TUESDAY, January 6, marks the tenth anniversary of one of Bury's biggest unsolved murders.
Pensioner Mrs Shirley Leach was killed in the ladies' toilets at Bury Interchange on January 6, 1994 after visiting her daughter in hospital. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Her body was discovered early the following morning.
The murder, which sent shockwaves throughout the town, sparked off a massive hunt which stretched as far away as Australia. But ten years on, the killer of the 66-year-old grandmother, who lived at Holme Avenue, Brandlesholme, remains at large.
However, police have not closed the case book and their investigations to try to finally trace Mrs Leach's killer are ongoing.
Throughout the last decade, hundreds of DNA samples have been taken from criminals and sent to a nationwide database. But none have matched the murderer's DNA, salvaged from bloodstains at the murder scene.
Last October, it was that revealed that a British man arrested in Spain over the deaths of two teenagers was being investigated over a possible link to Mrs Leach's murder. Detectives said at the time this was very much a "standard, regular inquiry".
Commenting on the tenth anniversary of the death, Detective Chief Inspector Frank Raggett, of Bury CID, said: "We are keeping this inquiry under constant review. We still do get lines of inquiry occasionally from members of the public and we react to those accordingly. Things are still ticking over."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article