Police begin review of unsolved murder
CRIME: Investigators have begun a new review into the unsolved murder of a missing woman whose mummified body was found in Leeds 28 years ago.
West Yorkshire Police yesterday confirmed detectives are pursuing a number of potential lines of inquiry into the killing of 18-year-old Donna Healey.
INVESTIGATORS HAVE begun a new review into the unsolved murder of a missing woman whose mummified body was found in Leeds 28 years ago.
West Yorkshire Police yesterday confirmed detectives are pursuing a number of potential lines of inquiry into the killing of 18-year-old Donna Healey.
Her body was found dumped at the edge of the overgrown grounds of a nursing home in Allerton Park, Chapel Allerton, on January 15, 1991 – three years after she was last seen alive.
Detective Superintendent Jim Griffiths, of the force’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said: “This is a tragic case and one for which a cause of death remains unknown. We owe it to Donna to find out what happened to her.”
The case is not the only one being actively pursued by the team, which made an arrest in a second investigation earlier this month.
It was revealed yesterday that a 37-year-old woman was questioned by detectives on January 4 on suspicion of murdering Rebecca Hall, a 19-year-old mother whose body was found in a Bradford alleyway in 2001.
Police said the suspect had been released under investigation and “active” inquiries were being progressed.
Det Supt Griffiths said the force’s Investigation Review Team was also looking at the unsolved murders of three victims from the 1990s – Yvonne Fitt, Deborah Wood and Lindsay Rimer.
As the new reviews were confirmed, a retired police intelligence officer and author said he believed they should be looking at the killer of Leeds schoolgirl Leanne Tiernan.
John Taylor grabbed the 16-year-old from a woodland path in Bramley in November 2000, sexually assaulted her and then killed her.
He is believed to have stored her body in a freezer at his Bramley home for nine months, before it was found buried in a shallow grave in Lindley Woods, near Otley, in August 2001.
Mr Clark thinks Taylor could also be responsible for the murders of Donna, Yvonne and Deborah as well as Ann Ballantyne, a 20-year-old found dumped in an Edinburgh canal in 1987.
“Taylor, at the time, wasn’t known,” he told The Yorkshire Post. “He was under the radar until Leanne’s case.”
The body of 33-year-old Yvonne Fitt was found in a shallow grave in 1992, just 100 yards away from the place where Leanne Tiernan would later be buried.
Investigators have previously said that they believe the bodies of both Donna Healey and Deborah Wood were kept in storage of some kind before being dumped.
Mr Clark says the fact all three women’s bodies were found in Taylor’s “stomping ground” seems too great a coincidence.
He added: “It’s like Peter Sutcliffe – there wasn’t anybody else going round bashing people over the head with hammers.”
The 73-year-old thinks police in Scotland should also be reviewing Ann’s case given that her body was also stored for weeks elsewhere before being dumped and Taylor is known to have travelled regularly to Glasgow.
He said: “The route Taylor would have taken to get to Glasgow would have taken him within a few hundred yards of Ann’s home at the time.”
Det Supt Griffiths said: “This review is in its infancy and is looking at a number of potential lines of enquiry.” He would not be drawn on suspects, but said he believed the answer lies locally.
This is a tragic case. We owe it to Donna to find out what happened to her. Detective Superintendent Jim Griffiths, of West Yorkshire Police