Murder squad detectives have issued pictures of distinctive pieces of carpet dumped with a woman’s body on a building site in the hope they will help identify the victim.
An investigation was launched after a skeleton was unearthed by workmen at a car park opposite the CIS Tower on Miller Street in Manchester city centre.
The grisly find was originally not thought to be suspicious, but a post-mortem concluded the woman had been murdered as she had suffered a fractured jaw, collarbone and neck.
Images of an unusual 70s-style pinafore dress, a jumper, bra and a piece of Guinness memorabilia found with the body have already been released in a bid to identify the victim.
Now detectives have issued images of 12 pieces of carpet, cut into distinctive shapes, and are again appealing to the public to help their search. It is thought the body could have been wrapped in the pieces of carpet.
Detective Chief Inspector Jeff McMahon said: “This remains a lengthy and painstaking investigation, but we are meticulously working through the evidence and I am hopeful we will identify this woman and get her the justice she deserves.
“I want people to look very closely at the carpets we recovered with the body. Some have very distinctive cuttings and markings, suggesting it may have been fitted on stairs, and I believe it is more likely to have come from a commercial establishment rather than someone’s home.”
In January, the M.E.N revealed how a skull and bones were unearthed by a digger working at the site of the Co-operative Group’s new £100m headquarters, on land between Angel Street, Dantzic Street and Miller Street, an area known as Angel Meadow.
They were discovered in a one-metre gap between the wall of a building and a fence which was erected in 1960.
It is thought the body could have been lying there for anything between 12 months and 50 years and belongs to a white female aged 16 to 30.
The remains were sent away for DNA testing but results yielded no match on the national police database.
The negative test did mean police have been able to eliminate some missing women from their inquiries.
But officers are still sifting through missing person files in an attempt to identify the bones – checking the DNA profile against DNA of relatives of women who have disappeared.
Anyone with information is asked to call the CID team on 0161 856 5448 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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Who ever has obviously used a big vehicle to move all that unless they kept coming back. The piece on the left? wonder if a sewing machine was placed where the cutouts are? Maybe a sink stand. Was something moved out of the way to lay it. All them pieces together weigh a lot plus the body, could mean more than one was involved in moving it. Why in so many smaller pieces? maybe lifting it all in one piece assuming blue one was in one piece could mean the person was weak. I wonder if the cleaner blue piece was a cut from new carpet being laid and the other stuff was old stuff from a refit. Carpet fitter? Maybe she was killed in a house, commercial premises wrapped in the old carpet, the person then got new stuff before removing the body and when the person laid the new stuff that person put the ends of the new stuff with the old to then be dumped. If the carpet on the left where the pieces have been cut out isn't pieces that were took for testing or wasn't used for patching other areas then what sort of thing would be placed on it?. Why would you need the object to sit on the floor rather than the carpet? if thats the case. Does any of them pieces connect together?
The blue strip that is curled at the end? is the primary backing on it more modern than the others? it looks like it has a 90s look to it. The piece on the lower right could be toilet bowl. sink stand, pipe. The one on the left has an unusual cut running along the left edge, the two square bits a strange. If that piece on the left is the exact piece for the room and something was placed in the middle then you would think it would be a tight area to move.
M.E.N can't you show all the pieces individually and both sides.
what type of carpet is it? who manufactured it? how old is it? who sold it ? i'm sure they will find out these things but it takes time.
a serial murderer?
I think the pieces of carpet show avery clever side to the murderer. Carpets can absorb a lot of fluids. I think the killer must have been very clever and very devious. He might of already moved out of the area. MEN how far is the police search spread, are any other police forces invlved with the investigation, has Interpol been informed?
i am very worried that were, narrowing our search to much. lots peopel have capets- its not just capetsalesmen.
i hope police have thought of peopel other than capet peopel because if i was beeing clever i wood put body in capet, and pretend to be capet seller when not.
have MEN though might not be capetseller? HAVE POLICE??
also why has body only just turned up now? is killer PLAYING GAMES with police?
the carpet looks like old bathroom pieces, places for waste pipes, indentations of toilet..can the dark blue carpet bits be put back together they looked curved like they would fit in a bathroom?
the lightest blue piece looks out of place, newer than the rest which could mean that the building that it came from had been renovated in the past and the pieces old cut offs.. that carpet could have been stored for years in a cellar or basement and then the newer blue carpet could have been used and that piece put away as a cut off.. then the pieces all collected together and used at the same time, therefore giving a different time line of carpet.
this makes me think that the body could have been put where it was found much later than the date of the oldest piece of carpet.
the pinafore looks like it has been dyed by the carpet and would have been white, the material looks polyester-ish which would make it hard to dye right away as it is plastic-y
could mean that the amount of time could be measured by how long it would take to dye a similar fabric from white to green using a carpet of a similar nature?
were the straps of the pinafore attched by dungaree style buckles? if so where are they? were they found? buttons usually tell you where a garment came from or was made. same goes for the style of clasp used on a bra.
how long is the pinafore compared to her height? does it fasten at the back or do you step into it? would she have been wearing it over trousers or a skirt for work or to protect her outfit underneath?
was it all she was wearing with the jumper and the heels underneath? the heels look late 70s early 80s.
a picture of the bra would be helpful to the public as many women and men worked in department stores and would remember certain styles as they would have sold them
every day. could the jumper have been dyed by the carpet too? Was there any insignia or labels on any of the garments found aside from the distinctive french man and woman? what fabrics are the jumper and bra?
i have just pulled carpet off my stairs and it looked nothing like any of these pieces even though the article says it could have come from stairs.. i am a 5 foot 6 woman and managed to cut the pieces up, roll them and put them in bags and carry them a long distance to the car and then dump so i would guess that the pieces weren't cut for ease of weight when carrying. would it be worth cutting carpet to the same shapes and looking at the floor plans of commercial buildings in the area at the time. perhaps the carpet was cut in pieces as replacements for other bits, hence why they were all blue and in little bits? a pub would need to patch up dodgy old damaged carpet. ie, you could patch up a dirty, torn or worn bit and these bits would be thrown away or stored in a room or outbuilding until you had a clear out.
it would be easier to roll up one big piece and carry it for me. for one person to carry a human body in many pices of carpet it would be almost impossible. it must have been held together by something outside of the carpet the body was found in, has this decompsed? was it taped?
it would be hard to drag/carry one whole carpet alone. especially if you didn't want anyone to see/know. hence why it may have been dumped and not buried etc.
could the body have been hidden in a shed, basement or out-building before being dumped later on?
using street view i can only see 1 local pub nearby that would be within dragging/carrying distance for the body. the angle pub on angle street.did they sell guiness in the 60s, 70s, 80s now..i know most pubs do!?
the police think that the carpet belonged to a commercial establishment, my feeling would be to look at the layout of the angel pub on angel street.
would the shape of the carpets fit in any of the rooms now? are there any distinctive features in the fundamental structure of that building that match the unusual
shapes of the carpet? any of the same carpet left in that establisment nowadays, you never know!
if the carpet was taken from the pub it could point to the owner at the time or a bar worker, a regular or someone who would have access to old carpets from the pub, a keg delivery person, a bin man?
a body could easily be hidden or concealed in a basement/cellar for a long period of time due to the cold temperatures and moved once the pub was shut and the surrounding area dark.
no one would suspect a pub of chucking out old large carpets..bars have an update of interior every now and again.
also, that area was meant to be a bit of a slum back in the day so no one would have bothered wondering why a person was chuking an dold bit/bits of tatty carpet down
by an old wall..could there have been witnesses who dont even realise it? or even helped?! would a pinafore mean a bar job of some variety? could that be why there was
a guiness sign or could that have been stolen from the pub at a later or earlier date and just chucked down there without the person knowing what was underneath the
sign? lastly, are any of the missing girls associated with pub work or factory work? just working nearby so that the pub was a local. having been a barmaid myself my
feeling is you only put nice girly shoes (like the ones found with her body) that with an apron when you want to keep your underneath outfit nice for later. those shoes and that pinafore just
would never have been worn together on purpose. also a jumper like that would only have been worn with those kind of shoes in winter or when the weather started turning cold. court shoes are a dressy kind of shoe, not a jumper and pinafore shoe, the outfit makes no sense together..sorry for dis-jointed rambling thoughts but I had to get them all out. Everything helps right?
Hi All,
Glad that people are still talking about this one, must help to keep the investigation live.
This one has been bugging me since it was first reported in the news. I think tey should do a facial reconstruction and put it back on Crimewatch with the suggested face.
I contacted Guiness and they stated that the sign (not measuring chart) was a promotional sign given to pubs in the late 60's but could not give me an exact date.
The comments about the pinafore and shoe combination really make sense.
People need to keep talking about this one to help keep it in the headlines.
One thing I was thinking about was whether Peter Tobin spent any time in manchester; woman severly beated, young woman and buried\dumped sounds like his mo (and others probably i know, just a thought).
No matter how long ago this happened, the family need to know and if possible the murderer needs to pay by loosing their freedom!!