Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today, we're going to
be exploring the unsolved murder of nineteen year old Dawn Shields in nineteen ninety four.
Darn had had a trouble passed in her short life and the way she
had been killed and left was so tragic. Dawn was one of a number
of young women to be murdered during the nineteen nineties, and many of these
cases still remain unsolved. The question is was Dawn's murder at all link to
any of these other murders. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find
distressing, such as discussion about sex work, sexual assaults, including rape,
and the abuse of a child. None of these descriptions are long or graphic,
but listener discretion is always advised. On the twenty first of May nineteen
ninety four, a National Trust Park ranger was working close to the hill called
Mam Tour near to Castleton in High Peak in the Peak District. Mam Tour
is a one thousand, six hundred and ninety six foot hill located in the
picturesque Nature Reserve of kinder Scout. It's a popular tourist and walking spot,
and its distance of around forty miles from other northern cities makes it convenient for
people wanting to visit. That day, this park ranger was doing his usual
checks and decided to take a slightly different route to the one he usually took
in the area when he noticed something strange. A pile of rocks caught his
attention and caused him to look twice, and he looked closer, he noticed
why it had caught his attention. Underneath the pile of rocks, he spotted
what looked to be limbs. What he had actually uncovered was the naked body
of a woman, partly concealed underneath debris on the slopes of man Tore.
The police were immediately called and was shocked by the discovery in this usual beauty
spot. From the concealment state and location of the body, it was evident
that this had been a deliberate murder. This was also in addition to extensive
wounds that were discovered when the body was examined. The woman had suffered huge
head wounds and it would later be established that she had been strangled. Despite
the body being naked. Examination could find no outward signs that she had been
sexually assaulted, and the reason for her naked body to have been left where
it was was a huge mystery. The other mystery was, of course,
the identity of the woman, Why was she up here and where had she
come from. Police took the woman's fingerprints in the hope they would have her
information in their database. They were lucky that they did get a hit.
The woman was nineteen year old Dawn Shields. Dawn lived in Sheffield and at
the time that her body was recovered from ma'am Tor, she'd been missing for
about a week. Dawn was the mother of an eleven month old little boy,
and her mum and her sister were desperate to find out what could have
happened to her. Dawn had been working in the Broomhall area of the city
of Sheffield as a sex worker, and while this, of course is a
dangerous career choice, it was not one that Dawn had entered lightly. It
had been reported that Dawn had been pressured into sex work at the early age
of fourteen and had struggled with some troubled teenage years. Dawn had reportedly got
involved with an older man during this time, and this older man allegedly worked
as a pimp. This had been Dawn's introduction to sex work and it was
clear that she was a vulnerable child. Dawn continued to work in the Broomhall
area of Sheffield, which during the nineteen nineties did have a reputation as being
part of the red light district of the city and was not necessarily known as
a safe place to be, particularly at night. While Dawn continued to work
as a sex worker when she was eighteen, she also took on another role,
that of a mother to her son. Dawn was a loving mother who
knew that she had to provide for him, and so she continued to go
out to work to make money. This is what Dawn was doing in the
early hours of the fourteenth of May nineteen ninety four. Dawn had vanished at
some point those hours, and her body had now been found around twenty miles
away on the slopes of Mam Tour. How had this happened and why?
When police began to look into Dawn's whereabouts in those early hours, they discovered
an important fact. She had been spotted getting into a car in broom Hall
before she vanished, and this became a very significant clue to where she could
have gone. This car was definitely of interest to police. However, this
was a difficult lead to follow up on, given that due to the nature
of sex work, women do routinely get into cars with strangers. This car
may or may not have actually had anything to do with Dawn's murder. However,
police knew that a car had to be involved given the distance between where
Dawn was known to be and where her body was found. Police believed that
someone had picked Dawn up in the early hours and had murdered her, but
who this person was and the motive for this murder were unknown. Dawn's family
were devastated by the news, and of course, Dawn had left behind her
son, who had to grow up without his mother and without answers. Due
to the difficulty in pinning down who this suspect could be, Darn's murder investigation
began to grow cold, and without significant leads, it was proving difficult to
solve. Forensic techniques were still being developed during the nineteen nineties, and while
they were being used in cases, they were not at the level that they
are today, and technology was improving all the time, police hoped that new
techniques would be able to identify Dawn's killer in the future, and so they
kept exhibits that had been taken from the crime scene in the hope that this
could be used later on. In the years that followed, they also hoped
that new information may solve the case. However, unfortunately, it was another
murder which would eventually be referenced in relation to Dawns that would put her case
back into the headlines. Seven years after Dawn's murder, In the early morning
hours of the fifth of November two thousand and one, twenty five year old
Michaela Haig was working as a sex worker in Sheffield City Center. Michaela came
from a loving family, and her mom and dad, Jackie and Mick,
would later describe her as a lovely, beautiful daughter. Michaela was also a
vulnerable person and had sadly developed a heroin addiction, which had led her down
the path of sex work. She continued to take part in sex work to
fund this addiction and also make money for her and her five year old son.
In the early hours of that morning, Michaela was working on Bower Road,
just off Corporation Street, when she was picked up by a customer in
a car. Like in Don's murder investigation, this was not necessarily as helpful
as it may have been in other cases, given that it wasn't unusual.
What came next, however, was though. Not long after Michaela had been
picked up in the car, another woman also working as a sex worker,
discovered her bleeding profusely in a secluded car park close to where she was picked
up, near the Manchester Pub which is now named the Harlequin. The other
woman quickly raised the alarm and police were immediately dispatched at the scene. Michaela
was clinging onto life when police and emergency services arrived, and she was quickly
taken to Northern General Hospital for treatment. At the hospital, it was discovered
that she had been stabbed nineteen times in both the neck and the back.
This had been a violent and vicious attack, and one that defied all logic
an understanding. Three hours after she arrived at the hospital, Michaela sadly passed
away. The police now had a murder investigation on their hands, but in
some ways they were slightly further on than they had been with Darn's murder.
As Michaela had been found very quickly after she'd been attacked. She was still
conscious and able to tell an attending police officer some information about the perpetrator.
This police officer was able to drop this information down on his hand before Michaela
was taken away in the ambulance. She told them that her killer had been
white, around thirty eight years of age and around six feet tall. He
was clean shaven, wearing a blue fleece and glasses. She also gave them
the additional information that he wore a wedding ring. This was a huge amount
of important information to have and certainly must have helped narrow down the surface.
It showed the bravery and determination of Michaela that she was able to provide all
of this information despite the awful attack that she had just gone through. There
was also a witness sighting in Michaela's case which could help the investigation. At
the time of the murder, a blue old style Ford Sierra was spotted driving
away from the scene. It was thought that this could be connected to the
murder, given the proximity to the scene at the time and the small window
of time between the attack and Michaela being found. An Efit was produced of
the man that Michaela described and it was hoped that someone would recognize him and
be able to give the police the information that they needed to catch this violent
perpetrator. Michaela's murder was featured on crime Watch and police were hoping that the
nationwide coverage might catch the killer and that he may well have been passing through
the area on the NIVE and may be known to someone elsewhere in the country.
Unfortunately, this was not the case and any leads that did come in
did not lead to the killer being caught. This was disappointing for both the
police and Michaela's family, and it's clear that everyone involved with the investigation were
affected by the murder. Michaela's family described her murder as ripping their family apart,
and the police were determined to try and find out who had done it.
The violence of the attack on Michaela was so concerning that they knew they
had to figure out who had committed it. It was one of the largest
investigations in South Yorkshire history and thousands of people were reportably interviewed in relation to
it. Officers traveled up and down the country trying to locate all of the
owners of blue Ford Sierras in the country, but despite this effort, the
perpetrator was not found. As a result, ten years after her murder,
it was still unsolved, and Michaela's partner, Mick, told the press there
can be no bigger sin than taking a mother away from her child. He
also commented that he was worried that the killer may strike again as he had
not yet been found. Like Dawn's investigation, Michaela's began to grow cold,
with police hoping that DNA technology may eventually find out the perpetrator. Darn and
Michaela's cases have frequently been linked together as they were both unsolved murders where the
victim had been working as a sex worker and had been picked up in a
car in the city center. There is, however, no evidence that they
were perpetrated by the same person or that they are in any way connected.
Despite their similarities, there are also differences. The killer in Dawn's case had
taken her body and buried it elsewhere, whereas in Michaela's case he left her
where he stabbed her. It's important, however, to highlight both of these
cases as they remain unsolved today and the killers of evaded justice. In two
and nineteen, South Yorkshire Police carried out a review of Dawn's case, examining
previously unfound DNA samples to testigates the database. It was hoped that they would
get a hit despite this review, though there doesn't seem to be any more
progress made or at least reported on, since then. Whether the DNA yielded
any results isn't clear. Former Detective Dave Stopford, who leads the team,
said, we routinely review unsolved murders by looking at new information or evidence.
Using the advances in identification through DNA in historic cases has been successful in a
number of investigations and we are hopeful in this one. It would seem that
while police were taking Darna Michaela's cases seriously, solving them was proving very difficult
and in Dawns there was a distinct lack of evidence and suspects. In the
years following Dawn's murder, there have been many theories put forward for who may
have been involved. One of the theories put forward was the serial killer Alan
Kite, who became known as the Midlands Ripper. Alan Kite was convicted of
two murders in two thousand that of Samoe Paul and Tracy Turner. These two
women had several things in common, but one of them was that they were
both sex workers. Samoe Paul was just twenty years old and a mother of
a fifteen month old daughter, working in the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham.
Samoe worked as a sex worker part time and just worked Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights, and had been doing this for around the past twelve months.
Samoe lived with her boyfriend and daughter in a flat and Rowley regis a town
close to West Bromwich. She usually traveled to work in the red light district
of Balsall Heath in Birmingham City Center. Samoe usually got a taxi to take
her into the center and this is what she did. On the evening of
the third of December nineteen ninety three, Samoe traveled to Hallam Street, which
is where she usually went to work. There didn't appear to be anything different
about her evening, however, she didn't return to her home as she usually
did. Her boyfriend was concerned about the fact she hadn't returned as this wasn't
like her. He reported her missing the next day, and an investigation was
launched. Police began trying to figure out Samo's whereabouts in the hours prior to
her disappearance, but like in Darna Michaela's cases, trying to track down who
she saw and when was tricky. One interesting thing about that evening was that
police were around in the area doing something called a Punter operation initiative, which
meant that female undercover police officers were stopping people who were curb crawling and sending
them on their way. When police asked other possible witnesses who were in the
area, including other sex workers, it appeared that nobody had spotted anything strange
and they hadn't seen Samo at all. Where could she have gone and what
could have possibly happened to her In the next few weeks, the investigation continued,
but Samo wasn't located, she hadn't accessed her bank account or any benefits
coming in. It wasn't until three weeks later that there was another development in
the case. Around thirty miles from Leicestershire, close to the village of Swinford,
a horse rider spotted a body in an eight foot ditch which was filled
with rainwater. Upon further investigation, police were able to establish that this was
indeed Samo Paul and she had been murdered. She had been found semi naked
with just her dress on. She was missing her bra, knickers, shoes,
and a purse. There were no obvious injuries to her body to suggest
what had happened. The post mortem, however, suggested that her cause of
death could have been strangulation, as her neck had internal bruising. As Samoe's
body had been left in the water, it was difficult to tell how long
her body had been there, and there was also a lack of forensic evidence
as much of it had been washed away due to the immersion in the water.
The case was a brutal and confusing one for police, who couldn't account
for Samo's whereabouts before she went missing, but did know that she didn't leave
the area in a taxi. The assumption was whoever had killed her had picked
her up in a car. Samo's family were devastated by the news, and
of course, she left behind a very young daughter and a boyfriend who had
to come to terms with what had happened. Time began to pass in Samo's
case, and it was featured on Crime Watch in the hope that this would
jug someone's memory and information would be forthcome in. Unfortunately, this is not
what happened, and her unsolved case grew cold in the years following the murder.
In that time, however, another murder of a sex worker hit the
headlines just four months after Samo's murder, and on the same evening that her
case was featured on National TV on Crime Watch. On Thursday the third of
March nineteen ninety four, a man driving on a country road in Lutterworth in
Leicestershire noticed something in a field in the early hours of the morning. He
discovered when he looked closer that it was the body of a woman that looked
to have been abandoned there. Leicestershire Constabulary attended the scene and it was later
found that she had been strangled, Her clothing and belongings were missing, and
the woman had been left in the field naked. Unfortunately, there didn't appear
to be anything that could identify her, and trying to figure out who she
was was proving difficult. Police began to ask locally if anyone might know her
and looked at missing person reports. However, nothing came in this implied that
this woman may not have come from that area. Originally, police would later
stay un Grimewatch that they were struggling to get national coverage of the case,
given that headlines were dominated by another case, the discovery of bodies at the
home of serial killers Fred and Rose West. Due to the huge amount of
interest in that case, police decided to put a description out in the Sun
newspaper and put out the information about this unidentified woman to the public, hoping
someone would recognize her. She was described as around thirty to forty years old,
white and around five feet one inches tall. She weighed around thirteen stone
and was a size twenty two with quite small feet a size two and a
half. She had fair, wavy, shoulder length hair and was wearing a
thin silver band ring on her third finger of her right hand. An artist's
impression was also produced. From seeing the pictures and hearing the description, someone
did recognize the woman that was being described. Ron Naife contacted police and said
that he knew who she was. He said the woman was Tracy Turner.
Tracy was thirty years old at the time, and Ron explained that his relationship
was both landlord and tenant and also they had been lovers for a time.
Ron was able to provide a lot of information about Tracy, and it was
later confirmed that it was indeed her. Her family were contacted, including her
mother Mary, who was so horrified by the news. She later spoke about
Tracy on Crimewatch, describing her as a generous girl who didn't bear any grudges.
She would lend anyone her last penny, and she wrote me some lovely
letters. Mary said that she just wished she'd been there to hold her hand.
It was found that Tracy had hearing problems from childhood and needed headphones and
an amplifier to hear. This was quite distinctive as it looked like a walkman.
Tracy was involved in sex work and had traveled around the country. She
had lived in Sheffield, then in London, and three years before her murder
she'd moved to Stafford. Police learned from Ron Knife that Tracy traveled extensively for
her work and would hitchhike on the motorway regularly. She used motorway service stations
as her base and wouldn't think twice about traveling great distances in one night.
This made it difficult to establish where she was picked up from and by whom
Rontold police. He had last seen her on Wednesday, the second of March,
and he said she told him she was going to the Abbey National Building
Society to draw out some money. She often did this to pay for a
mini cab to get her to the Hilton Park service station on the m six.
Police found she visited the Building Society at about two fifty five pm on
the second and she took out five pounds from an account with only six pounds
in it. She was then seen at half three at the Test Goes in
town. Police were able to establish from other sex workers who used the Motorway
service station that Tracy was often there and that she was there on the evening
of the second. Police were able to track down witnesses through petrol and service
station receipts, and a Lorry driver explained that he saw Tracy at the entrance
to the motorway trying to hitch a ride. As he set off to leave,
he saw a red Mondeo pass her, then reverse. Tracy lent in
the window and the Lorry driver drove off. This driver was tracked down by
a petrol receipt and he explained that he left Tracy where she was. This
was around twelve fifteen. This man was cleared by police of involvement, but
they knew that by one a m. Tracy was no longer there. They
knew someone had picked her up in this time. When Tracy's case was featured
on Crime Watch, Detective Superintendent Dave Cox appealed for anyone who was there at
the time to come forward and for any one that might have found her clothing
or her head set an amplifier device to come forward. He also discussed some
forensic evidence that was recovered. Some yellow flecks of paint had been found on
Tracy's back and in her hair. These flecks of paint had a high lead
content and so were around ten years old. It was paint used on plant
and agricultural vehicles and things like J. C. Bee's and bulldozers. He
was also questioned about possible links to other murders of sex workers, such as
sam O Paul and also that of Dawn Shields. It was put to him
that these murders could be linked and could be someone traveling around the country for
their work. Detective Superintendent Dave Cox said it was possible, but that no
concrete link had been made between the cases. This is where Tracy's case seemed
to have been left. With no further information being found and little progress being
made. Like Samo Paul's murder, it seemed like it was going to go
cold. It was only in December nineteen ninety seven that the truth began to
unravel. A woman in the seaside town of Western super Mare was attacked and
raped at knife point by a man who was also staying in the same hostel.
The woman escaped and reported the attack to the police. The police attended
the hostel and found the man that the woman had described. He was arrested
and taken to the police station. The man was found to be thirty four
year old Alan Kite. Kite was charged with the attack on the woman,
and he was later given a sentence of eight years in prison. At the
time that he was arrested, a routine DNA sample was taken from him.
This sample was uploaded to the DNA database and police got a hit. His
DNA was a match to a sample that had been retrieved from Tracy Turner's body.
This DNA match was reportedly thirty three million to one that Kite had been
the one to leave it behind. He was later found that Kite had actually
been at Hilton Park Services two days after the murder, posing as a newspaper
reporter, saying he was writing a report about the murder. He was found
on CCTV doing this, which further added to the horrific nature of the crime.
He wasn't just linked to Tracy Turner's murder, though. Operation Enigma had
been set up to investigate many murders of sex workers across the country, and
the theory had come about that Samo and TRACE's murders were linked due to the
location of their bodies and the similarities in the murders. Kite was known to
have attacked another sex worker in Balsall Heath in nineteen ninety four, the same
area where Samo had been working. He reportedly held a Stanley knife to her
neck and ordered her to take her clothing off and give him her belongings.
She told him she was three months pregnant, and Kite instead threw her out
of the car without attacking her. This told police that he was familiar with
the area and that he was willing to use violence. Kite worked driving around
the country as a lorry driver, and so used motorway services often, as
well as visiting many different cities and towns. As also saw a brown Ford
Sierra in Swimford where Samo had been found with what looked like a dead woman
in the back. The witness said that they had previously worked as a pathologist
and knew what a dead body looked like. They later positively identified the body
as that of Samo Paul. The witness said the man driving hid his face
with his hat. Kite later explained that he had previously owned a brown Ford
Sierra car. This seemed to be another link to Samo Paul. While there
was only forensic evidence to link Kite to trace his murder. He was convicted
of both hers and Samo's murders in two thousand. He was given a minimum
twenty five year sentence. The question that many people now had was Kite responsible
for any other unsolved murders. He was a violent and calculated killer who seemed
to tag its sex workers and regularly traveled the country. The UK had many
murders of sex workers during the nineteen nineties, and so it had to be
considered. One of those considered was Dawn Shields. It's clear that police do
believe that Kite attacked more women. However, evidence has not yet proven this
to be a fact. Kite has since been convicted just this year of a
series of attacks and rapes on a young boy during the nineteen eighties. He
has, however, denied killing Samo Paul, but admitted to murdering Tracy Turner.
It's unclear if Kite was involved in further murders, or whether he did
have anything to do with Dan Shield's murder or not. In some ways,
Dan's murder does fit with Samoe and Tracey's murders. She was a sex worker
and was murdered and left in a remote location. Kite did travel around the
country and did no many areas well. If he was responsible for Dawn's murder,
he could not have been responsible for that of MICHAELA. Haig, as
this took place after he had already been arrested. There are many possible theories
in relation to Dawn's murder. Was it linked to Kite and the other crimes
he committed, or was it connected to Michaela's murder and was linked through the
connection to Sheffield, or were they committed by completely different perpetrators. It's clear
whoever committed. It was violent and dangerous and unfortunately they have not yet been
apprehended. We know that the police did have DNA and Dawn's murder case,
so it could have been matched against Kite's DNA. However, there are no
reports to say if this has been done. There are many unsolved murders of
sex workers across the country that still lie unsolved, and this is such a
tragedy. There seems to be a lack of sympathy when orders of sex work
as a disgust, and many of the original nineteen nineties reports lack some sensitivity
and empathy when talking about the victims. Their lives are equally important as other
victims' lives, and sadly, they just seemed to be judged for the job
that they were doing and not looked out as human beings. All of these
women were mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties, and friends and they were
loved by someone. It's such a shame that they are simply categorized for their
choice of work and not acknowledged as the people that they were. The fact
is these women deserve justice, and while Samuel Paul and Tracy Turner did receive
that darn Shields and MICHAELA. Hay didn't and their families are still wondering what
happened to them. If you know anything about either of these murders, please
contact South Yorkshire Police on one oh one or on zero one one four two
nine six three nine nine. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If
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Find that wherever you listen and in the show notes. As always, I'm
Caprice and this has been unseen