Mar 28 2010 Russell Myers
EXCLUSIVE
Cops are hunting scores of killers in the biggest ever bid to crack some of Britain's most notorious unsolved murders, The People can reveal today.
Police have set up elite teams of retired detectives and their finest young officers in a £20million push to snare the fiends wanted for more than 50 brutal killings.
The cold-case review - dubbed Operation Stealth - covers 21 police forces in England and Wales.
More than 600 murders dating back decades have been whittled down to 50 which police chiefs are convinced can lead to dozens of killers finally being nailed.
There were fears cuts in funding might lead to the cases being left unsolved for ever - but now the green light has been given to reopen the investigations making use of groundbreaking new DNA and forensic technology.
Geoff White - ex-head of Staffordshire CID and now a Home Office advisor to Operation Stealth - said: "Just because a murder is more than 30 years old doesn't make it any less important than a crime that's occurred today.
"With the incredible advancements in forensic and DNA testing most of those cases never benefited from, we believe anything is possible.
"We are fully committed to bringing justice to cases that remain unsolved.
"There is a plan to end the operation in two years and so far we are very satisfied with the way the project is progressing."
Mr White added: "Many of the cases have lain dormant for years but now they have a real chance of being solved."
Operation Stealth experts are looking at a series of cases where minute quantities of blood or other bodily fluids and tissues were found at crime scenes - then stored for future checks.
Many of the murder cases involve schoolgirls or vulnerable single women who were living alone - and many were the work of sex-killers.
So far three reopened murder probes have led to charges. They include the case of Paul Hutchinson, 50, who was last year charged with killing 16-year-old Colette Aram in Keyworth, Notts in 1983.
He unexpectedly pleaded guilty to the charge at his trial - giving the Stealth team their first clear success when he was jailed for life in January.
The team also helped overturn the conviction of Sean Hodgson, who spent 27 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murdering Teresa de Simone in 1979 in Southampton.
The 50 reopened investigations are being funded by the Home Office.
Fears the project could have been shut down last year amid harsh police spending cuts came to nought when the Government provided extra cash to keep alive the hope of solving as many cold-cases as possible.
russell.myers@people.co.uk
Is there a case you think needs reopening? Call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or The People newsdesk on 020 7293 3204.
DOROTHY LEYDEN
Dorothy Leyden, 17, was raped and beaten to death in Manchester in April 1971 as she walked home from a concert by soul singer Jimmy Ruffin.
Locals in the city's Rochdale Road district told detectives they had heard screams at about 1am and later saw a man running away from the area.
Soon afterwards the teenager's battered body was found dumped on a patch of waste ground behind a pub.
Her handbag contained a towel she caught when What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted star Ruffin threw it into the audience at the end of his gig.
A tv recreation of Dorothy's last moments was screened on BBC1's Crimewatch pro-gramme two years ago.
JOSEPHINE BACKSHALL
Attractive mum Josephine Backshall, 39, was found savagely murdered on November 1, 1974.
Police believe she was killed when she went to meet a man called Peter who had offered her a £100 modelling job after she put an advert in her local paper seeking part-time work.
Her fully-clothed body was discovered face down in a pond near the village of Little Hadham, Herts, more than 30 miles from the home in Maldon, Essex, she shared with hubby Mike and their three young children.
Josephine's hands had been tied tightly in front of her with a cord before the killer strangled her.
But detectives said at the time that there was no evidence she had been sexually abused.
MELANIE ROAD
Melanie Road was just 17 when she was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death on June 9, 1984 as she walked home from a nightclub.
The promising A-level student had spent the evening relaxing and dancing with a group of friends.
But she refused their offer of taking a taxi home.
Instead, she set off to walk the 20-minute journey to her front door.
Melanie was only yards from safety when the killer pounced.
Her body was found soon after dawn next day by a horrified milkman - who was with his 10-year-old son.
The murder was highlighted by BBC1's Crimewatch last year - but no one has ever been charged.
EVE STRATFORD
Bunny Girl Eve Stratford was raped and killed at her home in Leyton, east London, in March 1975.
Scotland Yard detectives believe the 22-year-old blonde beauty may have known her killer and invited him into the flat she shared with her pop star lover Tony Priest.
Eve's bloodstained body was found by Tony, lead singer with a group called The Onyx.
A nylon stocking was tied around one of her ankles, her hands were bound behind her back with a scarf and her throat had been slashed up to a dozen times during a frenzied attack. Eve worked as a Bunny Girl at the Playboy Club in London's Park Lane.
The year before her horrific murder she had been pictured there with legendary comedian Eric Morecambe and Carry On films veteran Sid James.
In the 35 years since the killing, detectives have quizzed scores of people - including celebrities she rubbed shoulders with at the Playboy - but no one has been nailed.
SUSAN LONG
Tragic Susan Long, 18, was murdered after a disco in March 1970.
As she got off a bus at Aylsham, Norfolk, her killer dragged her down a lane, raped her and strangled her with the straps of her handbag.
His blood was found at the scene - and although it was a rare group fitting only 4 per cent of the British population, the brute has never been caught.
CAROLINE PIERCE
The last time Caroline Pierce, 20, was seen alive was in November 1987 at her bedsit in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.
Her body was found in a ditch 40 miles away three weeks later.
Cops believe she was killed by the fiend who murdered Wendy Knell - who lived nearby - six months earlier. Both women had been strangled.
LYNNE WEEDON
Lynne Weedon was 16 when she was bludgeoned to the ground, hurled over a fence into an electricity sub-station, raped and left in a coma. She died in hospital a week after the attack in Hounslow, west London, in September 1975.
Dna traces link her killing to the murder of Playboy girl Eve Stratford earlier that year.
NATALIE PEARMAN
Natalie Pearman, a 16-year-old drug addict and hooker, was found strangled at a beauty spot on November 2, 1992 in Norwich - and all her body hair was shaved off. Her murderer has never been found, although cops later probed a possible link to the five Ipswich vice girls killed in 2006 by Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright.
WENDY KNELL
Bachelor girl Wendy Knell, 26, was found dead in her bedsit in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on June 23, 1987.
She had been sexually assaulted and battered to death.
At the time, police said there was no sign of forced entry and no one had heard anything from the flat. Cops believe she may be a victim of the man who killed Caroline Pierce in the town six months later.
KATE BUSHELL
Schoolgirl Kate Bushell, 14, had her throat cut by a maniac as she walked a neighbour's dog in Exwick, Devon, in November 1997.
Her body was found in a field 300 yards from her front door by her horrified father Jeremy, 44.
Locals said they saw a blood-soaked man running from the area minutes before the grisly discovery - but he has never been traced.
CLAIRE TILTMAN
Schoolgirl Claire Tiltman was stabbed more than 40 times in an alleyway yards from her home as she took a short-cut to visit friends in January 1993.
No one has ever been charged with the 16-year-old's murder in Greenhithe, Kent.
But cops believe Claire, a pupil at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, could have been the victim of serial killer Robert Napper, who is serving life for a string of murders.
His victims include Rachel Nickell, 23, who was butchered in front of her two-year-old son on London's Wimbledon Common six months before Claire was killed.
Then last month a local paper reporter found a piece of cardboard left at a memorial to Claire at the murder scene. A note written on the card in black ink named her killer, the type of car he drove and the company he worked for.
Cold-case detectives have since traced and questioned the suspect.
Claire's dad Cliff said he had never heard of the accused man. Plumber Cliff, 60, added: "I haven't got my hopes too high as I've been disappointed in the past. But you have to keep hoping."
LINDA BRYANT
Housewife Linda Bryant, 41, died from stab wounds to her neck and chest when she was subjected to a "horrific" attack while walking her dog in Truro, Cornwall, in October 1998.
A man was seen talking to mum-of-two Linda just 100 yards from the scene moments earlier and he has never been found.
Cops believe he may also have killed Kate Bushell.
