UK UK - Lindsay Rimer, 13, Hebden Bridge, Yorks, 7 Nov 1994

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

I’m always conscious of posting “theories” because so often they aid no one and simply create angst for the families etc.
This is my first post.
This case is of particular interest as I’ve spent some time in Hebden and as a place it’s been scarred by this incident. If you look hard you will still find “missing” photos in the town.

On first view, the walk to cambridge street from the town centre is a fairly easy one with few places to be concerned if you were walking alone, then you have a choice, walk by the canal (you could have done that earlier), or by the road. Both have challenges and having done the journey, there is a part of road which is about 50ft long with no houses but a wall on the river on either side.
On the canal there are numerous unsafe places, but by the road, there is just this one.

For an Opportunist perhaps that would be it. She somehow ended up a further trek down the canal.

But I read that her watch had stopped at 11pm and on the basis that water submersion had done this , everything changes. From the town to the canal where the body was found, would be a challenge from 10.20pm to 11pm - particularly if you have followed her half way home. Plus carpet doesn’t just appear which means the act was planned. Common sense tells me she was picked up, killed in transit or near the deposition site. The body was not left, but designed not to be found. It appears that the death motive was not sexual, therefore seems to be more around “another motive”.
I’ve no experience other than common sense, but the lack of “abduction”, careful disposition of the body and no “motive” says that the assailant was known to Lindsay. There appears to be a fair amount of “respect” for the body in disposal (and I say that in relative terms), which again suggests a known assailant.

I truly hope that the answers are found. Someone knows something, I struggle to understand in a place as small as Hebden how the truth has never come out. I wish the police would disclose a little more of what they know, it seems unlikely that she was killed on the walk home (as I say, there are few opportunities depending on which way she walked), confirming that could jog a memory.
 
Dougal Mcquire said:
I’m always conscious of posting “theories” because so often they aid no one and simply create angst for the families etc.
This is my first post.
This case is of particular interest as I’ve spent some time in Hebden and as a place it’s been scarred by this incident. If you look hard you will still find “missing” photos in the town.

On first view, the walk to cambridge street from the town centre is a fairly easy one with few places to be concerned if you were walking alone, then you have a choice, walk by the canal (you could have done that earlier), or by the road. Both have challenges and having done the journey, there is a part of road which is about 50ft long with no houses but a wall on the river on either side.
On the canal there are numerous unsafe places, but by the road, there is just this one.

For an Opportunist perhaps that would be it. She somehow ended up a further trek down the canal.

But I read that her watch had stopped at 11pm and on the basis that water submersion had done this , everything changes. From the town to the canal where the body was found, would be a challenge from 10.20pm to 11pm - particularly if you have followed her half way home. Plus carpet doesn’t just appear which means the act was planned. Common sense tells me she was picked up, killed in transit or near the deposition site. The body was not left, but designed not to be found. It appears that the death motive was not sexual, therefore seems to be more around “another motive”.
I’ve no experience other than common sense, but the lack of “abduction”, careful disposition of the body and no “motive” says that the assailant was known to Lindsay. There appears to be a fair amount of “respect” for the body in disposal (and I say that in relative terms), which again suggests a known assailant.

I truly hope that the answers are found. Someone knows something, I struggle to understand in a place as small as Hebden how the truth has never come out. I wish the police would disclose a little more of what they know, it seems unlikely that she was killed on the walk home (as I say, there are few opportunities depending on which way she walked), confirming that could jog a memory.
Click to expand...
We know she had left the Trades Club minutes before walking by the canal. I think she was followed. I only recently came back to Websleuths, and when you read about a person disappearing on their way home, who would know someone was on their own and potentially isolated? People who'd recently been in their company/in earshot. Children tell people where they're going. With adults they have schedules, people who know them might know their route. But children say "OK, I"m off home. See ya!" - then it's just a matter of "Where does her dad live then?" in the pub, and a killer knows where to go. Lindsay Rimer was strangled, according to the police. I don't believe this was accidental. I do remember there being a passing-out game going round school at this time ( I was teenager in a nearby town when it happened, and kids clever and stupid mucked about at this. I didn't). But the Trades Club being an adult space, and the way her body was weighed down by a big stone, they said from the canal itself, and next to a mill not manned (or was it not lit?) at night, suggests to me a local person, someone strong, probably a man, who knew about the industry in the area and about the canal. The case has troubled me for many years. I didn't live in her town, but all the teenagers in West Yorskhire at that time were spooked by this. It is difficult to tell if it started as a sex attack (I'm sorry to seem irreverent) - there was no evidence of it getting that far - or if the intention was actually murder. Some people are sick enough to just want to kill. And by sick, I mean ill. A psychotic break which means someone thinks taking life will provide relief for their mental space. I truly don't understand it, but I feel these people must have got away with things in the past which led them to worse things, so I feel we must try to understand how people become these things in order to understand how to solve their crimes and prevent future killers from perpetrating/becomimg killers. They will be local, have tried things before, and perhaps followed Lindsay, working out that she was vulnerable.
 
I know it seems improbable with his victim profile, but Chris Halliwell does seem like a possible murderer due to his interest in canals and the type of jobs he took, as well as some of his victims being quite young. It's possible he is also responsible for Lindsay's death. In many accounts his proven and suspected victims have been strangled, which is consistent with Lindsay's injuries, I'm sorry to say. He's also quite organised about concealment and retains items from victims. A stash of these things was found by police. To identify him as her killer the police would have to speak to Lindsay's family and perhaps look at photographs of Lindsay to see if there were any clothes or items he was in possession of. It wouldn't help with the grief or the loss, but it might help to know for some closure, some understanding of how an innocent girl's life was taken by an unaccountably monstrous man.
 
missacorah said:
I came across this case today while reading a magazine and was really surprised I hadnt heard of the case before now.

Lindsay was a 13 year old girl who lived in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire in England with her parents, her older brother and a recently born younger sister whom Lindsay had initially been jealous of.

The evening she disappeared Lindsays mum had gone out for a drink to a nearby club and at 10.10pm Lindsay had arrived at the club asking her mum for some money to go to the local store to but some cereal for next days breakfast otherwise there would be none. Her mum gave her £1.20 and asked if she wanted to stay for a coke but Lindsay declined and went on her way.

When Lindsays mum got home shortly after there was no sign of Lindsay so she presumed she had got home and went to bed.They didnt check.
the next morning Lindsays boss phoned to say she hadnt arrived for work (she had a paper round) and the police were called.there was CCTV showing Lindsay arriving at the store and buying some cornflakes at 10.20pm but nothing afterwards.

5 months later on 12 april 1995 Lindsays body was discovered in Rochdale Canal, weighted down. She had been strangled. the watch she was wearing had stopped at 11pm. There was no sign of a sexual assault. The body was placed in a hard to find place suggesting the killer had knowledge of the area.
Click to expand...
 
Hello. I have also been looking into the murder of Lindsay Jo Rimer and even though I do not know the perpetrator who killed her,but I believe it was someone she knew and was familiar with ( from her delivering newspapers). And was at the Working Men's Club that she had gone to to visit her Mother who was there. And I believe she was met by this individual as she left the Spa Supermarket and was walking home. And I believe that the motive was of a sexual nature. He then kills her and puts her body to a secluded location then transports her body ( via a vehicle) then takes her to the canal where she was discovered. He would have had to go to where he lived to pick up the rope used to bind her with and knew precisely where to take her( as he fished at the stretch of canal where he took her body) and had waders on as I believe he waded into the water to weigh down her body I thinking that she would never be found but obviously that wasn't the case. So what the Police need to do is to look into who Lindsay Jo Rimer delivered newspapers to.
 
1715609939718.png
A stolen red Honda Civic may unlock a 30-year-old murder investigation. Picture: Supplied.
Grace Ellen Macpherson May 13, 2024
1715609879714.png
''A stolen red Honda Civic could unlock the cold case of a 13-year-old girl who ducked out one night to buy cornflakes, and was later found dead in a canal.
Lindsay Jo Rimer lived in West Yorkshire in the UK when she was strangled to death and dumped in the water, weighed down by a 9kg stone.''

''Detectives attempted to find the driver of the stolen car, which had been taken from Leeds and spotted in the teenager's neighbourhood.
The driver was reportedly seen trying to speak to schoolgirls near the local shop Lindsay was last seen at.''
 
How do they know the watch stopped at 11pm that night though, if her body was found 5 months later? It could have stopped at 11pm the following night? 10.20pm on CcTV at the shop and then a bit after the people on the bus see her, leaves not very long for her to be followed, kidnapped, killed, wrapped in carpet with a massive rock (where did the carpet and the rock come from?) all by 11pm.
 
I have picked up this particular case this morning after seeing the renewed appeal for the 30 year anniversay of Lindsay Rimer's sad death. I'm surprised that I haven't heard of it before, until now. It seems to be one of those cases that has been lost in history through no real leads or developments.

My hypothesis is this:
Lindsay planned to meet with someone, making an excuse of purchasing breakfast cereal in order to meet whomever it might have been. My reasons for thinking this is her movements after visiting the Spar in Crown Street. To return home, she would have turned right onto New Road and followed the A646, crossing one of the bridges along the way presumably Stubbing Holme Road. If she took an alternative route, I would have expected it to be the pathway along the Canal, which is the route I would presume she took in order to meet with her mother at the Trades Club on Holme Street. At the far end of Holme Street, there is a path that leads directly onto the Canal toepath, so this would have been her simplest journey to and from home.

With all of this in mind, the last confirmed sighting of Lindsay was outside the Entrance of the Memorial Gardens, which is a left turn out of Crown Street. Notably, there is a bus stop lay-by in this location. Was Lindsay waiting for someone? Was she being picked up by somebody she knew? After all, for her body to be found over a mile away and alledgedly submurged in water at 11pm, tied by her own jumper and weighted down by a large rock, the killer must have pre-planned some aspects of her unnecessary murder.
 
OzzaRozza said:
I have picked up this particular case this morning after seeing the renewed appeal for the 30 year anniversay of Lindsay Rimer's sad death. I'm surprised that I haven't heard of it before, until now. It seems to be one of those cases that has been lost in history through no real leads or developments.

My hypothesis is this:
Lindsay planned to meet with someone, making an excuse of purchasing breakfast cereal in order to meet whomever it might have been. My reasons for thinking this is her movements after visiting the Spar in Crown Street. To return home, she would have turned right onto New Road and followed the A646, crossing one of the bridges along the way presumably Stubbing Holme Road. If she took an alternative route, I would have expected it to be the pathway along the Canal, which is the route I would presume she took in order to meet with her mother at the Trades Club on Holme Street. At the far end of Holme Street, there is a path that leads directly onto the Canal toepath, so this would have been her simplest journey to and from home.

With all of this in mind, the last confirmed sighting of Lindsay was outside the Entrance of the Memorial Gardens, which is a left turn out of Crown Street. Notably, there is a bus stop lay-by in this location. Was Lindsay waiting for someone? Was she being picked up by somebody she knew? After all, for her body to be found over a mile away and alledgedly submurged in water at 11pm, tied by her own jumper and weighted down by a large rock, the killer must have pre-planned some aspects of her unnecessary murder.
Click to expand...

The canal was possibly an easier route other than the fact she would have to climb over a wall with about a five foot drop onto the street she lived on, there appears to be no other access.

If she did go on the canal a possibility is an abduction by someone on a boat, which would also be a means of transport to the spot a mile away where Lindsay was found. I'm guessing police would have checked that out though.

Is the jumper a new piece of information released today in the BBC article?
 
Grouse said:
The canal was possibly an easier route other than the fact she would have to climb over a wall with about a five foot drop onto the street she lived on, there appears to be no other access.

If she did go on the canal a possibility is an abduction by someone on a boat, which would also be a means of transport to the spot a mile away where Lindsay was found. I'm guessing police would have checked that out though.

Is the jumper a new piece of information released today in the BBC article?
Click to expand...
I know that there is an accesspoint on Robertshaw Road, which is adjacent to Cambridge Street, 2 roads over. Alternatively, I noticed some steps at the end of Cambridge Street that would have given Lindsay the opportunity to climb over.

CS.JPG


Your point about an abduction by canal boat is certainly plausible, but it doesn't answer why she was leaning against a wall at the Memorial Gardens.

It is indeed, the bbc article stated: 'The arms of her jumper had been tied together in a sling with a stone used to weigh her down. There was no suggestion of a sexual assault.'

I am hopeful that this new appeal for information brings something new to light that allows the police to capture the person who took so much from this poor family, seemingly for no reason.
 
OzzaRozza said:
I know that there is an accesspoint on Robertshaw Road, which is adjacent to Cambridge Street, 2 roads over. Alternatively, I noticed some steps at the end of Cambridge Street that would have given Lindsay the opportunity to climb over.

View attachment 543596


Your point about an abduction by canal boat is certainly plausible, but it doesn't answer why she was leaning against a wall at the Memorial Gardens.

It is indeed, the bbc article stated: 'The arms of her jumper had been tied together in a sling with a stone used to weigh her down. There was no suggestion of a sexual assault.'

I am hopeful that this new appeal for information brings something new to light that allows the police to capture the person who took so much from this poor family, seemingly for no reason.
Click to expand...
Well spotted with the steps. Increases the possibility she went that way, but on her own in the dark late on a November night would be a bit spooky.

ETA: The Memorial Gardens wall is kind of on her way and she could still have then gone right from Crown St towards either the canal past the Trades Club or via the road. She could have been waiting for someone. Or maybe thinking of getting a bus, looks like there is one from there along the A646 to near where she lived.
 
Last edited:
The sound engineer at the Trades club was Vince Robson (deceased 2005), a suspect in the unsolved murder of Tina Bell in Billingham, North East England, 1989. Robson was a friend of Billy Dunlop also a suspect in Tina's murder, the first man to be convicted ( murder of Julie Hogg) under double jeopardy law in England.
To weigh a body with a big rock & carpet & dump in the canal suggests the use of a boat & very likely a second person.
I've seen Christopher Halliwell mentioned in this case before, he was a keen fisherman & narrow boat owner & enthusiast with an extensive knowledge of British rivers & canals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Fairfield County Jane Doe (1993)?

Members online

... and 212 more.
Total: 819 (members: 213, guests: 606)

Online statistics

Members online
213
Guests online
607
Total visitors
820
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
611,008
Messages
18,274,884
Members
235,264
Latest member
Skymoose80
Back
Top