£50k reward to catch lisa’s killer
A £50,000 reward is today offered for the first time to catch a killer who struck 33 years ago.
Lisa Hession, 14, was strangled in an alleyway just 100 yards from her home in Leigh.
She was found by a man and his son walking their dog just before midnight on December 8, 1984. She was walking home from a friend’s party to the house she shared with her mother and grandma, in Bonnywell Road, when she was snatched and taken into an ginnel behind Rugby Road.
In a sexually-motivated assault, the killer placed a hand over Lisa’s mouth and pulled her T-shirt around her neck. She fought for her life, suffering a black eye in the struggle.
For more than three decades her mother, Christine, campaigned for breakthrough information to help police identify the killer, but she died last year without seeing justice for her only child. Now a reward has been offered in a bid to flush out the intelligence cold case officers need.
Martin Bottomley, head of GMP’s Cold Case Unit, said: “Although it is 33 years since Lisa was murdered, Greater Manchester Police will not give up on this investigation.
“Someone out there knows who murdered Lisa, I am convinced of that.
“Forensic techniques are improving all the time and we need that someone to give us a name, which can eliminate suspicions or lead us to the killer. He may be getting on in years, but he will still be a dangerous individual.
“We owe it to Lisa’s memory and her late mum, to ensure justice is done and no one else comes to harm.
“Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or our office on 0161 856 5961.”
One man was arrested on suspicion of Lisa’s murder soon after she was killed. He was bailed, and no action was taken against him. He died in 2005 but ‘remains of interest’ to officers holding Lisa’s murder file.
Partial DNA was recovered from the scene and in 2011, after forensic techniques had improved, hundreds of men from Wigan and Leigh were swabbed but no match was found.
In the three months before the murder three young women were attacked in the same area of Leigh by a sex pest – one the night before Lisa died. Detectives believe the attacks could have been committed by the killer.
As revealed in the M.E.N., a fourth woman was attacked in May 1985 – five months after the killing. That victim was older than the previous three, but her petite build may have given the impression she was much younger.
The killing shocked a close-knit community and many believe the killer was local. Lisa was a popular pupil at Bedford High School and a tree was planted in her memory in its grounds.
Descriptions given to police by the three victims of the previous attacks were consistent.
The man had a local accent, he was aged 18 to 20, and each time threatened to kill his victims. He pounced in Rugby Road, Central Avenue, and land off Mather Lane – all close to where Lisa was murdered. Police issued an old-style photo-fit of a ‘baby-faced’ man suspected of the attacks and wanted for Lisa’s murder.