Help find killer of my mum Veronica
ADAUGHTER whose mum was found murdered in her Ford Cortina 25 years ago is urging anyone with details to break the wall of silence that has denied her family justice.
Veronica Anderson was found slumped in her car in the early hours of August 25, 1991, sparking a murder probe that shocked her hometown and led to detectives travelling overseas to search for answers.
New technology and changing loyalties could help solve the deadly riddle and Lorraine Rigby today pleaded for anyone with information about her mum’s death to come forward.
Lorraine vividly remembers the shock of learning her mum had been found with her throat slit at an old tannery site near Warrington.
Pregnant and just 19, she was the one who had to identify Veronica - a memory that gave her nightmares for years.
A quarter of a century later the Widnes mum and her family remain in the dark about what happened to Veronica, known to friends as Vera, that night.
The 44-year-old said: “The murderers are still out there, that’s the problem, that’s what is really frustrating her grandkids and me. They are still out there walking around.
“They could be on the same street, in the same town, it just makes you angry and frustrated.
“It’s hard because I’ve got young kids now, I’ve got a three and a six-year-old, and even they ask about my mum.
“Obviously we have got pictures and they ask things about nana Vera. We say she’s up in the sky and they ask if they can go to see her. They don’t really understand but it’s nice that they ask about her.
“I’m still angry about it, I used to have nightmares because I had to identify her. I was 19 and pregnant.
“That was quite horrifying because my mum wasn’t married so there was no-one else to do it. My brother was only seven.
“It was hard sitting a sevenyear-old down and telling him his mum isn’t coming back. That was the hardest thing of all. “It affected the whole family.” Lorraine believes her mum’s murder was pre-planned and carried out by someone she knew.
The early investigation focused on a phone call Veronica took on the night of her death.
A short time after that call, at around 10.10pm, she left her son with a neighbour and drove away from her home on Hadfield Close in Widnes.
She was found dead in her car on Tannery Lane, near Penketh, just over five hours later.
Police have never identified the mystery caller.
Detectives have also been unable to connect anyone with a bloodstained glove found at the murder scene, together with a length of cord similar to a window sash cord.
Key lines of inquiry have also included a witness reporting a couple in the Crown and Cushion pub on Warrington Road, Penketh, at around 10.30pm on the night of the murder. The woman’s description strongly matched that of Veronica.
In the years after the murder officers travelled to Europe as part of the investigation but were unable to crack the case, even with a £30,000 reward for information funded by Crimestoppers.
Despite the passing of 25 years Lorraine remains hopeful - particularly that new technology could help develop even the smallest shred of new information.
She said: “I would like for them (the murderers) to come forward. It would be good if they did.
“As time goes on I think there’s more than one person that knows about it.
“Just through the injuries my mum had, it’s hard to imagine it was just one person.
“If there was more than one person it would be hard to keep quiet – somebody obviously knows something.
“I can’t really understand how it happened to a woman with a seven-year-old child on her own.
“She was a caring person and it’s frustrating to think someone has done that to her. She was a loving person who wasn’t into drugs and had no money. I don’t know how to explain the murder really, it’s strange, it’s a hard question to answer.”
A spokeswoman for Cheshire police urged anyone with details to come contact the force and said: “Despite extensive and exhaustive enquiries over the years, no-one has ever been convicted in connection with her death.
“Vera’s family were left heartbroken over her death and have had to live with what happened over the past 25 years.
“Someone out there must know something about what happened that day. Anyone with any information is urged to come forward – even the smallest amount of information can be crucial.”
Anyone with any information can contact Cheshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.