A billionaire banker, a 14-year-old boy shot dead at a takeaway, and a mother raped and left to die in a park
They are the cases that have baffled Greater Manchester's top detectives for decades. Across our region, dozens of murders remain unsolved, despite extensive police investigations.
David Barnshaw David Barnshaw was kidnapped, bundled into his own car and driven to an industrial estate were he was forced to drink petrol before being burned alive. Barnshaw, a small-time drug dealer, met his death on the night of September 20, 1999, on an industrial estate in Lower Bredbury, close to Stockport town centre and adjacent to the M60.
From the boot of that car, he made a dramatic recorded 999 call, whispering to the operator: "They are killing us, they are battering us, please come, please help." Elsa Hannaway Elsa Hannaway, 37, was on a night out dancing to get and some respite from her kids when she was kicked unconscious and then dragged 100 yards into Whitworth Park in Rusholme.
Having left with a man, she was then seen on Quinney Crescent, where witnesses said she was knocking on doors in the hope of getting into a party. The murderer left a clue to his identity at the scene. A Sekonda watch was found beside Elsa's body, along with her clothes. It is thought that it belonged to the killer, and came loose as Elsa struggled for her life.
Benji was gunned down at Alvino’s Pattie and Dumplin shop, on Great Western Street, as he queued with his friend Neville ‘Tito’ Gunning. Police arrested more than 10 people in connection with the murder – including notorious gang members – but no one was ever charged and the case remains unsolved. A stocky masked intruder, who, with an accomplice had got in through a kitchen window, made his way upstairs. Mr Logan had heard the pair enter the house and made a 999 call to report a burglary.
The gunman and his accomplice are believed to have escaped the property via the rear patio doors. They then escaped in a silver Vauxhall Vectra which was never traced, despite thousands of checks being made on that make of car. "They did not shoot Susan Thompson or her son. It is quite clear they broke into the house with the simple, singular intention of shooting Mr Logan. This was not a robbery, this was a murder."
Six weeks later, retired school caretaker Roy Jones was walking his dog, Mickey, near the corner of a high school sports field in Cheslyn Hay, South Staffordshire. The next step by police was to commission Manchester University professor Richard Neave, a forensic facial reconstruction expert, to create a clay model of the head. The model was released to the media in April 1994.
Detectives formed the opinion that he had been snatched from his flat. Det Supt Bernard Rees from GMP, said at the time: "Financial motive is the only one I can think of." A member of a leading Kuwaiti merchant family, reported to have left his homeland after becoming embroiled in a scandal involving the collapse of that country's stockmarket in 1982, he had no links to either Manchester or South Staffordshire.
He was found, unconscious, by Eric Burns, the owner of the shop. Mr Simpson died two days later for the sake of £65 - the equivalent of £220 today - and a driving licence in a folding wallet which was stolen from him. Dorothy Leyden Dorothy Leyden was raped and murdered on April 25 1971. She was battered to death with a brick.
The towel she caught from Jimmy Ruffin was still in her bag when police found her broken body on wasteland behind the Spread Eagle pub on Rochdale Road in Collyhurst. Between 3.40am and 4.10am on May 10, 2005, whoever was responsible entered through an insecure front door as the girls slept. Alana Mian and Hameeda Begum It was on June 23, 2008, that a green wheelie bin outside Hameeda Begum's family home in Bolton was set alight. The property was in a block of half a dozen homes in Little Holme Walk, Great Lever.
An inquest was later told temperatures inside the house soared to 900C. Mrs Begum suffered 90 per cent burns and died one and a half hours later. Alana died almost six weeks later. The fire also ended the career of firefighter Steve Morris, who spent nine months in hospital with 52 per cent burns and had to have fingers amputated.
Their chief suspect was Stephen 'Aki' Akinyemi, a prominent member of a Cheetham Hill gang. They believed he killed Mr Iheagwara, known as Chinaedu, in a row over 'respect'. The shooter was never brought to justice. But sources later told the M.E.N. detectives were 'certain' Akinyemi, who was shot dead himself in 2010, was responsible.
There was no sign of a break in at this home in Mere Gardens. It is suspected Daniel left his door ajar or let the killer in. Fire crews who attended the scene thought they were dealing with just a flat fire and doused the flames - and any tell-tale forensic evidence. Then they found Daniel under the debris.
Three-and-a-half hours later, while making routine checks, PC Harry C Brooks found Minnie strangled in a yard near Bradshawgate. It is believed she had been dead for around two hours. Minnie had been dead for nearly two months by the time someone admitted to having seen her after that. Her parents were visiting her grave on January 12 when a woman, never identified, told them Minnie had been with two other girls in Bradshawgate on the night she died.
If so, it may be that the desire of Minnie's friends to protect her reputation, and their own, protected a killer. She is one of two sex workers detectives believe may have been murdered by the same man, who was dubbed "The East Lancs Ripper". Lisa was on her way home from a party when she was strangled in a back alley just 200 yards from her home. Her mum had allowed her to go to the party at a house in Leigh Road with friends on the condition that she was back home by 10.30pm.
Three days after the murder police revealed three young women had been the victims of sex attacks in the previous four months within a mile of the location where Lisa was murdered. Chillingly, the attacker had threatened to kill the women during the assaults. One incident had been the day before Lisa was killed.
Louis Bega Louis Bega, a 43-year-old father-of-two, was murdered in Eccles, Salford, on June 23, 1966. He was stabbed 26 times in his living room.
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