‘The story of Lynsey Quy’s murder is in town’s DNA’
ONE of the most horrific murders in Southport’s history is examined in greater depth than ever before in a new book by William Ruby.
A Murderer’s Game: The Death Of Lynsey Quy draws on material from those closest to the case, including the chief investigating officer and a film maker who made a documentary on the search for Lynsey.
Author William says that the high profile nature of the search, where her husband and murderer, Mitchell Quy, made high profile denials, makes the murder the biggest case ever to take place in the town.
He said: “There’s clearly a lot of local feeling about the case, it’s in the town’s DNA, while there’s been some sinister things happen in the town I think this stands out as a particularly unpleasant state of affairs.”
He added: “It was a huge event at the time, not least because of the national coverage received.
“Initially it was a typical case of domestic abuse over a period of time, a couple that got together and broke up on many occasions and Lynsey was being looked after by the women’s support organisation of the police.
“She invited her husband, Mitchell, back into her home in the autumn of 1998 and then disappeared.
“The police knew from the word go, given the history of the two together, that she was almost certainly dead and that Mitchell was likely to have killed her, as is often the case in these situations. “But there was no trace. “Because Lynsey’s family, the Wilsons, were a fractured family, there was very little contact between her and her siblings and her mother and father, so a long time elapsed before she was reported missing, and not by her own husband.”
Merseyside film maker Chris Malone was a central figure in the case, as he filmed Mitchell Quy in great depth while he feigned innocence and looked for the body of his wife.
William said: “What Chris Malone did wouldn’t be allowed now because of changes to the law, so it’s quite a unique document that I was able to use, as well as talking to Chris and getting background information and spending a lot of time with Geoff Sloan, the chief investigating officer of the case, who’s given me a lot of insight into the things that were never previously published.
He believed that the notoriety that Malone’s work and other TV appearances gave Quy led to his downfall.
He said: “When it became apparent that he was the prime suspect although no evidence could be found, Chris Malone turned up at Mitchell Quy’s door and said ‘I’m doing a documentary about Lynsey, you say you’re an innocent man, can I follow you round with a camera and make a documentary out of it for a length of time?’
“Mitchell, apart from this, was constantly on regional news saying he was an innocent man being persecuted by the police, he developed this kind of legendary status of someone who wouldn’t shy away or hide away, rather he would promote that he was an innocent man.
“After about six or seven months of Malone following Mitchell around, documenting his every move and every utterance, as well as filming some of the Wilsons as they searched for their daughter, it was then that the police finally arrested and after a series of days of questioning he finally admitted what he’d done, and obviously then all the terrible details of the crime came out.”
William’s interest in the story stems not just from his background as a Sandgrounder, but having taught Mitchell Quy’s brother, Elliot, at Birkdale High School.
Elliot helped his brother commit the murder by dismembering the body in the bath, and served four years of a seven-year prison sentence.
William said: “The biggest surprise to the police and to many of us was that Elliot was actually involved with the crime. Once Mitchell had killed his wife he got Elliot to help dismember her in the bath at home, and distribute parts of Lynsey around the town that were eventually discovered 18 months later, apart from her head and hands, which were never discovered.
“Apparently it was Elliot, the younger brother, who was actually given the job of disposing of her head and hands which would have been the easiest way of identifying her.
“The claim was that he put her head and hands in a wheelie bin somewhere in Birkdale before going back to his flat.”
William said there were “lots of sinister undertones” to his book, with theories about what happened to Lynsey’s body parts and who was responsible for disposing of them just one area that is explored.
A disturbing meeting on a train spurred him into action when it came to writing the book.
He said: “I bumped into Elliot Quy when he got out of prison, after he had served his time for disposing of Lynsey, I met him on a train going out to Wigan from Southport.”
He added: “He was talking to a young woman and it was clear they’d just met, they were flirting.
“I thought that this girl doesn’t have a clue who this man is, and it wasn’t my right and duty to tell her.”
Mitchell Quy is serving a life sentence, but William suggested he could be released next year should he be successful in front of the parole board.
He said: “I’ve learned from the parole board that his next hearing will be this summer.
“It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that he could be released this time next year if successful, and that’s a big if.
A Murderer’s Game: The Death Of Lynsey Quy was scheduled for release