Pond searched as '80s murder case reviewed

LAURENCE WINSTANLEY

POLICE are re-investigating the notorious murder of an Oldham garage owner almost 30 years ago.

Laurence Winstanley, then 23, was executed with a shot to the head, before his mutilated and partly burned body - wrapped in a curtain and weighed down with a pick-axe head - was found in Baitings Dam near Littleborough in September 1989.

Now detectives are revisiting the case and frogmen have searched a pond in Littleborough as part of their fresh inquiry.

The car mechanic had moved with his family from Ogden, Rochdale, to a home in Cliff Hill Road in Shaw. He was reported missing in October 1988.

This Christmas, police frogmen were spotted searching a pond off Blackstone Edge Road in Littleborough.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police confirmed the search was 'in connection with the Laurence Winstanley murder investigation'.

They added: "Inquiries remain ongoing. West Yorkshire Police has made a key commitment that a case is never closed until it is resolved. This is to give, where possible, victims and their families closure. As part of this commitment to victims, we continuously review our undetected homicides and serious sexual offences."

Rewards

In 2009 - on the 20th anniversary of the discovery of the body - police put up a £10,000 reward to help bring the killer to justice.

His devastated mother Vanessa Winstanley said at the time her life was 'ripped apart'.

She begged the public for information to help detectives find her son's killer and said: "Laurence was a wonderful son. The whole family have lost their normal lives. We only function in the hope that this will come to a close, that the perpetrators will be brought to justice, and that Laurence will finally be laid to peace."

Laurence left Roch Valley High School with seven O-levels before training as a mechanic. At the time of his death, he owned his own garage in Sholver, moving there a year before he went missing.

He was last seen on October 2, 1988. He went for a drink at his local, The Windsor, where he received a phone call which seemed to concern him.

After leaving the pub, he went to his mother's house in Shaw, but took more than an hour to complete a journey which would normally take minutes. He went back to the pub for a time, but was never seen alive again.

His mutilated body was discovered on September 26, 1989, in the reservoir, just off the A58 on the outskirts of Ripponden, West Yorkshire.

The case featured on Crimewatch in 1989 and more than 80 officers swooped on homes in Rochdale and Littleborough in January 1990.

A man was questioned after the raids, but Mr Winstanley's murderer has never been found, despite his desperate mother putting up £25,000 from her savings as a reward for information in October 2001.

Anyone with information can call West Yorkshire Police on 101 or ring Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.