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greenlight.com/Spotify. greenlight.com/Spotify. There

1:00

were two more murders 15 miles away.

1:02

A police arrives, I found, with telephones

1:05

and electricity lines. We have a weird

1:08

house guy. A scene described by one

1:10

investigator as reminiscent of a weird... A

1:13

cop of murder. Sometimes

1:15

it takes one more victim to

1:17

finally put a dangerous man behind

1:20

bars. On August 20th, 2001,

1:22

the body of a young girl was found. Though

1:26

her loss was absolutely devastating,

1:29

it was the discovery of her body and

1:31

the investigation into her murder that

1:34

brought down a man who, if police

1:36

are correct, got away with crimes

1:38

that spanned over the last 20 years. So

1:42

if you like your coffee hot but your bones

1:44

chilled, sit back and start your day

1:46

with a morning cup of murder. On

1:49

December 26th, 2000, Leanne Tiernan, born

1:53

September 27th, 1984, went

1:56

out Christmas shopping in Leeds, West

1:58

Yorkshire with her friend, Sarah W White

2:00

House. With their

2:02

trip coming to a close, the pair hopped on

2:04

a bus and headed towards home after a long

2:06

day in the Leeds city center. Once

2:09

they reached Howley Lane, 16 year

2:11

old Leanne and 15 year old Sarah

2:13

parted ways with Leanne heading down

2:16

an unlit path towards a wooded

2:18

area known as Howley Gill. This

2:20

was the last time anyone saw

2:22

the young girl alive and well.

2:26

Once arriving at her home, Sarah called

2:28

Leanne's landline and was surprised to learn

2:30

that she had somehow beat her friend

2:32

home, especially since they

2:34

separated just about a mile from

2:36

Leanne's home. At 5.20, Leanne's

2:40

concerned mother called the girl's mobile phone,

2:42

only to hear it ring for a

2:44

bit and abruptly cut off. She

2:46

called again and again was hung up

2:48

on after four rings and

2:51

when 7 p.m. rolled around and her daughter

2:53

was still nowhere to be found, she

2:55

called the local police and reported her missing.

2:59

Headed by Detective Superintendent Chris

3:01

Gregg, a missing persons inquiry

3:03

immediately began and a

3:05

search for the teenage girl was organized

3:08

to comb through the area in and

3:10

around Howley Gill. Also conducting

3:12

more than 1,400 house-to-house inquiries, 800 house searches,

3:14

400 looks in

3:19

sheds, garages and outbuildings, and

3:22

combing through about 150 commercial premises,

3:24

the hunt for Leanne Tiernan

3:27

became one of the largest ever

3:29

undertaken by West Yorkshire Police and

3:31

involved up to 200 officers

3:34

as well as hundreds of

3:36

volunteers. And

3:38

they didn't stop there. DNA

3:40

samples were taken from at least 140 men,

3:43

all interviewed by police, and 12 search warrants

3:45

were executed

3:48

and carried out at various addresses all

3:50

around the area. The West

3:53

Yorkshire Police underwater search unit was brought

3:55

in to comb through a three-mile section

3:57

of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and

3:59

two-mile of the waterway was drained in

4:01

order to search more efficiently. And

4:04

even collections of household wastes were

4:06

temporarily halted to allow police to

4:09

search all of the bins in

4:11

Leeds. Despite all

4:13

of this work, all of these hopeful

4:15

volunteers, and all of the diligent

4:17

work of officers, there were

4:19

no traces of Leanne Tiernan found.

4:23

Nothing that could indicate where she went or

4:25

who might have taken her. On

4:28

December 3rd, 2000, police

4:30

staged a reconstruction of the young girl's

4:32

last known movements, reenacted

4:34

by Sarah Whitehouse and Leanne's

4:37

older sister, Michelle. In hopes

4:39

of jogging some potentially useful memories,

4:42

police sent out text messages to Leanne's phone,

4:44

which, though briefly activated on

4:47

November 27th, remained shut

4:49

off. At some point

4:51

during the investigation, a local businessman offered

4:53

a 10,000 pound reward

4:55

for any information leading to Leanne's

4:58

safe return, while a supermarket

5:00

chain in Iceland printed her picture

5:02

and details on milk cartons sold

5:05

nationwide. Because of this,

5:07

and just the general need to locate the

5:09

missing girl, a number of

5:11

unconfirmed sightings were called in to the police

5:13

over the next nine months, as

5:16

far away as Doncaster and

5:18

Blackpool. When the sightings

5:20

ceased, Leanne's boyfriend, 19-year-old Wayne

5:22

Keeley, pleaded publicly for her

5:24

to try and get in

5:26

touch with him. On

5:28

December 4th, police released a sketch of

5:31

a man seen walking in the Hughley-Gill

5:33

area shortly before Leanne disappeared, but

5:36

even that failed to provide any viable

5:38

leads. Then, after

5:40

months of trying to find the missing

5:42

young girl, on August 20th, 2001, a

5:45

man was out walking his dogs in Lindley

5:47

Woods and found the body of the

5:50

young girl. Identified via

5:52

fingerprints on August 22nd, Detective

5:54

Superintendent Greg announced that the inquiry

5:57

into Leanne Tiernan's abduction was now

6:00

shifting into a murder investigation.

6:02

Code named

6:04

Operation Conifer. Found

6:07

just 100 yards away from

6:09

where another murder victim, Yvonne Fitt, was

6:11

found buried in 1992,

6:14

Leanne was wrapped up inside nine green

6:16

plastic bin bags secured with twine with

6:19

a black bin bag over her head and

6:21

tightened with a leather dog collar. Placed

6:24

inside a floral duvet cover, Leanne's

6:26

coat and black boots were nowhere

6:28

to be found, but around

6:30

her neck were plastic cable ties

6:32

used as a ligature to strangle

6:34

her. More ties were

6:36

found around her hands and

6:39

a dark colored scarf was wrapped around

6:41

her neck. In her

6:43

hair were the same clips and ponytail that she

6:45

was wearing the day that she disappeared. Between

6:48

this and her level of decomposition, police

6:51

theorized that Leanne was killed shortly after

6:53

her friends saw her enter those woods

6:56

and that she was left in a freezer

6:58

up until about a few weeks before her

7:00

body was found. Putting

7:02

out a call to the public for

7:04

anyone to come forward who may have

7:06

been in Lindley Woods recently or had

7:08

any information on someone who regularly visited

7:10

the area, two women

7:12

separately called the station pointing

7:15

a suspicious finger at their

7:17

former boyfriend, John Taylor,

7:20

both claiming after meeting him through

7:22

lonely hearts columns that he would

7:24

often drive past the woods and

7:26

boast about poaching there pretty regularly.

7:30

John Taylor, born August 27th 1956 in Leeds, was a delivery

7:32

worker for parcel

7:35

force and lived on the

7:38

very same housing estate as

7:40

Leanne Tiernan. Known locally as

7:42

the Pet Man, John had

7:44

many dogs and ferrets and would sell

7:47

his own pet food. He

7:49

was also known as a poacher and

7:52

had a previous conviction for theft of a suit

7:54

when he was just 15 years old. Taking

7:57

these calls seriously, police began combing

8:00

through John's background and

8:02

discovered his frequent use of Lonely

8:04

Hearts advertisements. They

8:06

were able to track down one of the women

8:08

whom he dated, and, bringing her

8:10

in for an interview, they found

8:13

out that John had a

8:15

fetish for, quote, bondage, whips,

8:17

and ties, and often

8:19

liked to tie women up and lock

8:21

them inside of a cupboard. Speaking

8:24

with another woman, she claimed that John once

8:26

told her that he wanted to tie up

8:28

her daughter with cable ties and

8:31

have sexual intercourse with her, while

8:33

another, who briefly lived with

8:35

him, claimed that he often visited Linley

8:37

Woods while they were dating and that

8:40

she eventually broke off their relationship because,

8:42

to her, his fetish went

8:44

too far and made her feel as

8:46

though she was being raped. When

8:49

asking these women how exactly John Taylor would

8:52

tie them up, it matched

8:54

the ties left on Leanne Tiernan's

8:56

body exactly. Further

8:58

cementing his guilt, the leather dog collar

9:00

found on Leanne's body was traced to

9:02

a manufacturing company who sold them to

9:05

220 separate wholesalers. Each

9:08

were contacted and asked if they had a

9:10

record of sales to anyone in the Leeds

9:12

area, and when speaking

9:14

to the 112th company, they confirmed

9:17

that they made three separate sales in

9:19

that particular area. When emailed

9:21

the list, Detective Constable David

9:23

Wilson found John Taylor's name

9:25

amongst the other customers. With

9:28

his DNA matching a piece of hair found in

9:30

the knot of the scarf tied around Leanne's neck,

9:33

John Taylor was arrested on suspicion of murder

9:35

on December 16, 2001, and police immediately

9:39

sealed off his home, gardens,

9:42

and the patch of land near the rear of his

9:45

property in hopes of finding more

9:47

evidence against him. They

9:49

quickly found three large chest

9:51

freezers and began a rigorous

9:54

forensic examination. Finding

9:56

the same twine found on Leanne's body in his home

9:58

as well as his family's as the yellow

10:01

cable, pieces of green plastic that

10:03

matched what was used to wrap the body, and

10:05

traces of red nylon carpet fibers,

10:08

both in his home and on

10:10

the body. With each piece

10:12

of evidence mounting against him, it

10:14

became clearer and clearer that

10:17

police had definitely found their man.

10:19

Faced with all of this information, John

10:22

Taylor eventually admitted to kidnapping

10:24

Leanne Tiernan. He

10:26

claimed that he had not visited the Hughley-Gill

10:28

area for many years, but

10:30

by chance happened to head in that

10:33

direction the same day and time Leanne

10:35

began her walk home. He

10:38

said that she walked past him and he

10:40

was overcome by the sudden urge to grab

10:42

her from behind, tie her hands

10:44

with a dog leash, and cover

10:46

her head with his jacket so he can make

10:48

her walk towards his home on

10:50

nearby Cockshot Drive. He

10:53

then forced the young girl into his

10:55

room and onto his bed. She

10:58

began struggling and at some point fell off

11:00

the bed and hit her head on the floor.

11:04

John said he then picked her back up and

11:06

tied the scarf around her neck. Claiming

11:09

the entire thing was some sort

11:11

of accident, this is when

11:13

Leanne took her final breath. Panicked,

11:16

John hit her body in Lindley Woods.

11:20

Though investigators and later the prosecution

11:22

contended that the bindings of her

11:24

hands were an indication that he

11:26

planned on raping the young girl,

11:28

theorizing that the blindfold may have fallen

11:30

off and she saw his face, when

11:33

asked why he kidnapped Leanne Tiernan,

11:36

John replied, I have no

11:38

idea. Changing up bits

11:40

of his story, specifically what he did with

11:42

the body before it was found, on

11:45

February 15th, 2002, John

11:47

Taylor appeared in court and entered a

11:49

plea of not guilty to abduction. Asked

11:53

to plead separately for the murder charge,

11:56

on July 8th, 2002, he entered

11:58

a plea of guilty. and

12:00

was sentenced that same day to a

12:02

mandatory term of life in prison. That

12:06

sentence was later set as a minimum

12:08

of 20 years, meaning he

12:10

would not receive a whole life tariff and

12:12

would likely be released at some point in

12:14

time. However, while he

12:16

sat in prison, investigators, believing

12:19

the murder of Leanne Tiernan was

12:21

likely not his first, began

12:23

looking into any other possible crimes

12:26

that could be connected to John

12:28

Taylor and, using

12:30

his DNA profile, they

12:32

were able to review other unsolved

12:34

sex crimes. Committed

12:37

on the same estate where he

12:39

lived, two rapes stood out

12:41

to police. The October 1988

12:44

attack and rape of a 32-year-old woman in

12:46

Hallie Gill and the March 1989

12:48

rape of a 21-year-old woman

12:51

whose home was broken into by a

12:54

masked man. Charged

12:56

with both cases, John Taylor

12:58

was re-arrested in October of

13:00

2002, and with overwhelming

13:02

DNA evidence working against him, he pleaded

13:04

guilty to both on February 4, 2003,

13:06

and was given two more life terms

13:08

in prison. Though this was a win

13:14

for investigators, according to

13:17

Detective Superintendent Greg, quote, we

13:19

are still concerned that there may be

13:22

other victims and families who have been

13:24

affected by Taylor's actions. They

13:26

believe that he might have been a

13:29

serial sex attacker who collected victims

13:31

over the course of the last 20 years.

13:34

Knowing this, police reopened at least

13:37

10 cold-case murder

13:39

investigations. Those of

13:41

Deborah Allison Wood, a 20-year-old

13:43

whose body was found near Burley Park

13:45

Station in January of 1996. Also

13:49

suspected of being kept in cold storage

13:51

and wrapped up in bin bags and

13:53

bedding. Yvonne Fit, a

13:55

33-year-old whose body was found in Lindley

13:57

Woods in 1992. Lindsay

14:00

Rimmer, who was just 13 when

14:03

she disappeared in November of 1994 and

14:06

found just two miles from her home, and

14:09

Rebecca Hall, who was 19 and

14:11

disappeared in 2001. In

14:14

addition to these women and young

14:16

girls, police began looking into the

14:18

murder cases of at least five

14:20

Glasgow sex workers. Their

14:23

names were Diane McGinley, Karen

14:25

McGregor, Leona McGovern,

14:28

Marjorie Roberts, and Tracy Wilde.

14:31

He is also officially identified as a suspect

14:34

in the murder of 27-year-old Glasgow

14:37

sex worker Alison Wallace. John

14:40

Taylor has denied involvement in any

14:43

other crimes, but in

14:45

October of 2018, he was given a whole life tariff

14:48

for a series of other rapes and

14:51

sexual assaults. He will likely remain

14:53

in prison for the rest of his life.

14:56

Thank you for joining me in my morning cup of

14:58

murder. Please join me again tomorrow

15:00

to where terrible thing happened on August 21st. Don't

15:04

forget to rate and subscribe and let me know how you

15:06

like it. If you want to

15:08

help support the podcast, there's always Patreon or

15:10

just sharing it with your true crime obsessed

15:12

friends. And remember, stay

15:15

safe.