Persons Unknown
Persons Unknown
East Lancashire Murders (Unsolved Murders)
The last official sighting of 26 year old Maria Christina Requena was on New Year’s Day 1991. A week later her dismembered body was found at a beauty spot 24 km away. The location was only a couple of km away from where the mutilated body of 31 year old Linda Donaldson had been found in October 1988. Both women were sex workers and worked opposite ends of the East Lancs road that connects the cities of Manchester and Liverpool in the north west of England. The murders of Veronica Anderson in August 1991 and Julie Finley in 1994 have also been linked to a series of murders some journalists and cold case experts have apportioned to a killer referred to as the East Lancs Ripper.
Sources: For a full list of sources please see the Facebook page
Mirrorwww.mirror.co.ukThe brutal murders of the 'East Lancs Ripper' which were never solved
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mirror-northern-ireland/20220902/282089165592269
http://nyenquirer.uk/christopher-halliwell-the-secret-murders-2/
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/mum-sex-worker-who-chopped-10618183
http://www.unsolved-murders.co.uk/murder-content.php?key=1157&termRef=Veronica%20Anderson
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East Lancashire Murders
In the late 1980s, Maria Requena moved from London to Manchester for a fresh start. She went to live in a property in Upper Brook Street, just south of the city centre. After two years of living in the north west Maria was struggling. The 26 year old mother of one was trapped in a crippling cycle of drug addiction and poverty. By the end of 1990, she had a £100 a day drug habit, funded largely through sex work. Maria, who also went by the first name of Christina, had a regular patch where she worked along Canal Street and Minshull Street. She worked long nights in the dark and rain, often not finishing until 5 or 6am. Maria had been in trouble with the police for soliciting for sex in London and she was well known to officers in Manchester for the same reason.Just a note I have pronounced Maria’s surname as (Rekenna) as that seems the most prevalent pronunciation. The surname can also be pronounced Rekeena. I’ve been unable to establish how Maria said her name.
At 10.15pm on New Years Day 1991 Maria was witnessed working on Minshull street. This is the last official sighting of Maria, although it is thought she was seen several times over the next few days. One possible sighting of Maria was in the early hours of Thursday January 3rd. She was believed to be sitting in a brown coloured Datsun or Cortina car at around 4.00am on Broadfield Road in Moss Side. The car was being driven by an elderly driver who witnesses described as West Indian. According to the report, the car contained a total of three women.
On the sixth of January two eleven year old boys were out fishing on Pennington Flash in Leigh. This is a 170 acre lake formed as the result of heavy mining. The lake is part of a nature reserve which incorporates the surrounding marshland and attracts visitors all year round. It lies 28 km east from Minshull street where Maria was seen on New Year's day.
As the boys stood on the bank chatting, waiting for the fish to bite, they noticed something large floating on the surface of the water. They investigated further and realised it was a large sheet of bed linen. It was a mattress cover and wrapped inside were several plastic bags, the contents of which turned their stomachs and left an indelible mark on their young minds. It was the dismembered body of a woman. The remains of Maria Christina Requena.
Maria’s death is one of up to four unsolved murders that some journalists and cold case experts believe are linked. These attacks could be the crimes of a killer referred to by the press as the East Lancashire Ripper.
Hi it’s John here, just a quick message to say thank you for listening over the last twelve months and for the encouraging reviews you have written. I really appreciate them. A special thank you to my wife Emma who is a fantastic proofreader and always reads over my scripts and listens to my final edit to make sure I’m making sense.
I know this can be a difficult time for some so I hope you all are able to find peace over the festive season.
merry Christmas and a happy new year
Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda
A friend of Maria, who was the last person to see her alive on New Year's Day, was able to confirm the identification. Police said that 26 year old Maria had been strangled and that the body had not been in the water for longer than twenty four hours.
When she was last seen she had been wearing a dark blue or black ¾ length anorak with a drawstring hem, a mini skirt and a floral patterned beige and pink round neck pullover. Maria was found naked and her clothes have never been recovered. Her body had been dismembered with power tools or a chainsaw. The body parts had been placed inside five plastic bags, with one bag containing just the head. The mattress cover that the bags were placed inside was found to have a numbered laundry mark printed on it, which measured just over 1 cm and read 08230.
Extensive enquiries were carried out and dozens of local sex workers were spoken to. People who knew Maria were asked to come forward and police assured the public that all conversations would be treated with the utmost delicacy; confidentiality was assured. Sex workers who worked near the Manchester Chorleton Bus station over Christmas were specifically asked if they remembered seeing Maria in the area over the festive period.
Detective Superintendent John Smith who led the investigation told local sex workers to be wary and said the person responsible may strike again. As a result, some of the women did start taking extra precautions, such as taking down registration numbers of cars seen in the area. The women who worked in the area were deeply affected by what had happened to Maria and organised a collection to pay for her funeral expenses.
Several witnesses came forward to detail suspicious behaviour at the lake during the evening before Maria’s body was discovered. A couple said that at 7.40pm on the evening of Saturday 5th January they had been driving along Slag Lane, which runs close to Pennington Flash. The witnesses saw a white van reversing into the car park. The van had two men in the front cab and the driver of the vehicle was wearing a peaked cap.
At around the same time three other people saw a van reversing twice into the car park to avoid passing traffic. The witnesses were on their way to Slag Lane top to dispose of some rubbish. When they arrived at the tip they saw the van drive off at speed away from the lake without its headlights on.
The police asked the van driver to come forward, saying that the van may not have been involved and could have been attempting to dispose of rubbish illegally or perhaps even a couple looking for some alone time.
In another report, at midnight that night a couple in a car saw a Datsun Cherry car parked in the Pennington Flash car park. It struck them as odd because the car was stationary but had its headlights on.
Police began to look into Maria’s life in the weeks leading up to her murder. From their conversations they learnt that on Christmas Eve, just a week or so before she was last seen, Maria had confided in a friend that she was fed up with life in Manchester. Maria told the friend that she had plans to go and stay with a woman in Lees (which is in greater Manchester) or possibly Leeds. The friend did not catch clearly what Maria had said. Maria did not tell the friend the name of the woman she planned on staying with.
Whether Maria ever visited this woman is unclear but she was definitely in Manchester on Friday 28th December. She went to a local newsagents early in the morning after she had finished work to buy a bag of crisps. She also bought a kit kat, which she fed to the newsagent’s dog. These visits were a regular part of Maria’s routine, but she did not return to the newsagents after the 28th December.
Police did not know why Maria had been murdered but speculated it may have been the result of an argument with a client, or possibly a dispute with a drug dealer. In a cruel twist of fate Maria had featured in a documentary film not long before she was murdered, discussing the dangers of sex work. She talked to camera about the threats of rape and mugging while out on the streets. Maria even mentioned the risk of being murdered as a very real possibility doing the work she engaged in.
The extremely violent way Maria had been killed immediately sparked comparisons with another unsolved murder of a woman two years previously. Linda Suzanne Donaldson lived in Toxteth, Liverpool and was a sex worker. The 31 year old’s body was found behind a hedge in a farmer's field off Winnick Lane, Lowton, near Leigh, on October 18th 1988. She had been reported missing by her flatmate just hours previously. Linda had been stabbed multiple times and her body had been mutilated. When Maria Requnea’s body was found three years later and just 3.2 km away it appeared the cases could be connected.
Linda was well liked by her friends and other sex workers in the area. She was described by people who knew her on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in December 1988 as a caring person. Like Maria, Linda had spoken in front of cameras about the harsh realities of being a sex worker. In 1987 she appeared on an episode of the morning tv show, Kilroy, to share her experience of working on the streets. Linda used the name Tracey when she was at work.
Like Maria, Linda was a vulnerable person. Linda’s mother had been only fifteen when she gave birth to her. Her father was from another country and they had never met. Linda was brought up by her grandmother and only found out the identity of her mother much later in life. At the time of her death, Linda did not have any contact with her mother. Linda married young, at only 18 years old, but the relationship did not last and she soon found herself divorced. At 21 Linda moved to a flat in Waterloo with a boyfriend and the couple briefly moved to Holland and lived in a commune. Linda returned to Liverpool and fell into taking drugs. It wasn’t long before she became addicted to heroin. Sex work on the streets of Liverpool was the only option available to her to cover the cost of her escalating drug problem. In the months leading up to her murder Linda was said to be looking unwell, with a thin and sickly appearance.
At 7.00pm on the evening of Monday October 17th 1988, Linda was witnessed working in her usual spot on the corner of Canning and Catherine Street. She was wearing all black, as was her habit when working, and a pair of distinctive gold earrings which had two gold leaves on each one. She also wore a gold ring shaped like a snake. At 10.00pm Linda bought some food items from a local shop and then returned to her flat on Canning Street to feed her three cats and a dog. All the animals had been strays and Linda and her flatmate had rescued them from the streets. At 11.00pm two police officers who knew Linda saw her working on Canning Street.
At 11.30pm another sex worker standing on Canning Street refused a potential client because he made her feel uneasy. He carried a tool bag with him the clanging of the metal items in the bag unsettled her. The man was around 5ft 11 or 180cm and in his late 20s and wore a white polo neck jumper. An e-fit of this person was released by police.
A different sex worker reported another man who had twice approached Linda over the course of the evening. The second occasion was at around midnight. Linda was known to be careful when accepting clients. Both times the man approached Linda she did not go with him and nothing happened between them. This man looked between 42 and 45 years old. He was tall, at around 6 foot or 6 foot 2 or 183 -188cm. He had a thin build and wore square-framed, gold-rimmed glasses and a silver watch on his left wrist. The man had a long thin face and dimples when he smiled. His hair was mid brown and slightly greying. It was parted to the right and brushed back off his face. The witness thought it could have been a wig. His general presentation was untidy.
At around 1.30am this sex worker bumped into Linda. It had been a slow night for both of them. The friend decided to call it a night and hailed a taxi to take her home. As the woman got into the taxi she saw a dark coloured car pull into the back of Canning Street. Linda walked towards the car. This was the last time anyone saw Linda alive.
The next day an older couple from Wales were travelling to see relatives in the north of England when they pulled off the M6 motorway at junction 22. They stopped in a layby on Winwick Lane to have a break and stretch their legs. Winwick Lane connects the M6 with the A580 East Lancs road. In the field next to the layby the couple stumbled upon Linda’s body. It had not been buried but had been placed behind the hedge. No other attempt had been made to conceal it.
Linda was found naked. She was last seen wearing a black jacket with studded belt, black mini skirt and boots. As in Maria’s case these have never been found. Her earrings and ring were missing, as well as her handbag and a white address book which she carried everywhere. Police believed the address book was key and could well contain the name of the killer. Forensic investigators determined that Linda's body had been washed down before being placed in the field.
The extent of Linda’s injuries were revealed by police. Detective Superintendent Ken Clarke who led the investigation said Linda had been stabbed twice in the back. Eight additional knife wounds were found across the body, all of which were carried out after death. Her breasts were missing and an attempt had been made to decapitate her. The weapon used had been a heavy knife with a blade at least 20 cm long. Police were not sure where Linda had been murdered but said it had not been where she was found. Wherever it was, they said the killer must have had plenty of space and light. Police also added that more than one person may have been involved in the attack on Linda. It's not clear what made them think this.
A maroon coloured Ford Granada Mark 2 was seen in the same layby where the older couple had parked, at 5.45am on the day the body was found. Witnesses said the car was there for at least an hour. Police believed this was the killer's car and that the interior would have been heavily bloodstained.
It is often said that on the night Linda was killed a dramatisation about Jack the Ripper was broadcast on television and this may have inspired the killer. Researching this case I found that the program actually aired on the evening of October 18th 1988, the day Linda’s body was found. However it was a two part drama and the first part had aired the previous Tuesday. The miniseries starred Michael Caine and Jane Seymour and was made to coincide with the one hundred year anniversary of the infamous murders. Due to the manner of the wounds inflicted on Linda it does seem the timing could be more than a coincidence. At the time police speculated regarding whether the tv drama may have been a trigger for the murder.
The investigation was a joint operation between Liverpool and Greater Manchester police forces. 250 police staff were placed on the case. Altogether detectives spoke to 10,000 people and checked 6000 cars. 415 kerb crawlers known to frequent the Liverpool red light district were questioned, and over one hundred clients of Linda were identified. Police theorised that Linda may have been killed by one of her regular clients, so they attempted to check as many of these as possible. Not all of them were able to be traced. Unfortunately enquiries were hampered by the fact that many of the men came from outside Liverpool and the nature of their visits to the city made them reluctant to come forward.
Press reports detailed two regular clients in particular that police wanted to locate. Both were reported to be businessmen. One saw Linda every Tuesday and the other on Thursdays. One of them was said to drive a Jaguar XJS. Police said they believed they knew who these people were but wanted them to come forward of their own volition. It's not clear if they were ever found.
In the early days of the investigation the police appealed for two men who, according to the Liverpool Echo on October 24th 1988, were said to be of Chinese origin, to come forward. They were seen walking along Canning Street just before Linda was last seen. It was thought they may have seen something that could help. Unfortunately it doesn't look like these men were ever traced.
In the first couple of months, two local individuals were arrested and questioned. A teenager was arrested in Liverpool magistrates court at the beginning of November 1988. He had been charged for another offence shortly beforehand and then released on bail. A woman who was with him was said to have fainted when the police placed him in handcuffs. He was released without charge. A 54 year old man was arrested on November 30th 1988 but likewise was soon released without charge.
A man was interviewed about Linda’s murder after he was suspected of killing 42 year old Sheila Ingham. She was strangled and found in her car on the 26th January 1989. Nothing came of this regarding Linda’s case and Sheila Ingham’s murder also remains unsolved. I could find very little information about this murder.
Much of the press and tv coverage of Linda's murder focused on her being a sex worker. I found a letter that the Transport and General Workers Union delegates to the Liverpool district Labour party wrote to the Liverpool Echo. They said that they had been appalled by the callous and offensive way that the emphasis had been on what she did to make money rather than the fact that a young woman had been murdered. This attitude is still prevalent in the modern reporting of similar cases.
At the time, and since, police have said that there is no forensic evidence linking the murders of Linda Donaldson and Maria Requena. There are, however, obvious similarities. Linda and Maria were both sex workers, on the streets of Liverpool and Manchester respectively. The locations are separated by just 50km and are linked by the A580 or East Lancashire road. The women worked opposite ends of that road but were dumped halfway in between both cities. Both bodies were found in Leigh, and both locations are accessible from the A580. 22.51 Another link is that the bodies of Linda and Maria had both been mutilated.
In episode 39 of Persons Unknown on Julie Pacey I mentioned Operation Enigma. In 1996 Operation Enigma was established by the Crime Committee of the Association of chief police officers and coordinated by the National Crime Facility at Bramshill, a police training college in Hampshire. The task of Operation Enigma was to examine 200 unsolved murders of women over the previous decad, and to look for possible connections between them. Operation Engima looked into the cases of Maria Requena and Linda Donaldson to ascertain if the murders had been committed by the same person. Techniques developed by the FBI were employed, including geographical and psychological profiling.
A third murder in the proximity was also compared with the other two cases. It occurred just a little over half a year after Maria was killed and bore similarities in the ferocity of the attack.
42 year old Veronica Anderson lived in Hadfield Close, Widnes with her 7 year old son. Widnes is a 40 minute drive south-east from the centre of Manchester. Her grown up daughter, who she was very close to, lived nearby. Veronica, who often went by the shortened version Vera, was described as a generous, social person who had lots of friends and no enemies. Veronica was not a sex worker. She ran a small business with her adult daughter supplying sandwiches to local shops and factories. Her social life centred around the Roll-in motel which was a truck stop for commercial vehicle drivers who crossed back and forth the country in droves. Veronica was a regular at the bar at the motel and would visit two or three times a week, sometimes with her adult daughter. She would occasionally do washing for the drivers and would often sell little hand-knitted rabbits that she had made to customers in the bar. The drivers would buy them for their lorry cabs or for their children back home. Veronica was divorced and In the past she’d had a few long-term relationships with truckers she met at the Roll-in motel. According to unsolvedmurders.co.uk, at the time of her death Veronica had a casual boyfriend who would stay with her on Fridays nights. The rest of the week he lived away with his wife and family.
On the evening of August 24 1991 on bank holiday weekend, Veronica was at home when she received a phone call from someone. Police do not know who made this call or what they said but they believe it to be highly significant. Later that evening Veronica made plans to go out. She dropped her son at a neighbour’s, asking if she could look after him for ten minutes. She told the neighbour that she needed to go and pick up her brother. This wasn't true and the neighbour suspected it wasn't, as Veronica would always refer to her brothers by name. She left in her Ford Cortina, but before she did she unloaded the boot of the car.
At 10.30pm a witness saw a woman matching Veronica’s description was seen in the Crown and Cushion pub on Warrington Road, Penketh. This venue was just five minutes away from Veronica's house, but despite the proximity Veronica was not a regular there. The witness saw the woman come into the pub and look around for someone. The next time she looked, Veronica had her back to her and was talking to someone, but the witness couldn’t see who it was. The person she was talking to must have been expecting her as Veronica had a drink and she hadn't been to the bar herself to purchase one. Another witness in the pub who was a regular noticed Veronica enter the pub and said she seemed to be looking at the people at the bar. The next time he noticed the woman she was engaged in conversation with a man. The witness said it looked as though they knew each other, but not like they were a couple.
The man was described as being 5ft 8 or 172cm, with mousy/ginger hair and a moustache. He looked in his 30’s or possibly 40’s. No one saw the pair leave the pub but they had gone by closing time. At 11.00pm a man who lived behind the old tannery works on Tannery Lane just a couple of minutes drive from the pub looked out his window. This was something he did every night as he kept racing pigeons and was keeping an eye out for cats. The man noticed a car parked in the old Tannery works with its headlights on. The area was associated with drug use.
Two and a half hours later a couple walking home from a night out noticed a car in the same spot. At 3.15am a group of neighbours out chasing a gang of thieves who had been attempting a break-in came upon the car. At the same time a police officer who had been dispatched due to the reports of thieves in the area saw the car and investigated. Inside he found the body of Veronica Anderson. Veronica’s neck had been cut.
There was no evidence of sexual assault or robbery, and police could not work out a motive for Veronica’s murder. It was speculated that the motive may have been jealousy because she had spurned the advances of whoever she had met that night. On the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in November 1991 it was said Veronica's decision to go out so late and leave her son with a neighbour was uncharacteristic and it was believed Veronica knew her killer and had met the person before.
Several clues were left at the scene, including a piece of white cord, believed to have been made in Italy and a white minette glove. This type of glove is made from cotton and is used by people with dermatitis or for handling sensitive items. There was a blood stain on the glove and it was believed to have been in contact with Veronica. Police said the cord and gloves may well be used by Veronica's killer in the course of their job.
A taxi driver contacted police to say that he had picked up a man in Warrington Road, Penketh just a 1 km or so from the murder scene and the Crown and Cushion pub.The man asked to be taken to the Halton View area, only 100m from where Veronica lived. The man, who was said to be in his 30s, wore a raincoat and had an injured right hand. A handkerchief had been wrapped around it as a bandage and his knuckle was clearly grazed. Police urged this man to come forward.
Strangely a shopkeeper gave information that a man and small child had bought some wool that they said was for Veronica Anderson. This event occurred during the day of August 24th 1991. Veronica was found in the early hours of August 25th.The man was described as being 45 and 6 foot or 183cm tall. He had short brown hair and a thick moustache and spoke with a local accent. He wore a shirt, tie and jacket. The child was a girl aged around 8 with shoulder length hair.
All these clues did not lead to the case being solved and there continued to be a lot of speculation in the press about whether Veronica Anderson, Linda Donaldson and Maria Requnea were the victims of a serial killer they dubbed the “East Lancs Ripper.
In the late 1990’s, when Operation Enigma released its findings, the links between Maria Requena and Linda Donaldson’s cases were deemed to be sufficiently strong to suggest they could have been killed by the same person. The connections with Veronica’s murder were said to be much weaker.
On the 23rd March 2022, two people were arrested on suspicion of the murder of Veronica Anderson. A 70 year old man from Widnes and a 61 year old woman from Warrington were taken into custody by Cheshire police and questioned by detectives. Two days later both were released under investigation with enquiries said to be ongoing. Since then there has been no update by police on this matter.
Over the years two suspects have been named in connection with Linda Donaldson’s case and one of those has also been questioned about the murder of Maria Requena. Former soldier Duncun Munro McLuckie was jailed for life in 1989 for the brutal murder of 42 year old Sylvia Harding. Sylvia was a sex worker in Manchester. McLuckie attacked Sylvia while they were parked in his car in an alleyway close to Manchester city centre. He stabbed her through the heart seven times with a meat skewer.
When police caught up with McLuckie they found a killing kit in the boot of his red Saab. It included skewers, a claw hammer, a black hood, gloves, plastic bin bags and a wooden spindle believed to be used to tighten a garrote. A briefcase was also found, containing two ace of spade cards. Police speculated that McLuckie may have planned on using these as his calling card.
There is very little information about McLuckie. He is not a suspect in Maria Requena’s murder or that of Veronica Anderson, as by that time he was already behind bars. While on paper McLuckie looks a good suspect no evidence has been produced that he did kill Linda. Whether he had killed other people before Sylvia Harding is not known. One incident from when McLuckie was a younger man was investigated. During his time in the army he was involved in the shooting of a fellow soldier. Ulster Defence Regiment Warrant Officer Bernard Adamson was shot by McCluckie in a shooting range incident in County Fermanagh in 1972. At the time an open verdict was pronounced but the matter was looked into again after McCluckie was convicted for Sarah Harding’s murder. In 2011, after a lengthy inquiry, Bernard Adamson’s death was ruled an accident.
Another convicted killer has been looked into and questioned about the murders of both Linda Donaldson and Maria Requena. Lorry driver David Smith is currently serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Amanda Walker. The 21 year old was found buried in a shallow grave in the Royal Horticultural society gardens in Wisley, Surrey.
Amanda was found six weeks after going missing. Smith was known to hang out at the beauty spot, popular with lovers, to surreptitiously watch others have sex. Amanda was a sex worker, and was killed and mutilated by Smith to satiate his sexual perversion. Amanda who was from Swarcliffe in Leeds and had been desperately trying to leave sex work.
Smith had been cleared at the Old Bailey of a similar murder of 33 year old Sarah Crump in 1993. Smith admitted to paying Sarah for sex on the night she died but denied murder. On that occasion Smith’s legal team argued that the police had led an incompetent investigation and even accused them of suppressing evidence. There was enough doubt to force an acquittal. After Smith walked free, police closed the case, saying they were not looking for anyone else in connection with Sarah’s murder.
Smith, who was an imposing figure at 6 ft 3 and 114 kg, was known as “Lurch” and the “Honey Monster” by work colleagues due to his size and quiet speech. Most people who came across David Smith thought of him as a quiet, well-spoken, hard-working man. Underneath that facade lay a sadistic sexual predator.
At the age of twenty he was convicted and spent four years in prison for the rape of a young mother. He attacked her in front of her two small children. After leaving prison he worked as a minicab driver and attacked a female passenger. He was charged with unlawful imprisonment but - I'm not sure how - was given only a suspended sentence. Smith was also once arrested and charged with attempting to stab and rape a woman but he was never convicted, as the survivor did not turn up at the trial to give evidence.
At the time he murdered Amanda Walker, 43 year old Smith ran his own escort agency. He hired out women for sex at £250 a time, keeping a large cut for himself.
Smith picked up Amanda Walker in the Paddington area of London after attending what the prosecutor at Smith’s 1999 trial called “a party for broad minded adults”, held in Ilford, Essex. After having sex with Amanda he killed her and buried her body in a location he knew well. He dumped her blood-stained clothes close to where he lived.
Police arrested Smith before Amanda's body was found. His name was on the list of sex offenders living in the area where her clothes were found. He was also identified by a witness as the man who picked Amanda up in Paddington. DNA evidence sealed the conviction as his blood was found on Amanda's clothing. Despite denying having anything to do with the murder he boasted to his cellmate about the crime. The cellmate, who was a convicted sex offender himself, was horrified at the details of the crime.
Just to warn you, this detail is particularly disturbing. Smith told his cellmate that he had cut Amanda's private parts both before and after having sex with her. Smith was a highly accomplished martial artist and understood how to inflict pain and kill someone. He used his hand to close Amanda's nose and mouth. It was a terrifying and brutal death. It transpired that he had wrapped Amanda in clingfilm before instigating the sexual assault and had also put leaves into her mouth to prevent her from screaming.
Sarah Crump, who Smith was acquitted of killing in 1993, was a psychiatric nurse from Lincoln. She also worked at night for an escort agency. Sarah was stabbed and disembowelled in her own home in Southall, London in August 1991. What is most disturbing is that Sarah was found with mutilations that matched the scarring pattern left by an operation on a woman Smith had once been infatuated with. The woman, known only as Janet, had not reciprocated his interest.
After Smith’s conviction in 1999, police thought they may have caught a serial killer, similar to Peter Sutcliffe. There was a strong possibility that David Smith could be responsible for the deaths of other women over the previous decade or more. They were paticularly interested in looking at him in connection with the unsolved murders of sex workers.
In 2008 a source told the Daily Mail that police were hoping to convict David Smith for the murders of Sarah Crump (who he was acquitted of killing in 1993), Linda Donaldson in 1988 and Maria Christina Requena in 1991.
Police took moulds of Smith’s extra large size14 feet to compare to shoe prints found at the murder scenes. Apparently when Smith was told about this he was extremely angry. Despite this promising lead, Smith has not been charged in connection with any of the aforementioned murders. Now aged 66, he remains in prison.
In 2018 the North Yorks Enquirer published a series of articles about convicted killer Christopher Halliwell by former Norfolk police intelligence officer and current true crime author, Chris Clark and freelance journalist Tim Hicks. Persons Unknown has come across the work of Chris Clark in previous episodes. He is a somewhat controversial character, who has put forward theories about numerous unsolved murders. He has written books on serial killers such as Angus Sinclair and Robert Black.
Christopher Halliwell is someone who has also been mentioned in more than one previous episode of Persons Unknown. Halliwell is behind bars for the 2003 murder of 20 year old Becky Godden Edwards and the 2011 murder of 22 year old Sian O’Callaghan. Both women were from Swindon, Wiltshire, in the West of England. Stephen Fulcher, who was the detective that arrested Halliwell, believes him to be a serial killer and says he pretty much admitted that during the conversations they had together. When first in custody Halliwell joked that if police knew the truth they would be investigating him for eight murders. Police found a dumpsite used by Halliwell which included sixty items of women's clothing, including some that belonged to his known victims: a boot belonging to Sian O’Callaghan and a cardigan worn by Becky Godden Edwards. The other items have not been identified.
In one of the North York Enquirer articles titled ‘Christopher Halliwell:The Secret Murders’, Clark and Hicks looked at other potential unsolved murders Halliwell may be responsible for. As part of their analysis they examined a total of seven murders in the north west of England they believed had the hallmarks of Halliwell’s involvement.
Four of the murders they looked at comprise what have become known as the East Lancs Ripper cases. These included the murders of Linda Donaldson. Maria Christina Requena, Veronica Anderson and a fourth, Julie Finley. I believe Julie Finley's case was looked into by Operation Enigma in connection with the other cases but I can find no sources that mention it when the findings of the operation were announced.
23 year old Julie Finley’s body was found at lunchtime on the 6th August 1994. It was discovered by a passing cyclist in a carrot field on the St Helens-bound side of the Rainford bypass (A570). It was a stone's throw from the Wheatsheaf pub. The cyclist was warming up for a time trial that was about to start and had gone into the field to relieve himself. The A570 carriageway dissects the East Lancs road at Windle. This is about a half an hour drive from Leigh where the bodies of Linda Donaldson and Maria Requena were found. Police did not believe Julie was killed at the spot her body was found.
Julie had been strangled and was found lying face downwards with her head hidden under some bushes. Like Maria Requena and Linda Donaldson she was naked and her clothes could not be found. A week later police received a call saying that a pile of clothes had been seen on the corner of Low Hill and Prescot Street. This is in the red light district of the town. Prescot is about 10 km south of where Julie’s body was found. When police went to the spot all they found was a bra they believe did belong to Julie. The rest of the clothes were gone. Police speculated that someone may have found the clothes and taken them as they were in a good condition. They have never been recovered.
Julie Finley was last seen at 11.05pm on August 5th 1993. She was in Pembroke Place near Liverpool Royal university teaching hospital. She was seen talking to a man in his 20’s or 30’s of average build and height by a set of railings. Another witness later saw Julie arguing with a man outside the Wheatsheaf pub in Penketh, which was only 50m from where her body was later found. The man was trying to convince Julie to get into a white transit van. A van matching this description was seen near the field where she was found.
Julie was not a sex worker, although she did have friends who did this type of work. Some reports say she was a drug user. A sex worker came forward to say on the night Julie was killed she had turned down a man looking for sex near where Julie was last seen. The woman did not like the look of this man. The police investigation concentrated on the red light district in Liverpool, in particular Canning Street and Catherine Street, which is where Linda Donaldson was last seen alive. Around the time of Julie’s murder four other violent but non-fatal attacks were reported by sex workers in the area.
In October 1994 a sex worker came to police to tell them about a client who picked her up in Toxteth, Liverpool, and drove her ten minutes down the road to Riverside Drive. The man grabbed her around the throat and threatened to kill her. He told her he had killed a sex worker two months ago. The woman immediately thought of Julie Finley. She was terrified but managed to escape. She described the man as around 30 years old, heavily built and around 95kg with a distinctive dagger and snake tattoo on his left forearm. The man spoke with a Liverpudlian accent and drove a Vauxhall Cavalier car with a registration beginning M83.
A month later in November 1994 a woman contacted the police after seeing a poster of Julie Finley in the Liverpool Echo. The woman said she was almost positive she had seen Julie on Friday August 5th running across Pembroke Place, opposite the dental hospital in Liverpool. The woman said she had been driving down the road and had almost hit the woman she believed was Julie with her car. Julie was running toward a man who was standing by some railings. A car possibly belonging to the man was parked nearby.
This man is described as 5ft10 to 6 ft tall,or 178 to 183 cm with dark hair and wearing dark clothing. The very specific age given for the man is 23.
Almost a year after the murder another lead was developed after an anonymous caller contacted police and described an unsettling account of picking up a hitchhiker from the St Helens area. St Helens is a fifteen minute drive from the centre of Liverpool. The hitchhiker said he was going to visit his grandfather in the Ainsdale area.
As they were driving past the location where Julie's body was found the hitchhiker became very distressed and agitated. He told the caller that near the time of the murder he had broken down on his motorbike and had pulled over into a layby near the field where Julie's body was found. A white van was also parked there and he could hear screams and bangs coming from inside the vehicle. He went over and opened the rear door to see a naked woman who repeatedly asked him to help her. A man then came over and told him the woman was his girlfriend and he should mind his own business. The man did so but had felt guilty ever since.
According to information given on BBCs crimewatch programme in November 1995 police believed this story rang true but noted that the hitchhiker himself had not contacted the police. The police suggested that some of the information he gave meant that he was either the last person to see Julie alive or he was in fact the killer.
The hitchhiker was described as 5ft 8 and clean cut with short blond hair in a crew cut.
In 2018 Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Colin Rennison told the North Yorks Enquirer that police were keen to speak to a woman who called them days after the murder. She called herself Tina and said she was a friend of Julie. On the night she died Julie had told her she was going to Prescot to meet a taxi driver. Prescot is just 10 km south of where Julie’s body was found.
Over the years there have been twenty arrests made in connection with Julie's murder but no one has ever been charged.
After studying all four murders, Chris Clark and Tim Hicks believe that Veronica Anderson’s murder can be dismissed as being linked to Christopher Halliwell. Veronica was killed in her car and police have always suspected that she knew her attacker. They believe it does not fit Halliwell’s MO. The cases of Linda Donaldson, Maria Requena and Julie Finley they believe are connected and are all the work of Christipher Halliwell. They put forward the following arguments to back up this assertion.
Regarding Linda Donaldson, Halilwell did live in the Liverpool area for a time. A witness spoken to by the Daily Mirror said Halliwell had lived in Aughton, Lancashire at the time Linda was killed.This is only a 25 minute drive from where Linda was last seen.
As I have mentioned before on Persons Unknown, Halliwell was a narrowboat or barge enthusiast and took holidays on the 200km Leeds and Liverpool canal. The canal was only 5 km from the site where Linda's body was found. Linda's body had been washed down and Halliwell had proven after the murder of Sian O’Callaghan that he was forensically aware. In that instance he burnt all his clothes and destroyed the seat covers from his car. Linda's abduction and murder also went across police regions which is similar to Halliwell’s known crimes. He knew this would cause disruption and possibly slow the investigation. Linda;s body was savagely mutilated with a large knife and it is known Halliwell trained as a butcher when he was a young man.
In the case of Maria Christina Requena, Halliwell was known to holiday on the Rochester canal. This waterway goes into Manchester city centre, very close to the location where Maria worked and was last seen. Her body was left in Pennington Flash which is only 0.5km from Pennington Marina on the Leeds Liverpool canal. There is a good chance that Halliwell was familiar with Pennington Flash, as he may have gone fishing there when he lived in Liverpool or visited it while his narrowboat was moored at nearby Pennington Marina. Halliwell had worked as a refuse collector and Maria’s body was found a couple of kilometres from a council tip and recycling centre. Maria’s body had been dismembered, likewise a previous victim of Halliwell, Becky Godden Edwards was also dismembered.
Finally moving on to Julie Finley's case. Julie was seen talking to an unidentified man by some railings, whose description approximately matched that of Halliwell. who was in his late 20’s at the time. As I have just mentioned, the police received a phone call from a woman called Tina who said Julie had been going to meet a taxi driver in Prescot. Halliwell worked as a taxi driver and Julie's body was found just 10km from Prescot. In total Halliwell has been proven to have owned in the region of 200 vehicles through his life, including a white transit van, like the one seen near where Julie went missing and near the field where her body was found.
Clark and Hicks seem to be under the assumption that Julie Finley was a sex worker. (This contradicts many other sources, which say that Julie was friends with women who were sex workers but was not one herself.) They suggest that Halliwell could have been a regular client. Haliwell was a regular client of Becki Godden Edwards, who he murdered in 2003. Julie’s body was within 20km of the Leeds and Liverpool canal. Like Maria and Linda, Julie's body was left in a rural location,something that Halliwell favoured in the crimes he is known to have committed.
Chris Clark and crime writer Bethan Trueman expanded on these theories in their 2021 book The New Millennium Serial Killer. In total they link Halliwell to 27 unsolved murders or missing persons cases, including the East Lancs ripper cases.
Of the four cases connected with the theory of the “East Lancs ripper”, Veronica’s is the one that seems to be the outlier and the prevailing thought is that it is not connected with the others.
Whether the murders of Linda Donaldson, Maria Requena and Julie Finley were at the hands of the same person is still open for debate. It's important to remember police have said there are no forensic links between them. Interestingly in a 2013 Manchester Evening news article, head of the cold case unit at Greater Manchester police Martin Bottomley,confirmed that forensic material did exist in the Maria Reqena and Linda Donaldson cases. The details of this have not been expanded on.
Regardless of whether they are connected, all four women deserve to have justice. The shaming and blaming of victims is evident in a lot of the reporting of these unsolved murders. Police in recent years have tried to distance themselves from this attitude and have been keen to reiterate that the cases are open and will remain so.
If you have any information about the unsolved murders of Linda Donaldson, Maria Reqena, Veronica Anderson or Julie Finley you can contact the Greater Manchester police cold case unit on 01618565961 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
