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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today, we're going to

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be exploring the unsolved murder of nineteen
year old Dawn Shields in nineteen ninety four.

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Darn had had a trouble passed in
her short life and the way she

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had been killed and left was so
tragic. Dawn was one of a number

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of young women to be murdered during
the nineteen nineties, and many of these

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cases still remain unsolved. The question
is was Dawn's murder at all link to

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any of these other murders. This
episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find

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distressing, such as discussion about sex
work, sexual assaults, including rape,

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and the abuse of a child.
None of these descriptions are long or graphic,

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but listener discretion is always advised.
On the twenty first of May nineteen

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ninety four, a National Trust Park
ranger was working close to the hill called

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Mam Tour near to Castleton in High
Peak in the Peak District. Mam Tour

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is a one thousand, six hundred
and ninety six foot hill located in the

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picturesque Nature Reserve of kinder Scout.
It's a popular tourist and walking spot,

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and its distance of around forty miles
from other northern cities makes it convenient for

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people wanting to visit. That day, this park ranger was doing his usual

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checks and decided to take a slightly
different route to the one he usually took

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in the area when he noticed something
strange. A pile of rocks caught his

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attention and caused him to look twice, and he looked closer, he noticed

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why it had caught his attention.
Underneath the pile of rocks, he spotted

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what looked to be limbs. What
he had actually uncovered was the naked body

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of a woman, partly concealed underneath
debris on the slopes of man Tore.

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The police were immediately called and was
shocked by the discovery in this usual beauty

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spot. From the concealment state and
location of the body, it was evident

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that this had been a deliberate murder. This was also in addition to extensive

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wounds that were discovered when the body
was examined. The woman had suffered huge

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head wounds and it would later be
established that she had been strangled. Despite

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the body being naked. Examination could
find no outward signs that she had been

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sexually assaulted, and the reason for
her naked body to have been left where

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it was was a huge mystery.
The other mystery was, of course,

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the identity of the woman, Why
was she up here and where had she

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come from. Police took the woman's
fingerprints in the hope they would have her

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information in their database. They were
lucky that they did get a hit.

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The woman was nineteen year old Dawn
Shields. Dawn lived in Sheffield and at

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the time that her body was recovered
from ma'am Tor, she'd been missing for

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about a week. Dawn was the
mother of an eleven month old little boy,

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and her mum and her sister were
desperate to find out what could have

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happened to her. Dawn had been
working in the Broomhall area of the city

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of Sheffield as a sex worker,
and while this, of course is a

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dangerous career choice, it was not
one that Dawn had entered lightly. It

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had been reported that Dawn had been
pressured into sex work at the early age

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of fourteen and had struggled with some
troubled teenage years. Dawn had reportedly got

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involved with an older man during this
time, and this older man allegedly worked

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as a pimp. This had been
Dawn's introduction to sex work and it was

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clear that she was a vulnerable child. Dawn continued to work in the Broomhall

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area of Sheffield, which during the
nineteen nineties did have a reputation as being

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part of the red light district of
the city and was not necessarily known as

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a safe place to be, particularly
at night. While Dawn continued to work

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as a sex worker when she was
eighteen, she also took on another role,

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that of a mother to her son. Dawn was a loving mother who

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knew that she had to provide for
him, and so she continued to go

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out to work to make money.
This is what Dawn was doing in the

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early hours of the fourteenth of May
nineteen ninety four. Dawn had vanished at

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some point those hours, and her
body had now been found around twenty miles

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away on the slopes of Mam Tour. How had this happened and why?

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When police began to look into Dawn's
whereabouts in those early hours, they discovered

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an important fact. She had been
spotted getting into a car in broom Hall

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before she vanished, and this became
a very significant clue to where she could

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have gone. This car was definitely
of interest to police. However, this

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was a difficult lead to follow up
on, given that due to the nature

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of sex work, women do routinely
get into cars with strangers. This car

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may or may not have actually had
anything to do with Dawn's murder. However,

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police knew that a car had to
be involved given the distance between where

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Dawn was known to be and where
her body was found. Police believed that

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someone had picked Dawn up in the
early hours and had murdered her, but

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who this person was and the motive
for this murder were unknown. Dawn's family

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were devastated by the news, and
of course, Dawn had left behind her

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son, who had to grow up
without his mother and without answers. Due

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to the difficulty in pinning down who
this suspect could be, Darn's murder investigation

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began to grow cold, and without
significant leads, it was proving difficult to

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solve. Forensic techniques were still being
developed during the nineteen nineties, and while

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they were being used in cases,
they were not at the level that they

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are today, and technology was improving
all the time, police hoped that new

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techniques would be able to identify Dawn's
killer in the future, and so they

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kept exhibits that had been taken from
the crime scene in the hope that this

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could be used later on. In
the years that followed, they also hoped

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that new information may solve the case. However, unfortunately, it was another

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murder which would eventually be referenced in
relation to Dawns that would put her case

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back into the headlines. Seven years
after Dawn's murder, In the early morning

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hours of the fifth of November two
thousand and one, twenty five year old

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Michaela Haig was working as a sex
worker in Sheffield City Center. Michaela came

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from a loving family, and her
mom and dad, Jackie and Mick,

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would later describe her as a lovely, beautiful daughter. Michaela was also a

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vulnerable person and had sadly developed a
heroin addiction, which had led her down

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the path of sex work. She
continued to take part in sex work to

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fund this addiction and also make money
for her and her five year old son.

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In the early hours of that morning, Michaela was working on Bower Road,

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just off Corporation Street, when she
was picked up by a customer in

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a car. Like in Don's murder
investigation, this was not necessarily as helpful

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as it may have been in other
cases, given that it wasn't unusual.

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What came next, however, was
though. Not long after Michaela had been

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picked up in the car, another
woman also working as a sex worker,

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discovered her bleeding profusely in a secluded
car park close to where she was picked

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up, near the Manchester Pub which
is now named the Harlequin. The other

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woman quickly raised the alarm and police
were immediately dispatched at the scene. Michaela

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was clinging onto life when police and
emergency services arrived, and she was quickly

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taken to Northern General Hospital for treatment. At the hospital, it was discovered

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that she had been stabbed nineteen times
in both the neck and the back.

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This had been a violent and vicious
attack, and one that defied all logic

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an understanding. Three hours after she
arrived at the hospital, Michaela sadly passed

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away. The police now had a
murder investigation on their hands, but in

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some ways they were slightly further on
than they had been with Darn's murder.

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As Michaela had been found very quickly
after she'd been attacked. She was still

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conscious and able to tell an attending
police officer some information about the perpetrator.

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This police officer was able to drop
this information down on his hand before Michaela

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was taken away in the ambulance.
She told them that her killer had been

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white, around thirty eight years of
age and around six feet tall. He

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was clean shaven, wearing a blue
fleece and glasses. She also gave them

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the additional information that he wore a
wedding ring. This was a huge amount

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of important information to have and certainly
must have helped narrow down the surface.

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It showed the bravery and determination of
Michaela that she was able to provide all

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of this information despite the awful attack
that she had just gone through. There

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was also a witness sighting in Michaela's
case which could help the investigation. At

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the time of the murder, a
blue old style Ford Sierra was spotted driving

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away from the scene. It was
thought that this could be connected to the

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murder, given the proximity to the
scene at the time and the small window

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of time between the attack and Michaela
being found. An Efit was produced of

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the man that Michaela described and it
was hoped that someone would recognize him and

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be able to give the police the
information that they needed to catch this violent

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perpetrator. Michaela's murder was featured on
crime Watch and police were hoping that the

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nationwide coverage might catch the killer and
that he may well have been passing through

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the area on the NIVE and may
be known to someone elsewhere in the country.

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Unfortunately, this was not the case
and any leads that did come in

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did not lead to the killer being
caught. This was disappointing for both the

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police and Michaela's family, and it's
clear that everyone involved with the investigation were

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affected by the murder. Michaela's family
described her murder as ripping their family apart,

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and the police were determined to try
and find out who had done it.

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The violence of the attack on Michaela
was so concerning that they knew they

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had to figure out who had committed
it. It was one of the largest

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investigations in South Yorkshire history and thousands
of people were reportably interviewed in relation to

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it. Officers traveled up and down
the country trying to locate all of the

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owners of blue Ford Sierras in the
country, but despite this effort, the

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perpetrator was not found. As a
result, ten years after her murder,

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it was still unsolved, and Michaela's
partner, Mick, told the press there

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can be no bigger sin than taking
a mother away from her child. He

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also commented that he was worried that
the killer may strike again as he had

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not yet been found. Like Dawn's
investigation, Michaela's began to grow cold,

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with police hoping that DNA technology may
eventually find out the perpetrator. Darn and

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Michaela's cases have frequently been linked together
as they were both unsolved murders where the

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victim had been working as a sex
worker and had been picked up in a

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car in the city center. There
is, however, no evidence that they

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were perpetrated by the same person or
that they are in any way connected.

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Despite their similarities, there are also
differences. The killer in Dawn's case had

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taken her body and buried it elsewhere, whereas in Michaela's case he left her

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where he stabbed her. It's important, however, to highlight both of these

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cases as they remain unsolved today and
the killers of evaded justice. In two

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and nineteen, South Yorkshire Police carried
out a review of Dawn's case, examining

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previously unfound DNA samples to testigates the
database. It was hoped that they would

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get a hit despite this review,
though there doesn't seem to be any more

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progress made or at least reported on, since then. Whether the DNA yielded

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any results isn't clear. Former Detective
Dave Stopford, who leads the team,

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said, we routinely review unsolved murders
by looking at new information or evidence.

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Using the advances in identification through DNA
in historic cases has been successful in a

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number of investigations and we are hopeful
in this one. It would seem that

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while police were taking Darna Michaela's cases
seriously, solving them was proving very difficult

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and in Dawns there was a distinct
lack of evidence and suspects. In the

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years following Dawn's murder, there have
been many theories put forward for who may

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have been involved. One of the
theories put forward was the serial killer Alan

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Kite, who became known as the
Midlands Ripper. Alan Kite was convicted of

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two murders in two thousand that of
Samoe Paul and Tracy Turner. These two

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women had several things in common,
but one of them was that they were

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both sex workers. Samoe Paul was
just twenty years old and a mother of

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a fifteen month old daughter, working
in the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham.

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Samoe worked as a sex worker part
time and just worked Thursday, Friday and

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Saturday nights, and had been doing
this for around the past twelve months.

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Samoe lived with her boyfriend and daughter
in a flat and Rowley regis a town

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close to West Bromwich. She usually
traveled to work in the red light district

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of Balsall Heath in Birmingham City Center. Samoe usually got a taxi to take

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her into the center and this is
what she did. On the evening of

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the third of December nineteen ninety three, Samoe traveled to Hallam Street, which

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is where she usually went to work. There didn't appear to be anything different

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about her evening, however, she
didn't return to her home as she usually

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did. Her boyfriend was concerned about
the fact she hadn't returned as this wasn't

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like her. He reported her missing
the next day, and an investigation was

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launched. Police began trying to figure
out Samo's whereabouts in the hours prior to

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her disappearance, but like in Darna
Michaela's cases, trying to track down who

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she saw and when was tricky.
One interesting thing about that evening was that

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police were around in the area doing
something called a Punter operation initiative, which

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meant that female undercover police officers were
stopping people who were curb crawling and sending

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them on their way. When police
asked other possible witnesses who were in the

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area, including other sex workers,
it appeared that nobody had spotted anything strange

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and they hadn't seen Samo at all. Where could she have gone and what

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could have possibly happened to her In
the next few weeks, the investigation continued,

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but Samo wasn't located, she hadn't
accessed her bank account or any benefits

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coming in. It wasn't until three
weeks later that there was another development in

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the case. Around thirty miles from
Leicestershire, close to the village of Swinford,

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a horse rider spotted a body in
an eight foot ditch which was filled

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with rainwater. Upon further investigation,
police were able to establish that this was

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indeed Samo Paul and she had been
murdered. She had been found semi naked

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with just her dress on. She
was missing her bra, knickers, shoes,

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and a purse. There were no
obvious injuries to her body to suggest

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what had happened. The post mortem, however, suggested that her cause of

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death could have been strangulation, as
her neck had internal bruising. As Samoe's

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body had been left in the water, it was difficult to tell how long

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her body had been there, and
there was also a lack of forensic evidence

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as much of it had been washed
away due to the immersion in the water.

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The case was a brutal and confusing
one for police, who couldn't account

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for Samo's whereabouts before she went missing, but did know that she didn't leave

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the area in a taxi. The
assumption was whoever had killed her had picked

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her up in a car. Samo's
family were devastated by the news, and

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of course, she left behind a
very young daughter and a boyfriend who had

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to come to terms with what had
happened. Time began to pass in Samo's

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case, and it was featured on
Crime Watch in the hope that this would

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jug someone's memory and information would be
forthcome in. Unfortunately, this is not

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what happened, and her unsolved case
grew cold in the years following the murder.

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In that time, however, another
murder of a sex worker hit the

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headlines just four months after Samo's murder, and on the same evening that her

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case was featured on National TV on
Crime Watch. On Thursday the third of

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March nineteen ninety four, a man
driving on a country road in Lutterworth in

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Leicestershire noticed something in a field in
the early hours of the morning. He

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discovered when he looked closer that it
was the body of a woman that looked

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to have been abandoned there. Leicestershire
Constabulary attended the scene and it was later

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found that she had been strangled,
Her clothing and belongings were missing, and

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the woman had been left in the
field naked. Unfortunately, there didn't appear

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to be anything that could identify her, and trying to figure out who she

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was was proving difficult. Police began
to ask locally if anyone might know her

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and looked at missing person reports.
However, nothing came in this implied that

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this woman may not have come from
that area. Originally, police would later

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stay un Grimewatch that they were struggling
to get national coverage of the case,

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given that headlines were dominated by another
case, the discovery of bodies at the

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home of serial killers Fred and Rose
West. Due to the huge amount of

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interest in that case, police decided
to put a description out in the Sun

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newspaper and put out the information about
this unidentified woman to the public, hoping

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someone would recognize her. She was
described as around thirty to forty years old,

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white and around five feet one inches
tall. She weighed around thirteen stone

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and was a size twenty two with
quite small feet a size two and a

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half. She had fair, wavy, shoulder length hair and was wearing a

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thin silver band ring on her third
finger of her right hand. An artist's

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impression was also produced. From seeing
the pictures and hearing the description, someone

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did recognize the woman that was being
described. Ron Naife contacted police and said

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that he knew who she was.
He said the woman was Tracy Turner.

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Tracy was thirty years old at the
time, and Ron explained that his relationship

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was both landlord and tenant and also
they had been lovers for a time.

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Ron was able to provide a lot
of information about Tracy, and it was

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later confirmed that it was indeed her. Her family were contacted, including her

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mother Mary, who was so horrified
by the news. She later spoke about

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Tracy on Crimewatch, describing her as
a generous girl who didn't bear any grudges.

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She would lend anyone her last penny, and she wrote me some lovely

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letters. Mary said that she just
wished she'd been there to hold her hand.

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It was found that Tracy had hearing
problems from childhood and needed headphones and

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an amplifier to hear. This was
quite distinctive as it looked like a walkman.

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Tracy was involved in sex work and
had traveled around the country. She

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had lived in Sheffield, then in
London, and three years before her murder

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she'd moved to Stafford. Police learned
from Ron Knife that Tracy traveled extensively for

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her work and would hitchhike on the
motorway regularly. She used motorway service stations

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as her base and wouldn't think twice
about traveling great distances in one night.

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This made it difficult to establish where
she was picked up from and by whom

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Rontold police. He had last seen
her on Wednesday, the second of March,

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and he said she told him she
was going to the Abbey National Building

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Society to draw out some money.
She often did this to pay for a

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mini cab to get her to the
Hilton Park service station on the m six.

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Police found she visited the Building Society
at about two fifty five pm on

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the second and she took out five
pounds from an account with only six pounds

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in it. She was then seen
at half three at the Test Goes in

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town. Police were able to establish
from other sex workers who used the Motorway

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service station that Tracy was often there
and that she was there on the evening

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of the second. Police were able
to track down witnesses through petrol and service

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station receipts, and a Lorry driver
explained that he saw Tracy at the entrance

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to the motorway trying to hitch a
ride. As he set off to leave,

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he saw a red Mondeo pass her, then reverse. Tracy lent in

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the window and the Lorry driver drove
off. This driver was tracked down by

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a petrol receipt and he explained that
he left Tracy where she was. This

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was around twelve fifteen. This man
was cleared by police of involvement, but

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they knew that by one a m. Tracy was no longer there. They

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knew someone had picked her up in
this time. When Tracy's case was featured

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on Crime Watch, Detective Superintendent Dave
Cox appealed for anyone who was there at

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the time to come forward and for
any one that might have found her clothing

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or her head set an amplifier device
to come forward. He also discussed some

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forensic evidence that was recovered. Some
yellow flecks of paint had been found on

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Tracy's back and in her hair.
These flecks of paint had a high lead

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content and so were around ten years
old. It was paint used on plant

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and agricultural vehicles and things like J. C. Bee's and bulldozers. He

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was also questioned about possible links to
other murders of sex workers, such as

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sam O Paul and also that of
Dawn Shields. It was put to him

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that these murders could be linked and
could be someone traveling around the country for

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their work. Detective Superintendent Dave Cox
said it was possible, but that no

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concrete link had been made between the
cases. This is where Tracy's case seemed

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to have been left. With no
further information being found and little progress being

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made. Like Samo Paul's murder,
it seemed like it was going to go

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cold. It was only in December
nineteen ninety seven that the truth began to

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unravel. A woman in the seaside
town of Western super Mare was attacked and

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raped at knife point by a man
who was also staying in the same hostel.

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The woman escaped and reported the attack
to the police. The police attended

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00:25:52.599 --> 00:25:56.799
the hostel and found the man that
the woman had described. He was arrested

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and taken to the police station.
The man was found to be thirty four

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00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:07.240
year old Alan Kite. Kite was
charged with the attack on the woman,

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and he was later given a sentence
of eight years in prison. At the

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time that he was arrested, a
routine DNA sample was taken from him.

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This sample was uploaded to the DNA
database and police got a hit. His

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DNA was a match to a sample
that had been retrieved from Tracy Turner's body.

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This DNA match was reportedly thirty three
million to one that Kite had been

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the one to leave it behind.
He was later found that Kite had actually

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00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.880
been at Hilton Park Services two days
after the murder, posing as a newspaper

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00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:49.599
reporter, saying he was writing a
report about the murder. He was found

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00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:55.319
on CCTV doing this, which further
added to the horrific nature of the crime.

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00:26:56.839 --> 00:27:02.039
He wasn't just linked to Tracy Turner's
murder, though. Operation Enigma had

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00:27:02.039 --> 00:27:06.680
been set up to investigate many murders
of sex workers across the country, and

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00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:11.519
the theory had come about that Samo
and TRACE's murders were linked due to the

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00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:17.720
location of their bodies and the similarities
in the murders. Kite was known to

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00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:22.720
have attacked another sex worker in Balsall
Heath in nineteen ninety four, the same

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00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:27.519
area where Samo had been working.
He reportedly held a Stanley knife to her

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00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:33.240
neck and ordered her to take her
clothing off and give him her belongings.

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00:27:33.240 --> 00:27:37.279
She told him she was three months
pregnant, and Kite instead threw her out

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00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:44.440
of the car without attacking her.
This told police that he was familiar with

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00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:49.559
the area and that he was willing
to use violence. Kite worked driving around

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00:27:49.559 --> 00:27:53.880
the country as a lorry driver,
and so used motorway services often, as

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00:27:53.880 --> 00:28:02.279
well as visiting many different cities and
towns. As also saw a brown Ford

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00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:07.720
Sierra in Swimford where Samo had been
found with what looked like a dead woman

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00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:11.319
in the back. The witness said
that they had previously worked as a pathologist

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00:28:11.400 --> 00:28:17.599
and knew what a dead body looked
like. They later positively identified the body

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00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:22.839
as that of Samo Paul. The
witness said the man driving hid his face

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00:28:22.920 --> 00:28:27.599
with his hat. Kite later explained
that he had previously owned a brown Ford

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00:28:27.640 --> 00:28:34.240
Sierra car. This seemed to be
another link to Samo Paul. While there

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00:28:34.319 --> 00:28:38.319
was only forensic evidence to link Kite
to trace his murder. He was convicted

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00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:44.480
of both hers and Samo's murders in
two thousand. He was given a minimum

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00:28:44.559 --> 00:28:52.519
twenty five year sentence. The question
that many people now had was Kite responsible

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00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:57.559
for any other unsolved murders. He
was a violent and calculated killer who seemed

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00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:03.359
to tag its sex workers and regularly
traveled the country. The UK had many

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00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:07.960
murders of sex workers during the nineteen
nineties, and so it had to be

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00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:14.920
considered. One of those considered was
Dawn Shields. It's clear that police do

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00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:18.480
believe that Kite attacked more women.
However, evidence has not yet proven this

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00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:23.720
to be a fact. Kite has
since been convicted just this year of a

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00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:30.480
series of attacks and rapes on a
young boy during the nineteen eighties. He

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00:29:30.519 --> 00:29:34.720
has, however, denied killing Samo
Paul, but admitted to murdering Tracy Turner.

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00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.880
It's unclear if Kite was involved in
further murders, or whether he did

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00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:45.799
have anything to do with Dan Shield's
murder or not. In some ways,

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00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:51.960
Dan's murder does fit with Samoe and
Tracey's murders. She was a sex worker

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00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:56.400
and was murdered and left in a
remote location. Kite did travel around the

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00:29:56.440 --> 00:30:03.839
country and did no many areas well. If he was responsible for Dawn's murder,

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00:30:03.079 --> 00:30:07.079
he could not have been responsible for
that of MICHAELA. Haig, as

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00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:14.559
this took place after he had already
been arrested. There are many possible theories

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00:30:14.599 --> 00:30:18.000
in relation to Dawn's murder. Was
it linked to Kite and the other crimes

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00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:22.559
he committed, or was it connected
to Michaela's murder and was linked through the

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00:30:22.599 --> 00:30:30.640
connection to Sheffield, or were they
committed by completely different perpetrators. It's clear

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00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:36.359
whoever committed. It was violent and
dangerous and unfortunately they have not yet been

337
00:30:36.359 --> 00:30:41.119
apprehended. We know that the police
did have DNA and Dawn's murder case,

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00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:45.079
so it could have been matched against
Kite's DNA. However, there are no

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00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:51.640
reports to say if this has been
done. There are many unsolved murders of

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00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:55.880
sex workers across the country that still
lie unsolved, and this is such a

341
00:30:55.960 --> 00:31:00.839
tragedy. There seems to be a
lack of sympathy when orders of sex work

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00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:06.599
as a disgust, and many of
the original nineteen nineties reports lack some sensitivity

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00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:12.079
and empathy when talking about the victims. Their lives are equally important as other

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00:31:12.160 --> 00:31:15.799
victims' lives, and sadly, they
just seemed to be judged for the job

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00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:22.759
that they were doing and not looked
out as human beings. All of these

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00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:26.160
women were mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties, and friends and they were

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00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:32.240
loved by someone. It's such a
shame that they are simply categorized for their

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00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:37.000
choice of work and not acknowledged as
the people that they were. The fact

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00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:42.079
is these women deserve justice, and
while Samuel Paul and Tracy Turner did receive

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00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:48.640
that darn Shields and MICHAELA. Hay
didn't and their families are still wondering what

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00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:52.559
happened to them. If you know
anything about either of these murders, please

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00:31:52.640 --> 00:31:57.839
contact South Yorkshire Police on one oh
one or on zero one one four two

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00:31:57.960 --> 00:32:05.680
nine six three nine nine. Thank
you for listening to today's episode. If

354
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Find that wherever you listen and in
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Caprice and this has been unseen