Hello and welcome to Wives and Knives: a true crime podcast. With your hosts Dani Smith & Kelly Lee.
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How is everyone? We hope you are doing well and surviving as best you can.
This week’s case is the unsolved murder of Janet Murgatroyd. And It’s another local one. - Janet was a 20-year-old student who was brutally murdered in Preston, June 1996.
Janet was from Penwortham, I’m aware of what Dani said about me being all blasé about locations, so for those that don’t know the area; Penwortham is a small town in south ribble near to the city of Preston, Lancashire.
Janet was the daughter of former Chorley football club chairman David and Mother, Mary Murgatroyd. Janet was their only child and despite the couple splitting up when she was young, she had a good childhood and was adored by her parents.
She went to All Hallows’ high school in Penwortham, where headmaster at the time Michael Flynn described her as a lovely girl who was full of fun and the joys of life. The model student went on to attend Preston college before going on to study for a law degree at the university of central Lancashire, in Preston; again, she was described as an excellent student who passed her exams with flying colours.
(Uclan is the common name for the University of central Lancashire)
At the same time as studying for her degree at Uclan Janet worked part time at the Lancashire constabulary headquarters crime input bureau, as an admin clerk.
Her boss there, Karen Hives stated that "she struck her colleagues as a very determined young woman who had decided what she wanted to do with her life and was a very energetic and confident young lady."
She is often described as being head strong, not afraid to speak up and a leader.
Let’s go over what happened, or at least what we know happened.
On Saturday 15th June 1996, Janet had been shopping with her friend Fiona Watson, in Preston town centre. They had returned to Fiona’s flat in The Ashton area of the city to change and drop of their purchases before going back into town for drinks.
Which Sounds like a pretty nice day with your bestie to be fair. I would love to be able to do something like that now.
For context this is the same day as the euro 96 football match between England and Scotland so there would have been a busy day drinking atmosphere in town. It was also the day of the Arndale shopping centre bombing in Manchester - this was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since WW2. It was an IRA Lorry bomb, thankfully there were no fatalities, but 200 people were injured, and it caused a serious amount of damage.
I read that Janet & her friend were planning to go to Manchester that day? But due to the bombing they stayed in Preston?
Janet is out with her friend Fiona in town, they are partaking in a few beverages of an alcoholic nature and like you said, they are having a good time. It’s been a great day, the sun’s been out, and they’ve been to a few pubs, a mini crawl, but have ended up in the Adelphi. The Adelphi is a well-known pub in Preston.
Janet meets a guy in the Adelphi, and they hit it off. This guy is called Brendan Connell.
Brendan is also a student, but he doesn’t know Janet and has only just met her that night. They get along and have been spending time together in the pub with Fiona chatting to his friend.
Solid wing woman Fiona!
Brendan and Janet leave the pub together and I think it’s at this point when Fiona loses her friend, and to be fair she’s probably not that concerned as she knows Janet is with Brendan.
Janet and Brendan make their way into town, a few minutes away is the old black bull pub and this is where our young ins sneak behind the building for a kiss and a ‘gentle fondle’
Brendan says that he soon stopped as quote "I felt she was drunk, and I didn’t want to take advantage any further and I prepared to move on"
I did also hear that he had a girlfriend at the time so maybe he just had a moment of conscience? Whatever happened, Brendan then walks with Janet into town.
They are captured on cctv hand in hand at about 00.25am walking past Tokyo Jo’s nightclub.
This spotting near Tokes would be on track for him going home to Avenham Lane.
When Brendan is almost home, he suggests that Janet get a taxi to her house and leaves her near Bolton’s court, when he meets some friends, this is approx. 00.45am.
Can you imagine - that must be horrible - meeting someone on a night out who is later murdered and having to tell the courts what you got up to together behind a pub.
And you would think there would be an element of guilt there, if only he had put her in a taxi. I’d feel terrible but as we’ll see he may not be the only one feeling guilty in the coming days...
The next CCTV Footage of Janet is around 4 minutes later, and she is described as ‘weaving’ her way along fishergate, the main road through the centre of Preston. Witnesses described her as intoxicated and said that part of her white body top (the one’s with poppers) was hanging out over the top of her jeans.
There are lots of sightings of Janet along fishergate - She tried unsuccessfully to flag down a taxi. She also bumped into some of her friends but didn’t stay with them.
Janet was well known in the area among her peers, so like she would have bumped into ex school mates and people she knew as she walked through town.
Shortly before 1am two young men found her lying half on the pavement and half in the road and offered assistance, but she declined, and they left. She was apparently spotted asleep/passed out outside the train station and then two other young men later saw her walking toward Broadgate Gardens. They walked with her for three or four minutes to the bottom of Fishergate Hill. They intended to walk with her along Broadgate Gardens, but she declined.
Just after 1am a man called John Livesey who was driving his mum home encountered Janet. his mum was concerned for her well-being and encouraged him to pull over. Janet at the same time tried to flag them down and he had to stop the car for fear of hitting her. John became concerned apparently that the clearly drunk girl may be sick in his car, so he drove off and on to his mum’s house.
The next sighting of Janet was by a taxi driver at approx. 01.30am, who says that he saw a woman fitting Janet’s description being chased by a man across Penwortham bridge. For whatever reason, the taxi driver didn’t stop (or not long enough to ascertain what was happening) and left the scene.
At around the same time there are reports of a man and a woman seen to be having an argument in the gardens by Broadgate and Penwortham Bridge.
Shortly after this sighting two male witnesses, brothers who had been walking home, reported hearing what sounded like a female moaning and a man crouched on the riverbank by priory road car park. Police believe this to be Janet and more than likely her attacker.
These are reported after the event, not at the time.
What would you do? If you were walking home and you heard that and saw that?
Obviously, my mind is going to "someone is being murdered" when in fact it could be a couple shagging/dogging. Tough one.
Sadly, Janet is found around midday, later that same Sunday the 16th of June. Her naked body is found floating in the river ribble between The Bridge Inn Pub and the Continental Pub, and the police are called.
She was found by a water skier and sadly the man that found her later took his own life.
Janet has been subjected to a vicious attack, leaving her savagely beaten, with a broken nose and severe head injuries. She has scratches to the back of her legs seemingly showing she was dragged through the undergrowth and has been subjected to a serious sexual assault. When they complete the post-mortem the cause of death is documented as being both head injuries and drowning, meaning that Janet was alive when she went into the river. Horrific.
An item of blood-stained clothing is found by a photographer who alerts the police, and the rest of her clothes are discovered on the bank of the river at priory park by some children who are playing there and who call the police, when the police get there though they find that her jeans, size ten wranglers and her knickers are missing: along with her purse.
A murder inquiry is launched and there is a lot of focus on the case, with Janet being featured on crime watch in early September 1996.
The police have leads and lots of information but nothing useful in securing a clear suspect. I believe the first suspect in the case was a lorry driver from Liverpool, but he was later ruled out of the case completely.
As part of the investigation over 1500 people are interviewed and the murder squad had 17 official ‘suspects’ that they interviewed in connection with the case. Nobody is officially charged with Janet’s murder.
Until 3 years later the 2nd of August,1999. A twenty-five-year-old man from Lostock hall, near Preston, called Andrew Phillip Greenwood go’s up to two police officers; pc Halliwell and wpc Cunningham and tells them that he killed Janet three years earlier following a chance encounter.
He is arrested and in 5 separate interviews makes repeated and extremely detailed admissions of guilt.
Greenwood told the officers that he had met Janet by chance, she had been drunk and he had seen her as ‘easy’ he had tried to chat her up, but she had laughed in his face. He had tried to kiss her, and She had become hysterical, so he had dragged her into the undergrowth where he had ‘lost it’ and started the attack.
He also said that at one point he had to cover Janet’s mouth with force when two men walked past, a mark on her cheek had been found which was consistent with this version of events and tallied with the two brother’s statement.
Greenwood said he then panicked so stripped Janet and threw her into the river, watching as her body moved down stream and got stuck on branches/sand bank before dislodging and continuing to move on.
Afterwards he returned to his flat and was sick. It had been eating away at him for three years along with the guilt he felt over the man, who had found Janet, killing himself.
The police have a confession which contains details they believe only the killer would know however what they don’t have is any physical evidence placing Greenwood at the scene nor do they have any useable DNA evidence. All they have is a few hairs, one from her top and one from her sock. she’s been in the water for a time and the clothing that would most likely contain useful forensic evidence is missing.
Greenwood is first tried in October 2002 at Liverpool crown court, he’s 28 now and has changed his tune. He’s no longer convinced he murdered Janet and pleads not guilty.
Wednesday, October 16 he states in court that "when he confessed to killing her, he believed he was to blame"
He said that he had not been responsible for her death and had 'personalised' information he had read in newspapers and seen on the Crimewatch programme after becoming fascinated by the case.
Greenwood said he had drunk so much on the night of June 15, 1996, he had blacked out and has no recollection of events at the crucial time.
he remembered saying goodbye to his friend after an evening out together drinking and the next thing, he remembered was waking up in his flat the next morning.
He said: "I don't remember going back to my flat. I remember saying goodbye to Paul and then I had a blackout. In the morning I just woke up. I don't remember anything until the morning after."
The jury are unable to reach a verdict and are discharged from doing so on the 24th of October 2002. In 2003 there is a retrial and he’s convicted of manslaughter by a majority of ten to one, and on the 21st of July 2003 he is sentenced to 8 years.
That is a weak sentence.
Greenwood appeals the conviction eight months later, on the grounds that there is evidence from the first trial pertaining to another possible suspect. an ex of Janet’s called John Parkinson, and that this evidence wasn’t shown to the jury at the second trial.
It does sound a fair point, with the evidence at the first trial the jury can’t decide his guilt and without it at the second he’s guilty of manslaughter.
The evidence that was withheld from the jury was that Parkinson (Janet’s Ex) had made a phone call to Janet’s home at 1.41am from a telephone box on watery lane, Preston. That’s about a ten-minute walk from the ‘murder scene’ dependent on your walking speed obviously.
Witnesses placed him near the phone box and said he had been in town that night, they said he was wearing a light coloured top and dark trousers. Parkinson denied this, saying he was wearing a red coloured checked shirt.
The police arrested him on suspicion of her murder just two days after she was found and with good reason, they found blood-stained knickers belonging to Janet in his home and they also found a pair of his boxer shorts that had her blood on them too.
Janet and Parkinson had had a volatile relationship with the abuse beginning early on, he was considerably older than her and had an ex-wife who had cited rape and violence in their divorce papers. And it’s clear that Janet experienced that violent side to Parkinson on more than one occasion- He once knocked the caps off her front teeth, he spat at her in the face, pushed her over, beat her up regularly; so that she was seen with bruises on her body. Some of these things happened in pubs and clubs in Preston, witnessed.
She had also been recorded describing the relationship she had with Parkinson for a friend’s study into domestic violence; and Janet went into graphic detail - can’t imagine she ever thought it would be listened to by the police and a courtroom.
when Parkinson and Janet split up around six months prior to her death, he had by all accounts not taken it well and he had bombarded her and her family with nuisance phone calls.
As well as the call around the time Janet was possibly being attacked that Parkinson later admitted to making, there was another silent phone call the following day before Janet’s body was identified by her mother.
He’s horrible.
Janet's friend, Victoria Cook, testified about the types of phone calls John Parkinson made he would say things like “You're going to die, you are grassing bitch."
And Janet’s mum, Mary said he was angry and blamed Janet & the family because of a drink driving case he was involved in. He had threatened Janet saying, “you are dead” and had even broken into the home they shared and stolen items of clothing from the washing line.
That’s so strange isn’t it, stealing her underwear but relevant to them finding her knickers in his house? They had been in a violent relationship and he stole underwear from her home.
Quick add in here about the knickers, yes, they were Janet’s and yes, they had blood on the crotch area. Janet’s mum said that she didn’t think they were the kind of knickers that Janet would wear on a night out, I mean she’s her mum and they live together. And, apart from the blood on the crotch area they were clean - no mud stains from the riverbank etc.
I get the impression they were her period knickers but that’s just me. What I mean from that is I’m assuming they tested how old the blood was? And other blood related questions to be satisfied because John Parkinson is never charged with Janet’s murder; it is said that he had a "cast iron alibi" from his girlfriend of the time.
Judging from what type of boyfriend he seems to be I would wonder if that alibi could have been given under duress - clearly has an issue with Janet going to the police etc. about a drink driving charge, probs be a bit more focused when it comes to quieting a murder charge?
And it’s much the same for another guy mentioned in the appeal and he is called Raymond Hayes, Unlike Parkinson, Raymond Hayes, like Greenwood wasn't known to Janet.
Raymond Hayes was a local drug addict with a £50 per day heroin dependency and was a known petty thief.
He was questioned due to a cctv clip being released by the police in 2000, his then girlfriend shopped him, and he was found in possession of some of Janet’s belongings.
He admitted to taking them but claimed he’d done so when Janet was outside the taxi rank where she parted ways with Brendan Connell, drunk and vulnerable she had been an easy target for him to pickpocket, he stole her purse which contained some money and a silver necklace/locket which belonged to Janet’s friend; I think he may have given it to his then girlfriends mother.
Hayes was seen walking alone down fishergate and then fishergate hill in the same direction as Janet would have walked, he said he was returning from work as a barman and on his way home to Clifton street, off Broadgate; He was wearing black pants and a white shirt.
The main stay of his alibi is that he admitted stealing money from Janet’s purse and using it to treat him and his housemates to a KFC, they noted that the takeaway was still hot when Hayes returned home with it.
So basically, he couldn’t have done it because the food was too hot. Madness.
Unless they’ve done some extensive temperature testing, and recreated that more times than I’ve had hot kfc, I’m not sure how much I’d rely on that. I mean what if he shoved it in the microwave before presenting it to them?
Little fact for our listeners - that KFC is the oldest location in the Uk - the one on fishergate has been there since the 1960’s.
Back to the case - again the police charge him with theft of the purse and its contents but make no other charges. He gets 6 months and when Hayes is released, he spirals, and his drug addiction gets worse as do the crimes to pay for his habit.
He continues to steal from vulnerable people, his favourite move being sneaking up on elder ladies after they have drawn their pension from the post office.
By his own admission, his motivation is money, where the police have always said the motivation for Janet’s murder was sexual.
Hayes was known to be a violent man could he have scared his flat mates into providing him with the alibi?
Well, we may never know because two out of the three suspects I’ve covered today are deceased. I couldn’t confirm either officially, but Hayes is said to have killed himself in prison several years ago and Parkinson is also believed to have died but of natural causes.
Greenwood is still alive; he was acquitted of Janet’s manslaughter in 2004. And whilst I found him, I couldn’t find anything on any further criminal activity, quiet.
In 2017 the police made a fresh appeal for information, 21 years after Janet was murdered. They reported fresh leads and new information but again nothing to bring charges.
So, with that, in 2021 Janet’s case remains unsolved. Three Suspects. Parkinson, Greenwood & Hayes. On paper Parkinson Janet’s Ex should be the prime suspect, but the police had him on the radar from the get-go and don’t pursue him even after Greenwood recants. Same for Hayes, opportunistic thief only after the cash doesn’t mean that he isn’t capable of a sexual assault and a violent attack, again not pursued after the theft charge in relation to Janet.
Greenwood interests me, the police seemed convinced that Greenwood was their man and we’re quoted as saying that they wouldn’t be looking for anyone else in connection to Janet’s murder or pursuing anymore evidence against Greenwood.
For me - What if he did do it?
What if he was telling the truth? He was living with his very real guilt and conscience for three years until it was too much, he breaks and confesses. He spends a fair amount of time in custody and on remand for the killing and as I said makes a lot of detailed admissions, such to convince the police that he knows things that only the killer would.
He references Crimewatch saying that the media coverage has been hard for him. Whilst in prison he sends letters to family telling them how much he regrets what he did, like It’s only when he has a new solicitor that he changes his tune.
I bet his solicitor was like ‘ha if only you were guilty, I could get you off a piece of piss - There’re two other very plausible suspects you know.’
He knows at this point that they have no evidence on him and he knows all about Parkinson and Hayes.
Interestingly I was talking to someone about this case, they asked what case we were doing next and when I told them they told me that they had been to school with a sibling of Andrew Greenwood. Later when he had been in court they had, due to their job at the time, also been there on a separate case and had witnessed his proceedings. They were very moved by his appearance and extremely emotional presentation and are adamant that he is innocent. Obviously, that’s their opinion but it has stayed with them. I just cynically have thoughts that if you were guilty and felt unbelievably bad for something that you did and you had been punished for that, for a time, that you could possibly deem that enough. And if you saw a chance to stay out or get out of prison wouldn’t you take it?
And plus, people can be excellent actors with the right motivation.
That said Greenwood clearly has mental health problems and people do admit to crimes they didn’t commit. Does it make sense, no.
There is another possibility of course in that Janet was the victim of a random opportunistic killer who just came across her and took a chance.
That’s a possibility, and if that’s the case they have gotten away with murder for 24 years.
So, it seems fitting to end there and perhaps with a plea, if you know anything or remember anything about this case then get in touch with Preston police or crime stoppers.
Crimestoppers-uk.org.
0800 555 111
Thank you again for joining us and listening. We’ll be back in a few weeks with our next case until then Look after yourselves & stay safe. Bye.
Sources.
https://www.lep.co.uk/news/crime/fresh-leads-janet-cold-case-appeal-1100232
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