000 reward and televised appeals have not resulted in a prosecution.

2010s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
January 2010	Unidentified woman	Angel Meadow, Manchester	In January 2010 the discovery of a human skeleton unearthed in Angel Meadow near Miller Street lead to a murder enquiry. It is believed the victim was wrapped up in carpet off cuts and dumped in a narrow space in the area. She had suffered a fractured collarbone, jawbone and neck. It is believed death occurred sometime between 1960 and 2009. She was thought to be aged 18–35 and between 5 ft 1 and 5 ft 7in tall. She was discovered with a distinctively patterned pinafore style dress, wearing a blue bra, and a blue jumper. A black high-heeled shoe was also found. A white plastic Guinness measuring chart, thought to be used in pubs, was also uncovered along with a long off-cut of an orange carpet.
2010	Niamh and Cayden Adams	Buxton, Derbyshire	Niamh, five, and Cayden, two, died in a house fire. Police felt the arsonist was their 24-year-old mother Fiona, who escaped the blaze by jumping from a window with her third child, and she was charged. The jury at Nottingham Crown Court disagreed and she was cleared of both murders, arson and inflicting grievous bodily harm. Derbyshire Police set up an independent review team after the verdict.
August 2010	Gareth Williams	Pimlico, London	Gareth Williams, an employee of GCHQ, was found dead padlocked inside a sports bag on 23 August. A cause of death or possible motive has not been determined.
16 September 2010	Imran Farooq	North London	Farooq was found dead outside his home in London on 16 September from multiple stab wounds and head injuries. The killer was never identified.
September 2010	Rio McFarlane	Peckham	18-year-old McFarlane was shot dead in September in a suspected mistaken identity killing. He was friends with a well-known footballer and had himself had trials with top-flight clubs. The Sun and police between them are offering £30,000.
September 2010	Andrzej Kulesza	Rothersthorpe	Kulesza, 27, of Stamford Hill went missing after going to buy milk and bread. His remains were found in a field in Rothersthorpe, Northamptonshire in April 2011 by a woman walking her dog and confirmed as his in July 2011. There is a £20,000 reward for information about his kidnap and murder. His girlfriend received ransom calls and paid some money, but the calls stopped days after he went missing. Two men, aged 22 and 34, were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and murder and bailed to return later.
18 October 2010	Edith Stuart	Lancashire	Stuart, 96, was killed by an arsonist who set light to the care home bed she was sleeping in on 18 October. She died in hospital.

External links

• When the murder trail goes cold (includes list of the numbers of unsolved cases as of May 2010) and follow-up article, Solving a murder in the family