POLICE TO VISIT JAILED KILLER
SCOTT PRITCHARD MURDER: SEARCH FOR MYSTERY MAN ‘STE’ GOES ON
Detectives are to visit killer Karen Tunmore behind bars in a bid to unlock the identity of the mystery man who was with her when she murdered Scott Pritchard, the Sunderland teenager’s family have told the Echo.
Tunmore, 36, was jailed for life earlier this month after finally confessing to beating Scott, 19, to death outside his Hendon home in January 2004 – ending a 14-year nightmare for his loved ones.
At the time of the murder, Tunmore had been accompanied by a man, identified only as “Ste” or “Steve” – but he has never been traced.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Steve, or Ste, had planned to buy Tunmore’s Nissan Sunny and the pair had travelled to Sunderland to seek out Scott to get hold of cash he was owed.
But what began as an effort to collect a debt turned to a bloody, battered assault and ended in Scott’s death.
A year after Scott’s killing, his father Robert Frederick Stacey – better known as Freddie – was charged with his murder and spent 16 weeks on remand before the caseagainsthimwasdropped.
But he never got over the anguish of being wrongly labelled his son’s murderer – and the abuse he was subjected to – and died earlier this month without knowing Tunmore had been put behind bars for a minimum of 17-and-a-half years.
In recent days, Detective Chief Inspector John Bent, of Northumbria Police, has been to visit Freddie’s heartbroken daughters – Charlie Hellens, 30, Aimee Stacey, 34, and Kimberley Pratt, 37 – who said the top cop had told them their father should never have been charged over the murder.
Charlie said: “Chief Insp Bent told us officers were going to see Tunmore in prison in the next two weeks to try to get some answers out of her.
“He said he didn’t hold out much hope. I would like to think, if there was such a man, someone would know who he was and we could get some closure.
“Otherwise it still isn’t over. We will always be wondering who is this man and he also knew all that time who killed my dad and kept it a secret and is still doing so.”
“Ste” was known to Tunmore through the modified car scene.
His links to that community could still be key in finding him, and it was said he had connections to the notorious crime gang the Hendon Mad Dogs.
At the time of the attack he was in his late 20s, described as having dark brown hair, brushed forward, and having a scar on the left hand side of his face.
“Someone would know and we could get some closure” CHARLIE HELLENS