Murder of Lindsay Jo Rimer

Life

Rimer lived with her parents, two sisters and her brother in the family home on Cambridge Street in Hebden Bridge. She was in Year 9 at Calder High School and was described as a "popular" pupil.

Last sighting

Rimer was last seen alive on the evening of 7 November 1994. At about 10:00 pm, she left her home to buy a packet of cornflakes from the Spar Supermarket in Crown Street. On her way to the shop she briefly stopped by a local pub, the Trades Club in Holme Street, where her mother was having a drink with a friend. Her mother asked her if she wanted to stay and have a cola with them, but Lindsay said no and continued to the shop. CCTV footage from the shop showed her paying for the cornflakes at 10:22 pm. That remains the last known sighting of Lindsay alive. She failed to return home that night, and when she did not turn up for her paper round the following morning, the alarm was raised.

Initial police investigation

Police initially suspected that Rimer might have run away. There was local speculation that Rimer had been having problems at home, although this was strenuously denied by her family. Rimer's older sister, Katie, took part in a reconstruction of Rimer's walk to the shop and hundreds of local people joined the police in searches of the area around Hebden Bridge, but no trace of Rimer was found.

Body found and post-mortem

Rimer's body was found by two local canal workers in the Rochdale Canal, about a mile upstream of the centre of Hebden Bridge, on 12 April 1995. It had been weighed down with a concrete boulder.

The post-mortem was carried out later that day at Royal Halifax Royal Infirmary by Home Office pathologist Professor Mike Green. He concluded that Lindsay Rimer had probably been strangled to death. Her voicebox had been flattened against the spinal column and there were also signs of congestion across the middle of the neck muscles. There were no signs of a sexual assault.

Continuing police investigation

In the years since the discovery of Rimer's body, the police have taken hundreds of witness statements and spoken to more than 5,000 people during their investigation. Detectives have investigated a number of convicted murderers and sex offenders who were still at liberty at the time of the murder. John Taylor, jailed for life in 2002 for the murder of Leeds teenager Leanne Tiernan, and John Oswin (jailed for life in 1998 for two rapes) have both been investigated, but no evidence has been found to link either to Lindsay Rimer's murder. Nobody has ever been charged over the murder.

In April 2016, it was revealed by West Yorkshire Police that a DNA profile had been obtained by a Canadian team of forensic specialists. The police were hopeful that it would lead to the identity of the killer.

On 8 November 2016, an unnamed 63-year-old man from Bradford was arrested on suspicion of the murder. He was later released on police bail. A second suspect, aged 68, was arrested by West Yorkshire Police on suspicion of murder on 25 April 2017 in Bradford.