Police have now been forced to reopen the investigation after saying it was ‘non-suspicious’
A family has forced police to reopen an investigation into the death of a woman found wearing just one sock, and surrounded by splatters of blood. Katie Beattie, 27, was found dead in her flat in Lancaster, Lancashire, on July 1, 2024.
Her mum and dad, Shonna, 61, and David Beattie, 67, were concerned they hadn’t heard from her for a few days. They phoned the emergency services who arrived at Katie’s flat and found her wearing just one sock, with bruises on her body.
A neighbour’s doorbell footage shows Katie entering her flat with a man a few days before she was found dead, and the neighbour saw him leaving again the day before her body was discovered. Police enquiries initially concluded there was no evidence to suggest her death was suspicious.
However, her family say they have unanswered questions and campaigned for a fresh review of the case – which has now reopened. Katie’s sister, Kellie Rhodes, 38, a retail assistant, from Lancaster, said: “Over the last two years, we haven’t had time to grieve.
“We want a criminal prosecution for the male who was in her flat. We believe there is enough evidence to build a case against him. The deterioration of her body, in my opinion, shows that he was at the scene when she died.
“We found a needle mark on her foot, and there was no needle at the scene – I don’t know what more they need. As a family, we have been doing the police’s job for them to bring our family answers.”
Kellie described Katie as a “happy-go-lucky” girl who “loved animals.” But said Katie had struggled with alcoholism, to cope with her autism, which led her to get involved with “the wrong crowd”. Kellie, who spoke to Talk to the Press, said. “She was self-medicating, locking herself away and drinking.
“She had been in rehab a few times and met a lot of unsavoury characters – things got worse from there.”
On June 28, 2024, Kellie, Shonna and David had dropped Katie off at her flat after a 13 day stint at a mental health unit in Barrow-in-Furness. Kellie said that Katie was the “healthiest I had seen her in a long time.”
Her dad told Katie that if she needed anything, Kellie and her other sister Emily, 32, were around the corner – and that he made her promise him she would be fine. But later that weekend, Katie’s parents hadn’t heard anything from her and suspected something was wrong.
David and Shonna were away at the time, so on July 1, 2024, they called the police, and the family claims they refused to do a welfare check. It wasn’t until 6pm that an ambulance and fire crew arrived at Katie’s flat and found her lifeless body on her bed.
“We already knew that there was a male in her flat as the neighbour sent us the doorbell footage,” Kellie said. “These were not the kind of people that you would want to talk to, so we asked the police to go around. We believe that these men were taking advantage of Katie, as she was vulnerable.”
Kellie and Emily immediately drove to Katie’s flat, where paramedics were standing outside the property. Kellie said she was told the police had sent for a forensic foot plate from Blackpool, so she was under the impression they were investigating it as a crime.
The following day, around 3am, police turned up at Kellie’s home with Katie’s guinea pig and new keys, telling her the locks had been changed, and no further action was planned. Kellie said: “They told me the next call would be from the mortuary to go and identify Katie’s body.
“I stayed up all night waiting for that call. I went down that day with my aunt and sister to see her.”
At the mortuary, Kellie claims staff said that the police were not treating the death as suspicious. The day after, on July 3, 2024, she returned with her parents and persuaded the staff to check Katie’s toes for puncture marks, which the family say they found.
The family also claim they were told that Katie’s left foot, which had the puncture mark, had been cleaned prior to her arriving in the mortuary. Police enquiries initially concluded there was no evidence to suggest her death was suspicious, and an inquest was unable to determine how she died.
“I had gone into Katie’s flat when I got the keys back, and I could not believe what I was seeing,” Kellie said. “You could see the outline of where Katie was lying on the bed; it was brown and discoloured. “There were blood droplets by the sofa, on the ceiling and by the bed.
“I saw a bottle of washing up liquid on the bed, empty bottles of vodka – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and that the police saw nothing suspicious.”
After the case was officially closed in August 2025, Kellie submitted a victim’s right to review application. Now Lancashire Police have confirmed that the original investigation has been reassessed, and further enquiries are now being conducted.
Kellie said: “This has been a two-year battle. We have done all the work, we pushed every bit of the way. My dad was going around getting CCTV from local places and asking them to send it to the police.
“He has been going around talking to people and putting posters up. We shouldn’t have done any of this.”
Lancashire Police have appealed for anyone with information that could assist the investigation to come forward. A spokesman said: “The initial investigation has been reviewed following a victim’s right to review, and further enquiries are being conducted following this.
“Anyone with information that can assist those enquiries is asked to call 101 quoting log 1092 of 1 July 2024.”