Amateur sleuths close to solving gruesome murder
TWO amateur sleuths believe they may be close to solving the gruesome murder of Veronica Anderson from Widnes, whose body was found on Tannery Lane in Penketh 30 years ago this month with her throat slashed and whose killer has eluded investigators since that shocking find.
“Vera” Anderson, 42, left her home on Hadfield Close in Widnes at 10.10pm on Saturday, August 24, 1991, after receiving a phone call, and was found dead shortly after 3am that night, slumped across the steering wheel of her blue X-reg Ford Cortina.
Police found a “Minette” glove stained with Vera’s blood in the area, and a length of cord that they identified as having probably belonged to the killer.
During a press conference at the time, Vera’s tearful daughter appealed for information over her “fun-loving” mother’s brutal murder, as she remembered Vera, who ran a business making and selling sandwiches, as a “good mum”.
Decades passed, the case remained unsolved and any chance of closure for her heartbroken family has remained elusive, but that could be about to change.
Ian Rigby, a 40-year-old construction project manager, was introduced to the baffling cold case via The True Crime Page Podcast, written and hosted by 43-year-old podcaster Scott Williams-Collier, and which broadcast an episode on the tragic killing of “Vera” in June 2020 following a blog post two months earlier.
Both Ian and Scott remembered the case from when it happened.
Keen to do something about the Widnes mum’s unsolved killing, Ian sounded out Scott about setting up a Facebook page dedicated to keeping the case in the public eye and to gather tips and potential new leads that might finally crack the case and together they now run the Justice for Vera Anderson group.
Launched on June 28, the page has already more than 400 members and has prompted a flurry of information they said amounts to promising circumstantial evidence.
Two critical pieces of information are two separate women who have made contact, providing the same name of someone who matched a police efit of a man issued by police and who may have been linked to the killing.
Ian said: “I’ve been contacted by two independent people who don’t know each other.
“The first one – they both mention the same suspect if you like. Like I said they’re independent of each other – I won’t give out names and respect their privacy.
“The first person contacted me and gave some information – the suspect had links to the Crown and Cushion pub (as a possible customer).
“The witness who contacted me stated she was in an on-and-off relationship with the suspect.
“It was his idea to meet at the Crown and Cushion pub but she felt it was too close to where she lived so she mentioned another pub the Cuerdley Cross pub, which is a minute’s drive from where Veronica Anderson was found.
“There was some information that came into the police, someone had seen a person in a silver saloon car at 9pm make a phone call in the public phone box, maybe an hour before Vera went out.
“The second bit of information is he fitted an efit to a T.”
Ian said the man named by the witness lived in the area and the witness was “gobsmacked” when police interviewed as part of the investigation, along with other ex-girlfriends.
A second woman who came forward shared a chilling revelation with Ian, which put the same man back in contention as a potentially key suspect.
Ian said: “If you remember, the second person who’s contacted me about the same person – like I said they’re completely independent of each other, they don’t know each other from Adam – she goes on to tell me, after the murder of Vera Anderson, she received a death threat on her life.
“The Widnes Weekly (News) office had received an A4 picture of this girl and on the picture it said ‘she’s next’.
“The Widnes Weekly News didn’t publish the picture and they contacted Cheshire police immediately.
“This girl lived next door but one to the suspect.”
Ian said the man named also matched the efit.
Ian and Scott said the Minette glove was also a potentially vital clue and fitted the suspect’s job description.
They said the glove was 100% cotton and used in technical or scientific roles, which again they said could have fit the job held by their prime suspect who worked less than a half hour’s drive from Penketh.
Ian said archive images show images of people working at the relevant location wearing white gloves, and that he hopes to have established whether the glove was used at the “suspect’s” workplace soon.
The flow of information didn’t stop there, with another lady who said she knew Vera and who made contact to highlight another incident that might again circumstantially link to their main “suspect”.
Ian said: “On July 5, 1991, Vera’s car was stolen from outside her home.
“Vera didn’t report it to the police when on July 9, she found the car parked up at an old market in Widnes in the car park.
“The doors were fully locked and the car hadn’t been hotwired.
“When I asked this woman who knew Vera very well, where it was found, I found out where he lived – it’s a stone’s throw from where the car was found.
“To me that’s another link.”
Scott said, however, they now believe the suspect’s dead. He said: “It seems he’s passed away.”
For more information visit the Justice for Veronica Anderson page on Facebook or the True Crime Page Podcast.
Anyone with information about the murder should call Cheshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 0709373610.
Alternatively, information can be passed on anonymously, via Crimestoppers, on 0800 555 111.