Janet Murgatroyd

find distressing, so listener discretion is advised. The River Ribble runs through North Yorkshire and Lancashire, and notably flows through Settle, Clithero and Preston. Many people live in the area of the Ribbel Valley, with around sixty one thousand people living there in twenty twenty one. The area of Penwortham is located in South Ribble, close to the city of Preston, around two miles away from the center. Twenty year old Janet Murgatroyd lived in Penwortham with her mum Mary in

nineteen ninety six. Janet was an only child and her father, David, was well known in football circles, having been the chairman of Charlie FC and a great supporter of the club for many years. Janet grew up in a loving and close knit family, and she was known as a strong and caring person growing up. Everyone that knew her described her as an intelligent, friendly person who knew what she

wanted and worked hard to achieve it. As she reached her teenage years, she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in law and began her studies at the University of Central Lancashire. By nineteen ninety six, Janet had already completed her first year as a law student and was ready to enjoy her summer. In addition to her studies, Janet also had a part time job working as a clerk for Lancashire Police. She worked in the Crime Input Bureau and this role fitting very well with her law studies.

Her boss at Lancashire Constabulary, Superintendent Karen Hives, said about Janet, she was a very energetic and confident young lady who knew what she wanted to do in life. This seems to be the overarching description of Janet by everyone she knew. She was a bubbly and happy person, with the future ahead of her. Janet was very much looking forward to the summer of nineteen ninety six as she had planned

to go traveling with her friend Fiona. The pair had made plans to travel to Greece and then on to Italy with the aim of seeing as much as they could during their ten weeks abroad. Neither of the women had ever done anything like this before. Fiona later said, we couldn't have been happier. We were both on top of the world that day. We thought nothing was going

to stop us from here on. In Saturday, June fifteenth was an exciting day for Janet and her friend Fiona, as they were having their last day out before setting off on their travels. Their plan was to have a shopping day and get all of the last minute things ready that they might need. It was later reported that Janet had originally had plans to travel to Manchester to

go shopping, but had changed her mind. This seemed like an opportune choice when at eleven seventeen am a bomb detonated in Manchester City Center, destroying a third of the retail space in the city center and injuring two hundred and twelve people. This attack had been orchestrated by the IRA and was the largest peacetime bomb ever detonated in

Great Britain. The crowds in the city center were larger due to the fact that England was hosting the nineteen ninety six euro Football Championship and a match between Russia and Germany was due to take place in the city the following day. It was also one of the hottest day of the years so far, and so people were out and about enjoying the day. The weekend, therefore, was already quite a monumental one, with many events taking place. Janet and Fiona headed into Preston and spent the early

afternoon shopping and chatting about their plans. Fiona later told the program Crime Watch that they then decided to go to the pub and spent a lot of the afternoon and evening drinking. Fiona said that that night they'd both had a lot to drink, having been out since the early afternoon. They went into the Adelphi Pub for last order, and by this point they'd both had a lot to drink.

Fiona explained that at some point after they went into the pub, they became separated and she couldn't find Janet, Fiona said she decided to leave and go home. She said she did remember thinking she should have waited for Janet and made sure that she got into a taxi okay, but that the evening did not pan out that way. The next day, at around noon on Sunday, the sixteenth of June, people were out and about on the River

Ribble close to penworthen Bridge. A dog walker was traveling down the river when he spotted what looked like blonde hair in the water. He flagged down a man who was riding a jet ski along the river and asked him to pull into the side to have a look at what he had seen. The two men discovered that they'd found the body of a young woman floating in the river. They pulled her onto the embankment and then

immediately contacted the police. It was clear from the outset that whatever had happened, this had been the result of a violent crime. A postmartem showed that she had been beaten and kicked in the head. As a result, she had been knocked unconscious and stamped on before her body was dumped. She had lots of injuries to her head and face, and it would later be established that she

had a fractured jaw and a broken nose. Finger shaped bruise marks on her face showed the investigators that the killer had clasped their hand over her mouth at some point during the attack. The woman's body was also covered in scratches, which had been caused seemingly by being dragged naked through the riverside undergrowth. The postmartem also revealed that there was no evidence relating to a sexual assault, but

that sexual activity had occurred shortly before her death. Therefore, they could not completely ruled out that an assault might have taken place. Her cause of death revealed something tragic. The woman had not died from her injuries and had actually drowned. The theory was that the woman had been left by the water, but that the tide had come in and the water had taken the woman's body into

the river. It was thought that she may have lain there unconscious for around six hours before being taken into the water. The discovery in the river Ribble was absolutely horrifying for all involved with the investigation, and identifying who this victim was was pivotal. It didn't take long to establish that the woman was twenty year old Janet Murgatroyd. Her blood stained blouse and her jewelry were found close

to the scene. However, police did not recover her size ten wrangler jenes or her purse that she was known to have with her. The police investigation began with a close inspection of the scene around Janet's body, as well as trying to identify her movements before the discovery. Police learned that Janet had been out the prior afternoon into the evening and that she'd been at the Adelphi Pub

at last orders. Information that Fiona had lost track of Janet and could not find her was also of interest, and therefore they had to use other means to try and track down where she went. Using CCTV, they found that after leaving the pub, she headed down Fishergate at around one am. On the footage, Janet is seen clearly intoxicated and staggering along the street. The next piece of information that they had came from a witness who was

driving that route that night. He explained that he was picking his mum up from her sister's house that night and that they passed Janet as they were driving. He explained that his mum pointed Janet out as she was walking alone and asked him if they should give her a lift. He said he told us she would probably be fine and if they did give her a lift, she might be sick in the car. They then drove

their route back home. At around one fifteen am. Janet was then seen waiting near Penwarden Bridge, and it appeared that she was waiting for someone to give her a lift. Around the same time, a man in his home close to this area heard some shouting outside. However, he explained that he didn't think much about it at the time as he lived near quite a few pubs and clubs, and people making noise was not uncommon. A taxi driver who was in the area at the time, however, did

see some things that were unusual. Around the same time, the driver said he passed a Volvo garage and spotted two people arguing. He noticed that the woman was taller than the man. As he was watching this argument, and as he turned onto Penwarden Bridge, he saw a woman running across the road in front of the taxi and just behind her there was a man. He looked as though he was chasing the woman. Around half one, about fifteen minutes after the taxi driver had seen the man

and woman running across the road. Two brothers were coming home from an evening out in Preston. They had decided to walk home as it was a warm night, and they were traveling over the bridge. As they were passing, one of the brothers said that on the far side of the bridge he heard what sounded like a woman groaning. He said that he'd worked in a dentist before and described the sound as someone who had just come round

from anesthetic. On the Crime Watched reconstruction, the man is shown in the bushes at the side of the bridge, implying that this is what one of the brothers saw. However, he didn't specifically say this on the program, so I'm unclear if he did see a man in the bushes. At the time, this ear witness was of interest, especially as some of Janet's clothes were found near the bridge.

It was clear that at some point in that half an hour journey between the pub and Penwarden Bridge, Janet clearly came upon someone who wanted to do her harm. Detective Superintendent Graham Gooch, who was leading the investigation at the time, told crime Watch that he believed this was a local man and that the murder may have changed or affected his behavior. He said he was convinced that he must have attacked women before and that he would

continue to do so if he wasn't found. He said that they did have a description of some men that they wanted to speak to who had been seen in the area at the time and had been spotted on CCTV. They wanted to speak to a man who was described as five feet ten to six feet tall. He was a white or pale skinned Asian man with black hair. He was wearing a long sleeve white shirt and very dark,

probably black trousers. Detective Superintendent Gooch said he wanted to eliminate several other people, such as the people who had been seen arguing at the Volvo garage. There were also two men seen walking on CCTV just before Janet. One of the men had a white shirt on with black trousers and dark hair. CCTV also showed that there was a man walking towards the scene of the crime at

around the same time as Janet. The footage shows him walking back on himself towards where he started, and police believed he might have seen something relevant the Crime Watch said documenting Janet's murder was very important forgetting the right information to the right people who might have been watching, and Janet's mother and her friend Fiona spoke on the program.

Janet's mother, Mary said that she felt hatred towards whoever had committed her daughter's murder and felt disgusted for whoever was still shielding that person. She also later said, I just live in the hope that whoever did this will slip up in some way. He knows who he is, and I'm sure a lot of other people do as well. As a result of the Crime Watch segment, police were

able to speak to and eliminate forty eight people. Despite the large scale investigation and DNA being extracted from the items from the scene, the police struggled to track down the perpetrator or gain any concrete information. More than fourteen hundred statements were taken, and despite this, the investigation began to slow down. In the months and years following Janet's murder, her family sadly had to carry on with their lives the best they could with few answers as to who

did this to Janet or why. Even a five thousand pounds Crimestoppers reward, which eventually was raised to ten thousand pounds, had not drummed up any relevant leads. In two thousand, four years after Janet's murder, someone was summoned to court on the charge of murdering her. This was huge progress considering the stumbling blocks that investigators had come up against in the past. The man that was charged with her murder was Andrew Greenwood. Greenwood had been on the police

radar since nineteen ninety nine. However his name had not come up from a line of inquiry. Greenwood had approached them in August nineteen ninety nine. He'd reportedly flagged down a taxi and asked the driver to take him to the police station as he had to confess to the murder of Janet Murger Tride. This had set the wheels in motion for the police to start building a case against him. However, the Crown Prosecution Service did not continue with the case in nineteen ninety nine through lack of

evidence on his part. Andrew Greenwood very quickly retracted his confession for the murder and now said that he had nothing to do with it. He stated that his confession had come from reading articles about the case, watching the crime Watch reconstruction and using his own imagination. Police, however, decided to re arrest Greenwood in two thousand and charge him with Janet's murder. Police believed that Greenwood had come across Janet that evening and that she'd spurned his advances,

and so he had attacked her as a result. His trial did not begin until two thousand and two, and this is where the prosecution outlined their case, explaining that Greenwood had confessed of his own accord and had not been a person of interest in the case until that point. They also stated that he'd made detailed and repeated admissions that he was responsible for the murder, and detailed that he said, I wish to say sorry for my action, which is not like me. I will carry on repenting

like I have done for the past three years. All of this, as well as his confession, was enough to believe that Andrew Greenwood was responsible for Janet's murder. Is what the prosecution alleged. Greenwood denied that he had anything to do with the murder, although admitted that he was in the area that night. He had spent the evening at the Sumpter Horse Pub in Penwortham, not far from

where Janet's body was found and where she lived. He stated that he'd watch the Euro's match between Scotland and Inca England that day and had drunk around six pints. He had then gone back to his father's house for some dinner before going back out to meet a friend at the pub. He had continued drinking and left around eleven thirty pm. He said, I'd had a lot, I was drinking too much and everything was going blurry. I was in a good mood and left about eleven thirty pm.

I don't remember going back to my flats. I had a blackout in the morning. I just woke up. I don't remember anything until the morning after. I woke up on the bed with the same clothes on, an orange T shirt, black jeans, trainerlike shoes. My clothing was fine when I woke up. Greenwood explained that he had experienced blackouts before and after Janet's murder, and they usually occurred when he'd been drinking or was in a low mood. He said at that point he was unemployed and studying

a statistics course at the local college. He said that he'd struggled with depression since he'd been eighteen years old, as he had experienced a blackout as he had returned home. He explained he'd convinced himself he had something to do with the murders, and as a result of the coverage of the case, he'd made up many of the gaps

with information that he'd learned. His confession, he said, was a false one, his council explained when he presented himself to police in August nineteen ninety nine, he was and still is, a psychiatrically damaged and vulnerable individual. What he said to them about this crime was a mixture of detail, some false, some true, but all of it true and false, obtained by him from the extensive media coverage in the newspapers, radio, and on TV, including Crime Watch. He said nothing which

was not already in the public domain. The jury heard all of this information, and after deliberate they could not come to a decision on whether Andrew Greenwood was guilty of Janet's murder. The prosecution decided to retry the case. In June two thousand and three, the same information was presented to the courts and the jury once again went to deliberate. They returned a verdict of not guilty of

murder but guilty of manslaughter. While this was not what the prosecution or the family had hoped for, it was a conviction and it was some justice for Janet. David Murger tried. Her dad said after the trial, I was a little bit disappointed with the eight years, but I'll go along with it. At least the man is serving a sentence for what he did. This appeared to be how many people felt about the case, and while disappointed in the sentence, they were happy that a dangerous person

was off the streets. This, however, is not how the case would stay, but just one year later, in two thousand four, Andrew Greenwood's manslaughter conviction was quashed on appeal. This decision was made based on the fact that the judge in the case had ruled some evidence that the defense wanted to bring in as inadmissible. However, they believed it showed that there were plausible alternate suspects that were

not looked into in the case. They stated that two other suspects had actually been arrested in Janet's case, and that one of these suspects was an extremely plausible one, given that the wife of one of these suspects had given a statement about him, and reportedly Janet had also spoken about this suspects violence in the past. In addition, Janet's blood was found on the suspects boxersharks at his home.

The defense also stated that Janet had an ex boyfriend named Pitbull who was known to be abusive towards her, and they even had a videotape of Janet talking about this abuse. Said proved that there were more viable suspects than Greenwood, who had no connection whatsoever with Janet. This was clearly information that should have been of interest to the police. However, this information was not allowed to be presented in court, and the appeal court agreed that this

was unfair to Andrew Greenwood. It is evident that, aside from his confession, which he stated was false, there was no physical evidence to link Greenwood to the case, to Janet, or to the scene, and so no real evidence to convict him of murder. It is relevant that two separate juries could not come to a decision to convict him on murder charges. He was released and the case returned to its original state of being unsolved. Police in two thousand and four said that they were not looking for

anyone else in the murder. However, since then, there have been multiple appeals for information in Janet's case. On the twenty first anniversary of Janet's murder in twenty seventeen, CCTV showing Janet walking from the Adelphi Pub up Fishergate was released to the public in the hope that someone would recognize her from that night, or just recognize something relevant.

Lancashire Police Detective Chief Inspector Gary Brooks said, twenty one years on from Janet's brutal murder, we remain committed to finding her killer. Janet was a young woman with her whole life ahead of her, a student at the University of Central Lancashire and a part time staff member with Lancashire Police. She had much to look forward to and enjoy. However, this was all taken away from her in a vicious

attack which we believe was sexually motivated. This was an opportunist offense by a very dangerous man who, despite the passage of time, still needs to be brought to justice. Detective Chief Inspector Pauline Stables of Lancashire Constabulary's Major Investigation Team said, first and foremost, my thoughts are with Janet's family and friends. At this time, I would like to use the twenty fifth anniversary of Janet's death to appeal to anyone with information which may assist us to please

come forward. We have never closed this case and it remains a crime we desperately want to solve. Even if you think the information is insignificant. Please come forward and tell us what you know so we can investigate. Unfortunately, Janet's case is still unsolved, and it does only take one person to come forward with information to solve this. It seems that DNA samples were taken and could prove useful in this case. However, a person of interest has

to emerge for this to be helpful. It's unclear what line of inquiry the police have been following since the collapse of the trial against Andrew Greenwood. This case has affected many people, Janet's family, the community, people who've become entwined in it. Janet had so much to live for, was looking forward to so much, and hearing about her excitement that day about her future really affected me. She had many plans which were cut short, and her murder

does deserve to be solved. If you have information, please contact police on one oh one our crime Stoppers at eight hundred five five five one one one. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can also get access to new episodes early in ad free. You can use the link in the show

notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support us by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and also just share the episodes our ways. I'm Caprice and this has been unseen. Yeah,