Warrington mum relives horror second she discovered daughter, 23, shot lifeless in Texas

Lucy Harrison, 23, was shot dead at her dad’s house in Prosper, Texas, while on holiday with her boyfriend Sam Littler, just hours before they were due to fly home to the UK

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A mother has relived the horrifying moment she was told her daughter had been shot dead at her father’s home in the USA. Lucy Harrison, 23, was holidaying with her boyfriend, Sam Littler, and visiting her dad and his family in Prosper, Texas, when she was tragically killed in January 2025.

Lucy and Sam were scheduled to fly back home just hours after the fatal incident at her father’s residence. Her mum Jane Coates was jolted awake in the middle of the night by a knock on the door from Sam’s mother, who broke the devastating news.

Jane told the ECHO: “I thought it was something to do with Lucy and Sam’s house but then she said she had been shot and she’s not made it. That just doesn’t process. I just ran up the stairs and into my bedroom.”

Jane and Sam sat down exclusively with the ECHO in Jane’s three-storey terraced home in Warrington to publicly discuss for the first time the “beautiful” and “fierce” young woman, who passed away 13 months ago. Her inquest is set to be heard next week, reports the Liverpool Echo.

When asked how she would describe her daughter, Jane paused. “It’s so hard, isn’t it? It’s so hard to say. It’s so hard to capture who she was, and who she still is, using words because they just don’t come close.

“She was full of energy and life, and she was bold and brave. She was so emotionally intelligent, she was able to feel everything and she wasn’t ashamed of feeling everything.”

Lucy’s educational journey took her from Park Road Primary School to Great Sankey High School and Barrow Hall College, before she landed at Manchester Metropolitan University.

She achieved a first class degree in Fashion Buying and Merchandising, which led her to a role as a buyer’s admin assistant at Boohoo – a job she adored.

Jane said: “She had got her dream job and she was working hard. She was passionate. She used to see me as a teacher coming home and doing work, and she would be like ‘I wouldn’t be doing work like that’, basically calling me a mug. But then she would get her laptop out and she would tell me all about the critical path of the shoe department she worked in. She was so excited.”

In March 2024, Lucy and her boyfriend Sam made the big move into their own house in Warrington. As Jane sat with Sam in her living room, her white maltipoo Freddie, chosen by Lucy five years prior, playfully jumped around on the sofa.

Choking back tears, 23-year-old Sam told the ECHO: “Me and Lucy had both worked really hard to get to where we were. We both never took handouts and just worked hard to get where we were.”

Christmas Day 2024 was a day filled with joy and anticipation for Lucy, Sam and Jane. It marked their first Christmas in the home they had purchased just nine months earlier.

They invited their families over and prepared their inaugural Christmas dinner together for their parents. This marked their final goodbye before departing for the airport to journey to Texas, a trip Lucy had undertaken nearly a dozen times previously.

On Boxing Day, prior to their departure to America, Lucy popped round to Jane’s to return her mum’s book which had been left at her house the previous day. Jane recalls they took a stroll with Freddie, though she finds it difficult to recall specific details about their meeting.

She explained: “Boxing Day was the last time I saw Lucy. I can’t remember it, it’s like my mind has blocked it. I know she came over, I know she popped round before I travelled down to my parents’ in Stoke, and I think it’s my mind trying to protect myself.

“The next day, the 27th, she should have been flying so I downloaded FlightRadar and I actually watched the plane. It went the wrong way and it came off and I was like ‘oh’. Then, sure enough, I got a text from Lucy saying ‘oh my God, the flight engineers are coming, there’s something wrong with the engine’.”

Their Heathrow departure was scrapped and they were forced to remain overnight before making the journey to America the next day.

What should have been a routine break, one Lucy had taken numerous times before, will remain etched in the memories of those left behind. The day she and Sam were scheduled to return to the UK, January 10, witnessed Lucy being fatally shot at her father’s residence in the small community of Prosper, Texas.

Home to fewer than 45,000 residents, the town is an obscure suburb spanning Collin and Denton counties. Despite the horrific incidents that unfolded at the start of last year, no American media organisation covered the death until it emerged in the UK a month after Lucy was murdered.

Jane revealed to the ECHO how Sam’s mother, Helen, delivered the devastating news after she had initially missed two calls from an American detective at 1am on Saturday, January 11.

She recalled: “I was woken up around 2am on Saturday by Helen, Sam’s mum, knocking on the door. I think, normally, you’d expect if someone is knocking on your door in the middle of the night you know something bad has happened, but it just didn’t even process with me.

“I kind of stirred from my sleep and then I could hear the bangs. I was thinking it was the neighbours and then it carried on so I came down the stairs and I hesitated to open the door. Then Helen shouted and told me it was her.

“She told me the news very clearly. I can’t remember exactly what she said but she said it was something to do with Lucy. When she said it I thought, because they were away, I thought it was the house.

“I thought it was something to do with Lucy and Sam’s house but then she said she had been shot and she’s not made it. That just doesn’t process. I just ran up the stairs and into my bedroom.”

“I remember Helen sitting on the edge of the bed and I asked her if I was dreaming, it just did not compute, and she said no.”

After receiving the devastating news that her only daughter had died, what followed proved equally chaotic as she battled to obtain any details about the police inquiry into her death.

The ECHO revealed last year that nobody would face criminal prosecution in connection with Lucy’s shooting, with Jane describing how American investigators kept her completely in the dark.

Jane disclosed she wasn’t approached by Cheshire Police until mere days before her daughter’s inquest commenced on February 12 last year.

When a British citizen dies in suspicious circumstances in America, British officials hold no authority.

Despite Lucy sustaining a gunshot injury to her chest from “medium range” inflicted by another individual, a grand jury determined that nobody would face charges for the death on June 10 last year. A Texas grand jury comprises 12 individuals who determine whether sufficient probable cause exists to believe someone has committed a felony, examining all evidence behind closed doors.

Even if police have charged the accused, they remain unnamed should the grand jury opt to halt criminal proceedings.

Throughout this ordeal, Jane explained to the ECHO how she and her family desperately needed clearer communication from the Foreign Office.

She revealed: “They sent me a guide for bereaved families via an email on January 12. Any bereaved families member who is in shock and is distraught, you’re telling me that they’re going to read that, on their own?”.

The guide stated on its second page: “You will be assigned a caseworker with knowledge of the country in which your friend or relative died.”

It went on to promise Jane would receive assistance with legal proceedings and guidance following Lucy’s funeral. Jane added: “For me, we needed better communication about what on earth was happening over there in terms of their systems and their processes.

“They’ve got a consulate case worker out there who I had a meeting with and they said we needed better communication but when it’s a developed country they expect the authorities to liaise directly with us. What happens when they don’t?”.

Jane alleges it wasn’t until Sam and Helen contacted the Attorney General more than a month following Lucy’s death that they managed to obtain information about the investigation. It was only in April that Jane and Sam were assigned a victim support worker from the Foreign Office, following a referral from Cheshire Police, an oversight for which the government department later apologised.

A representative for the Foreign Office informed the ECHO: “We supported the family of a British woman who died in the US and were in contact with the local authorities.”

The spokesperson also referred the ECHO to the government’s advice on dealing with a death abroad.

More than a year has passed since Lucy’s tragic demise, and Jane and Sam continue to grapple with their loss. Sam has resumed his role as an account manager, while also undergoing counselling.

Jane has returned to her position as deputy manager at a local primary school, but she can’t shake off the feeling that Lucy might walk through the door at any moment.

“It’s when you hear the floorboards creak in the morning and I think ‘oh, Lucy is out of bed’, but she’s not. It’s just muscle memory,” Jane shared.

Since going back to work, Jane, 49, has maintained open communication with the parents at the school about the challenging circumstances her family is facing.

The next significant date is Tuesday, February 10, when a two-day inquest at Cheshire Coroner’s Court will delve into the details surrounding Lucy’s death. The hearing is also expected to reveal who fired the fatal shot.

Jane revealed: “I went to observe an inquest a couple of weeks ago to give me an idea of what it would look and feel like.

“When the coroner said the job of a coroner is to answer questions of why somebody died an unnatural death and to explore fully, fairly and fearlessly all of the evidence. That is what we are hoping for.

“Using that word fearlessly, when she said that, I just had a moment of Lucy being with me.”