List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom

This is an incomplete list of unsolved known 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
1752	Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure	Appin	“Appin Murder”. At Appin, in the west of Scotland, in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising of 1745, inspired events in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Kidnapped.
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.
1888–1902	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 Manningham Lane in Bradford on 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	Known as the Peasenhall Murder. 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 post-mortem 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, Carmarthenshire	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	George Stapleton	Greenfield Bedfordshire	Bludgeoned to death with a fence post. Stapleton, a farm worker aged 66, was attacked on Friday, 21 April 1939 while walking from Ruxox farm through a bridleway in Greenfield to his lodgings, the White Hart Inn in Flitton, and his wages stolen. Police report said the attack was maniacally brutal [6][7][8].

1st Sept 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.
1948	Evan David Harris	Swansea Docks	Retired Industrial Chemist who was a nightwatchman at Consolidated Fisheries.
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	Stokes Croft, Bristol	In the summer of 1949 the vicious murder of a well-liked, 66-year-old local licensee – Gertrude O'Leary – shocked the residents of Stokes Croft to the core. Her killer was never found.
April 1954	Olive May Bennett	Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire	On Saturday, April 24, 1954, Olive May Bennett, 45, was seen drinking alone in the Red Horse Hotel in Bridge Street. Shortly before midnight she was seen again, standing outside the hotel as the streets around her emptied. She had led a sheltered life until, suddenly in middle-age, she changed. She started smoking and drinking, taking endless pains with her make-up, drawing large sums of money from her Post Office bank account, and filling her address book with the names of men she was meeting. Next morning her body was found wedged against an obstruction on the banks of the River Avon. She had been strangled with a long woollen scarf and her body was weighted with a 56 lb. tombstone wrenched from a riverside churchyard.In 1962 two women told police that on the night of the murder they were in the churchyard with two men, one of whom threatened to push them in the river and weigh them down with a tombstone. The men have never been traced.
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.
December 1957/January 1958	Anne Noblett	Whitwell, Hertfordshire	On the night of 30 December 1957, 17-year-old Anne Noblett alighted a bus on the corner of Lower Luton Road and Cherry Tree Lane in Wheathampstead and began the short walk home to Marshalls Heath. A month later her partially disrobed body was found 7 miles away in Rose Grove Wood near Whitwell. Known as the "Deep Freeze Murder", mystery surrounds the circumstances over her abduction and disappearance due to the frozen condition her body was found in and the relatively mild weather at the time. Despite extensive enquiries her killer has never been caught.
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.
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	No body found, so still officially a missing person,	On 8 April 1969 13-year-old April Fabb left her parents house in Metton 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.
March 1970	Susan Long	Aylsham, Norfolk	On 10 March 1970, 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.
March 1970	Philip Green	Shirehampton, Bristol	On 31 March 1970, 11-year-old Philip Green left his home in Sea Mills to collect golf balls on the nearby Shirehampton golf course. The following day his battered body was found in a wooded area of the course. The case remains unsolved despite one of the biggest police inquiries in the Bristol area, which was assisted by Scotland Yard. In 2010 on the 40th anniversary of his murder, Avon and Somerset Constabulary announced a new forensic investigation of the case that would use DNA profiling.
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.
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. This would remain a cold case until 2007, when police found links between Stratford's murder and that 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 Stratford's death. 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 September 2007, where, thanks to new DNA techniques, it was said that both murders were sexually motivated and 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 while 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".
1978	Walter Taylor	Ashby	Taylor, 17, was found dead shortly before Christmas on Ashby Playing Fields. He had been attacked with a piece of wood.
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 led 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.
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
c.15 May 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 in the early 1980s. Police later commented however that they "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. She had been dead for up to two years when discovered. 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. No match was found.
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 coroners' inquests and an independent investigation. 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.
13 August 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.
14 August 1982	Gurcharn Singh Landa (known as 'John')	Cyprus Road, Mapperley, Nottingham	The 33-year old Nottingham taxi driver was found dead in the early hours of Saturday 14 August 1982, having been stabbed 87 times. The police believe he was robbed of his takings and then stabbed, mostly in the chest. 11 people were arrested but no one charged. The father of eight, was sent to Peel Street at about 4am to pick up a passenger, called 'Shelton' who rang from a phone box. Police believe he picked someone up before driving to Cyprus Road, about a mile away. At 4:05am, a woman living on Cyprus Road heard a car brake suddenly and looking out of the window, saw the taxi rocking violently as though a fight was taking place. She also reported seeing a man searching the taxi's dashboard. She called the police then went to help but Mr Landa died shortly after police arrived. The police re-opened the case in August 2012.
September 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 11⁄2 miles south of the Brampton Hut roundabout, Cambridgeshire. This body was identified as that 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 stabbed to death while walking home after a night out 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 stabbed to death. In 2009, Melanie's murder was reconstructed on BBC's Crimewatch, but no new leads to the killer's identity came to light and the murder remains unsolved.
1984	Peter Miller	Great Yarmouth, Norfolk	The twenty-four-year-old was found stabbed in his kitchen by his brother. He died of one single stab wound to the chest. Although he had links to convicted criminals Andrew Hall and James Ventham, his murder was not linked to either of them. A CS canister was also found at the scene, believed to have been used by either Miller or his killer during a struggle.
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. Reviews of the case in 2002 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	PC Keith Blakelock	London	PC Blakelock was defending firefighters as they tended to a burning supermarket during the Broadwater Farm riot; he stumbled and was set upon by a mob with bladed weapons. Three men were convicted in 1987, but the convictions were overturned after forensic evidence suggested interview transcripts had been falsified. The officer in charge of the original investigation was cleared of inventing a statement by one of the accused.
6 November 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.
July 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. Many years 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.
1987	Simon Dale	Leintwardine, Shropshire	The body of Simon Dale, a near-blind recluse and former architect, was found at Heath House, an isolated 17th century mansion on the Shropshire/Herefordshire border. Dale’s corpse bore the marks of a savage attack believed to have been inflicted some two days earlier. Although his ex-wife, the Baroness de Stempel (née Susan Wilberforce), stood trial in July 1989 for the murder of her former husband (earlier charges of murder against two of the Baroness’s children, Marcus and Sophia Wilberforce, had been dropped), she was found not guilty. Although no one else has ever been charged with the murder, the investigation coincidentally revealed a fraud committed by the Baroness against her late aunt, Lady Illingworth. Police investigating the fraud made a search of the grounds of Heath House for missing gold bullion said to be worth some £10 million, but nothing was ever found.
5 February 1988	Robin Charles Wood	Northolt, West London	Car dealer Robin Charles Wood, 47, was shot dead on his front doorstep on Saturday 2 May 1998. The case remains unsolved. Mr Wood was at home with his partner and ten year-old son in Northolt, West London, when there was a knock on the door at around 10.40pm. His partner Kath Pribisevic answered it to find to a man calling himself Terry and asking to speak with Mr Wood. As the victim approached the front door he was shot in the neck with a sawn off shotgun. Mr Wood bled to death at the scene on the Racecourse Estate. The suspect, described as white, aged between 25-35, 5'7 in height, of slim build, with sharp facial features and wearing an unzipped dark-coloured anorak, was seen to run into Kempton Avenue. On the 15th anniversary of the murder, detectives offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the person responsible..
23 March 1988	Debbie Linsley	Victoria Station, London	Debbie Linsley, 26, from Bromley was found dead in a carriage at Victoria station. She had multiple stab wounds to the heart. The case was reopened in 2002 but no-one has so far been arrested. She lived and worked in Edinburgh and had been visiting her parents and brother Gordon. She got on the 14:16 train in an old-fashioned compartment from Orpington to London Victoria at Petts Wood. Screams were heard between Brixton and Victoria. The killer left traces of his blood at the scene but the murder weapon was not found. There is a £20,000 reward for information.
21 December 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.
February 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 taxicab driver found stabbed to death in Hampton 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. 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 his 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.
1991	Nicola Payne	Coventry, West Midlands	Nicola Payne, aged 18, went missing from the Wood End area on 14 December 1991. She was on her way to her parents' house from her home in Winston Avenue. She had a six-month-old son at the time of her disappearance. In June 2012 police began a search of parkland after being given new information. On 20 June 2012 two men were arrested by the police but later released.
October 1992	Nikki Allan	Sunderland	Seven-year-old Nikki Allan was battered to death in the then derelict Exchange Building. George Heron, 24, a neighbour was subsequently charged with the murder. However at his trial the case collapsed as it was deemed that his confession had been gained by coercion. In 2006 police confirmed that the Nikki Allan murder was being reinvestigated by a "cold case" review team based at Northumbria police headquarters. In September 2013, BBC's Crimewatch reconstructed a second appeal in an attempt to solve the case.
November 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. New calls and emails about the case were received in November 2012.
December 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.
18 January 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.
21 January 1993	Arthur Brumhill	Northampton, Northamptonshire	76-year-old Arthur Brumhill's body was found in the basement of the pet and garden centre on Wellingborough Road, where he worked part-time by a fellow employee. He had died from several blows to the head caused by a blunt metal object, thought to be a Tire iron missing from the scene. The killer is suspected to have escaped out of an upstairs window with a small amount of money taken. An eyewitness described seeing Arthur with another man in his teens with "mousey-brown" hair, standing at about 5 ft 5in tall, in the shop the evening of the murder. Despite the case appearing on Crimewatch and several arrests being made the case remains unsolved to this day. On the 21st January 2013, the 20th anniversary of the murder, Police announced they were reviewing the case and hoped that advances in Forensic Analysis and DNA profiling could bring the killer to justice.
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 while 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. A man was detained as a suspect in November 2013.
1996	Caroline Glachan	Renton, West Dunbartonshire	On the evening of Saturday, 24 August 1996, 14-year-old Caroline left the home she shared with her mother in Bonhill, a council estate in the Vale of Leven. Caroline was heading out to see friends in Renton. She was last seen alive at 11.30pm at the Ladyton shopping centre in Bonhill. The following morning her severely battered body was found by a drug addict, hidden in shrubbery beside the river. She had been the victim of a seemingly motiveless, violent attack. There was no evidence of a sexual assault.
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	Surjit Singh Chhokar	Overtown, North Lanarkshire	Chhokar was fatally stabbed in November 1998. Prosecutions were brought, but no convictions secured. Allegations of "institutional racism" were made after inquiries. As of August 2012 Strathclyde Police are reinvestigating the case in the light of legal reforms meaning those previously cleared could be tried again.
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.
March 1999	Kevin John Palmer	Fareham	An ex-pat businessman living in Spain, Palmer vanished after he got out of a taxi during a brief visit to the UK having argued with fellow passengers. In 2014 police officers searched the grounds of an abandoned pub following a tip-off in a bid to find his body.
1999	David Scott	London	Scott, 30, was stabbed to death in a Tottenham underpass. In 2012 prosecutors dropped a case against Kwame Appiah for the murder on the basis of scientific evidence.
1999	David Barnshaw	Stockport	The 32-year-old drug dealer was abducted and forced to drink petrol. He died in a burning car on 20 September 1999. 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.
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.
1999	Mary Lazenby	Rochester Court Wilmot street Bethnal Green	Disabled Pensioner brutally murdered in her own sheltered flat

2000s

Year	Name of victim(s)	Location body found	Notes
2000	Frank McPhie	Maryhill, Glasgow	McPhie, himself twice cleared of murder, was shot by a sniper in a block of flats opposite his own as he returned home.
2001	Unknown boy	River Thames	“Torso in the Thames” victim
2002	Julie Dorsett	Walthamstow	Dorsett, a 33-year-old prostitute, vanished in 2002 and her skull and upper body were discovered buried in an allotment in 2008. It is believed her remains were placed there shortly after she disappeared. In 2012 her former partner, Sinclair Lewis, was cleared of killing her and of burying her body.
13 March 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.
March 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. In June 2012 criminologist Professor David Wilson suggested that the kiler was serial killer Steve Wright, but police dismissed the theory.
30 May 2002	Rachel Wilson	Near Newham Hall Farm, Coulby Newham, Teesside	The human remains found on 27 June 2012 turned out to be those of Rachel Wilson, 19, of Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, who had been working as a prostitute. A 57-year-old man was arrested in 2003 in connection with Ms Wilson's disappearance, but was released without charge.
25 June 2002	Alex Blue	Dowanhill, Glasgow	Alex Blue, a businessman from the city's west end, was found outside his home with head injuries. He died two days later. Blue ran a taxi business with an annual turnover of £7million. One theory is that he was the victim of a house buying scam. He told friends he was in the process of buying a new house and planned to view it the day after he was attacked. It was later discovered the home had never been on the market. The murder remains a mystery to police, however Alex's mother and brother are convinced they know who murdered Alex. His brother said: "I know who was behind this but they got someone else to carry out their dirty work for them."
July 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.
8 October 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	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.
2003	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.
November 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. Detectives remain puzzled as to some of the peculiarities of the crime. The killer had asked for Wilson by name at the door. The killer then handed an envelope to Wilson, who took it back inside briefly before returning to the door where he was gunned down; but to this day no one knows what was inside as the killer took it with him when he fled. More strikingly was the type of weapon used to kill him. Police revealed that the gun that killed Wilson was a rare 1920s pistol; often referred to as a "ladies" gun, which was manufactured in Suhl, East Germany.
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.
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.
2009	Paula Hounslea	Fazakerley, Liverpool	Paula Hounslea was a British victim of an unsolved murder. She had been missing since August 22, 2009 and her body was later found in a fire pit on the loop line cycle path in Fazakerley Liverpool on May 5 by a dog walker, the body was identified using Hounslea’s medical and dental records.
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 suspected 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.
2010	Daniel Smith	Harrow Road, London	Smith, 22, was shot dead as he left a London takeaway. It is thought to be a case of mistaken identity. Two years later a jury cleared Kervin Kavuala, Shane Lewis, and Zeleke Forde of murder. Jonathan Yeboah was cleared of related gun crimes.
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.
18 October 2010	Edith Stuart	Cleveleys, 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.
January 19, 2011	Joseph Cummins	Liverpool	Cummins was shot in the back in the street by an unidentified assailant. Dubbed "murder in the mist" by police because of foggy conditions, a £20,000 reward is available.
8 August 2011	Trevor Ellis	Croydon, London	During riots in London, Ellis and friends were caught up in a car chase with a group of looters. He was shot in the head shortly after.
January 13, 2013	Una Crown	Magazine Lane, Wisbech	Una Crown, 86 and a widow, was found dead in her bungalow on this date. She had been stabbed and set on fire, and had been robbed of her wedding ring and front door key. At least one suspect was arrested but nobody was ever charged.
May 18, 2013	Xhem Kransniqi	Church Road, Hove	Kransniqi, 31, was walking with his brother and nephew when the trio were shot at. Kransniqi died and the other two narrowly avoided injury. Edmond Nela, 32, was cleared of murder, two attempted murders, and possessing a gun illegally at a February 2014 trial.

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