Britain’s 1,000 unsolved murders mapped – discover out if killers may very well be in your city

When farmer, Jim Dawson was walking home from the pub, he was shot in the shoulder by an unknown attacker.

In his drunken state, he went to bed thinking a stone had been thrown at him, until he woke up the next morning with blood soaked sheets.

The 46-year-old went to Blackburn Royal Infirmary for treatment where medics removed a makeshift bullet. But his condition worsened four days later, leading to his death to gangrene and septicemia from the infected wound.

It triggered a murder investigation but detectives were met with wall of silence so solid, it earned Bashall Eaves the nickname “The Village That Wouldn’t Speak.”

The 1938 case is one of 1,000 unsolved murders documented across the UK. Among them was the death of Crimewatch presenter, Jill Dando who was gunned down on her own doorstep in 1999.

Others, no less brutal, have faded from the headlines such as the chilling spree of Jack the Stripper back in 1960s London which saw nude bodies dumped, or countless other cold cases that never got cracked.

They include the brutal murder of Anne Marie Foy, 46 who was found dumped on wasteland in Merseyside and Paul Rogers, 27 from Liverpool who was shot in his flat by two men wearing masks from the horror movie, Scream.

Each case has been the focus of a significant police investigation, with some dating back to the pre-war era and others within the last 10 years.

The map spotlights cold cases where culprits remain at large despite advancements in forensic science and technology.

The list includes many seemingly random attacks, typically on women, by strangers, as well as violent thefts, gangland murders, and contract killings.

Our exclusive catalogue was compiled from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every police force nationwide, supplemented with research from various local newspaper archives.

A common thread among many of the unsolved cases is that they appear to have been carried out by a stranger or someone with no obvious connection to the victim or a clear motive.

Criminologist Dr David Wilson – who has investigated many cold cases – said: “Nine in 10 murders are solved by police because usually the victim and the perpetrator know one other.

“Husbands kill wives, parents kill their children, friends kill each other. There is the phenomenon of young men killing other young men, but usually, they know each other.

“There’s usually a relationship between the murderer and victim.

“Unsolved cases tend to be when there is no prior relationship between the murderer and victim, or the police have no physical evidence to connect the main suspect.

“Victims of unsolved murders are usually people who don’t have well-established roots in the community, so no one will know when they have gone missing, no one will think it’s suspicious.”

Families are still out there desperate for closure, hungering for justice, while somewhere out there, the killer might just be living it up, breathing free air among us all.

* Britain’s unsolved murders newsprint edition is available to buy at participating independent retailers and supermarkets in the UK OR you can purchase it online HERE. For online purchases postage and packaging applies.