2000s
| Year | Name of victim(s) | Location body found | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 2000 | Rachel Manning | Woburn Golf Club, Milton Keynes | The body of Rachel Manning, 18, was found at Woburn Golf Club, in Milton Keynes, on 12 December 2000. She had disappeared two days earlier after a 1960s-themed fancy dress party at Bradwell Village Hall, in the town. In December 2011 a 40-year-old man, Shahidul Ahmed, from Chestnut Crescent, Bletchley. was charged with her murder. |
| 2001 | Unknown boy | River Thames | “Torso in the Thames” victim |
| 2002 | Julie Dorsett | Walthamstow | Dorsett, a 33-year-old prostitute, vanished in 2002 and her skull and upper body were discovered buried in an allotment in 2008. It is believed her remains were placed there shortly after she disappeared. In 2012 her former partner, Sinclair Lewis, was cleared of killing her and of burying her body. |
| 13 March 2002 | Unidentified man | Winsford Hill, Winsford, Somerset | The man's badly decomposed corpse was found on 13 March 2002 wrapped in bin bags, a green single bed sheet and a single duvet. He had been tied with a stereo wire that was found with the remains. He is thought to have died 2–3 years before being found. It is not clear if the body had been brought into the UK from abroad. In May 2002, Detectives appealed on Crimewatch UK in the hope someone would recognise him but nobody called in to say who he was. In September, a new reconstruction of the man's head was released in a fresh appeal to identify him. He was 25–35 years old with black or dark brown hair and 5 ft 8–5 ft 9ins tall. He was thought to be Mediterranean, Middle Eastern or North African. He was wearing a gold chain that had a 22-carat pendant with the verse 225 from the Koran, the Holy Text of Islam, inscribed in Arabic across it. In September 2006 a funeral was held for the mystery victim. His identity is still a mystery more than six years on. |
| March 2002 | Michelle Bettles | Norwich, Norfolk | Mother of three small children, none of whom were in her care, Michelle was last seen alive in the Queens Road area of Norwich in March 2002. Her fully-clothed body was found in a woodland off Podmore Lane, Scarning, three days later. In June 2012 criminologist Professor David Wilson suggested that the kiler was serial killer Steve Wright, but police dismissed the theory. |
| 30 May 2002 | Rachel Wilson | Near Newham Hall Farm, Coulby Newham, Teesside | The human remains found on 27 June 2012 turned out to be those of Rachel Wilson, 19, of Grove Hill, Middlesbrough, who had been working as a prostitute. A 57-year-old man was arrested in 2003 in connection with Ms Wilson's disappearance, but was released without charge. |
| 2002 | Alex Blue | Dowanhill, Glasgow | Alex Blue, a businessman from the city's west end, was found outside his home with head injuries. He died two days later. |
| July 2002 | Unidentified man | Charnock Richard, Lancashire | The murder victim's skeletal remains were found submerged in a pond off Back Lane in Charnock Richard, Chorley on 26 July 2002. It is thought he had died between October 2001 and June 2002. He was 5 ft 6– 5 ft 8 ins tall and aged between 20 and 30. He had a deformnity to his legs that was probably the result of a childhood disease. There was no clothing at the scene, no vehicle abandoned nearby, no personal effects on the body. Tests on chemicals in the bones suggest the victim would probably have lived the last ten years of his life in the West Midlands. Investigators focus on the Birmingham and Wolverhampton areas. Earlier investigations showed him to be more than likely of Asian origin but could not rule out his being a white European. It's suspected that the person could have been an illegal migrant, possibly from India. |
| 8 October2002 | Billy Sibbald | A1, near Musselburgh | Father of three Billy Sibbald went missing on 8 October 2002 from Joppa, Edinburgh, after telling his wife he was meeting business associates. Three months later, his decomposing body was found in woodland by a lay-by on the A1 near Musselburgh. There have been various theories for Billy Sibbalds murder including one that he may have been the victim of a gangland killing. Due to a lack of information coming through to the police, nobody has been arrested for his murder. |
| 2003 | Margaret Muller | Victoria Park, London | Muller, 27, was fatally stabbed while jogging in the park. Police suspect she may have been targeted in a robbery gone wrong. |
| 2003 | Paul Savage | Mold, Wales | Postman Paul Savage, aged 30, died on 4 February 2003 after being attacked by two men while on his round in Mold, Flintshire.
Mr Savage, originally from Sale in Greater Manchester died in Wrexham Maelor Hospital from head injuries. He had been struck on the head several times with a wooden baton and was found lying in a pool of blood on the driveway of the home of Flintshire councillor Ray Dodd.Police later said they knew why he was killed, but would not elaborate.His killers have never been caught, despite a £100,000 reward for information. |
| November 2004 | Alistair Wilson | Nairn, Inverness | Alistair Wilson, 30, was shot dead on the doorstep of his home in Nairn near Inverness in November 2004. He was shot in the head at his home in Crescent Road one Sunday evening after his wife opened their door to the killer. Police have stated there appears absolutely no motive for the murder. |
| January 2005 | Robert McCartney | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Robert McCartney, 33, was killed during an altercation in Magennis' Bar. He was dragged outside onto Verner Street in the centre of the city and beaten and stabbed. Allegations were made, particularly by friends and relatives of McCartney, that there was involvement of the IRA and Sinn Féin in both the murder and subsequent cover-up. McCartney died of his wounds the following morning. |
| April 2005 | Emma Caldwell | Glasgow | Caldwell, 27, was reported missing on 4 April 2005 and her body found in a wooded area in Roberton, near Biggar on 8 May. She was a heroin addict and prostitute and was staying in a homeless hostel in the Govanhill area of the city, where she was last seen. Four Turkish men were arrested in connection with the murder but the case against them collapsed, although one of the men, Huseyin Cobanoglu, was later convicted of three sex attacks on prostitutes. It was revealed during the trial of Peter Tobin for the murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk that Father Gerry Nugent had twice been questioned about the murder of Caldwell. |
| March 2006 | Carlton Alveranga and Richard Austin | Salford | The pair had been hired as hitmen to murder David Totton, and entered the Brass Handles public house to carry out their contract. Though Totton was shot, he survived. His assailants were then disarmed by the bar's patrons and shot dead with their own guns by a person or persons unknown. Alveranga and Austin's hirers were convicted of conspiracy to murder in 2007, but the actual killer or killers remain, as of 2009, unidentified. |
| October 2006 | Jessie James | Moss Side, Manchester | Jesse was murdered in a drive by shooting in October 2006. It is believed his murder was a case of mistaken identity. Police have been worried about the lack of witnesses coming forward, possibly due to fear of the repercussions. |
| February 2007 | James Andre Smartt-Ford | London | On 3 February at 10:55pm the Metropolitan Police received a call of a shooting at an ice rink, where around 300 were attending a disco. A youth had shot 17-year-old Smartt-Ford, who had staggered down stairs to the ice and collapsed. He died at midnight in hospital. Although there were multiple witnesses, the killer was not identified. |
| 2008 | Andrew Cunningham | Earlsfield, London | Andrew Cunningham, a 52 year old convicted paedophile, was found stabbed and castrated in his caravan outside a haulage yard where he worked. Despite 500 witness statements and a £20,000 reward, no trace of the killer has been found. Police dismiss the idea that it was a revenge killing, saying that it was instead a robbery that went wrong as the caravan was ransacked and a wallet containing £6,000 was stolen. |
| June 2009 | Anthony Otton | Fulham, London | Otton, age 28, was killed by a single bullet through his heart just before 7.00pm on 4 June 2009, as he left Geranium House, in Fulham Court, London. On the day of a wake for Darcy Bruce, who was gunned down outside Wandsworth Prison on 1 May, officers from the Metropolitan Police Homicide and Serious Crime Command offered a £20,000 reward for information leading to the killers’ prosecution. Family members believe he was the victim of revenge shooting. |
| 2009 | Paula Hounslea | Fazakerley, Liverpool | Paula Hounslea was a British victim of an unsolved murder. She had been missing since August 22, 2009 and her body was later found in a fire pit on the loop line cycle path in Fazakerley Liverpool on May 5 by a dog walker, the body was identified using Hounslea’s medical and dental records. |
| October 2009 | Alan Wood | Lound, Lincolnshire | In October 2009 50-year-old Wood was found dead in his home, tortured - possibly for financial details – and with head wounds and a slit throat. A £60,000 reward and televised appeals have not resulted in a prosecution. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Unsolved Murders In The United Kingdom