Moors Murders mystery after family denies necklace belonged to victim
THE Moors Murderers may have killed more people, it was suggested yesterday, after the family of their first victim said the necklace returned to them 55 years later did not belong to their daughter.
Pauline Read was 16 when she was murdered by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in 1963, but her body was only found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor in 1987.
Brady and Hindley went on to kill another four children, aged 10 to 17.
But it is now alleged there may have been more victims after her family received items she was said to have been wearing when she died, including jewellery and white stilettos. Pauline’s niece, Jackie Reade, said: “It was very emotional seeing Pauline’s shoes and clothing, I was crying. But I was told by my nana [Pauline’s mother] that the necklace she was wearing was fine gold with a St Christopher on it.
“The chain and pendant the police have returned to us is not gold. I don’t think it is hers.” Ms Reade, 44, from Wythenshawe, also doubts whether two other returned chains belonged to Pauline. “I am grateful for the shoes, and other items of clothing but we have an issue with the jewellery. And if they aren’t Pauline’s, who do they belong to?” she said.
Peter Hall, head of civil litigation for Tranters Solicitors of Stockport, who is representing Ms Reade, said: “The likelihood is that these items relate to other murder victims.”
It was revealed last November, six months after Brady’s death, that body parts of Pauline had been secretly kept by police for three decades.