Red Honda could be secret of missing 13yr-old girl who popped out to buy cornflakes & was found under 20lb rock in canal
IT’S BEEN 30 years since Lindsay Jo Rimer went to buy cornflakes from her local SPAR shop and vanished into thin air.
And three decades on, despite extensive appeals and DNA testing, still no one knows what happened to the much-loved daughter and sister.
Hundreds of locals joined Lindsay’s family and the police in a huge search until, five months later, tragedy struck and Lindsay’s body was found in Rochdale Canal.
Tragically, she had been strangled and weighed down by a 20lb stone.
Lindsay was a typical schoolgirl, a ‘conscientious and happy kid’ to those who knew her with a morning paper round and a growing interest in fashion.
She was known fondly to her family as Saffy, a nod to the character in TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulolus, because she was so organised and efficient.
She talked about going to university but at only 13 years of age and her whole life ahead of her, those dreams were cut short.
In 1994, Lindsay lived with her parents, Geri and Gordon, two sisters, Kate and Juliet, and brother, Daniel in the Pennine town of Hebden Bridge in the Calder Valley – more recently known as the backdrop of BAFTA winning TV series, Happy Valley.
On November 7, Lindsay, a Year 9 pupil at the local Calder High School, left her home on Cambridge Street at around 10pm and met her mother, who was having a drink with a friend, at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.
Geri asked her daughter if she wanted to stay and have a Coke but Lindsay said no.
Timeline of events
November 7, 1994 – 10pm. Lindsay leaves her home on Cambridge Street in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire.
10.22pm – the teenager meets her mum in Trades Club but doesn’t stay for a soft drink.
She is seen shortly afterwards on CCTV in SPAR shop on Crown Street buying cornflakes – this is the last time she is seen alive.
November 8 – Police are called when Lindsay doesn’t show up for her paper round. Huge search gets underway by police, family and members of local community.
April 12, 1995 – Two canal workers find Lindsay’s body in Rochdale Canal.
November 2016 – A 63-year-old man from Bradford is arrested. He is released on police bail.
April 2017 – A 68 year-old man from Bradford is arrested. He is released without charge.
Lindsay was then caught on CCTV 20 minutes later – at 10:22pm – as she bought cornflakes at a SPAR shop on Crown Street.
It was the last time she was seen alive.
When Lindsay didn’t turn up for her paper round the next morning, the police were informed.
It was suggested she might have run away or that she was ‘trouble at home’ but Lindsay’s family knew that was completely out of character.
A huge community search begins
They told police they always knew where she was and that she always came home on time.
Eventually a huge search of the River Calder and Rochdale Canal began – but to no avail.
In a temporary turn of events shortly after she went missing, a man claimed he had seen Lindsay being dragged into a car and had followed the car to a nearby reservoir.
His claim was so detailed, police arranged for helicopters and mountain rescue to be sent out but, tragically for Lindsay’s family, the man finally admitted it was a hoax.
He was sentenced to six months in prison.
Five months after her disappearance, on April 12, 1995, Lindsay’s weighted body was found a mile upstream from Hebden Bridge town centre in Rochdale Canal by two canal workers.
how can the perpetrator of such a heinous crime that horrified the nation go undetected for three decades?
Andy Glover, one of the men who found the body, spoke out for the first time during an appeal over ten years later.
“We thought it was a sheep,” he said.
“As we pulled it towards us, the body rolled in the water. There was no mistaking who it was. We had found Lindsay Rimer.
“It has stayed with me, it always will.”
A post-mortem was carried out and it was concluded she had likely been strangled.
A coroner said she had died not long after she went into the SPAR shop.
But how can the perpetrator of such a heinous crime that horrified the nation go undetected for three decades?
Lindsay’s mother, Geri, remained convinced her daughter’s death was committed by someone in the Hebden Bridge community
Since Lindsay’s body was discovered, multiple lines of enquiry have been followed.
It was reported at the time that Lindsay was a “cautious” person who probably wouldn’t have gone off with someone she didn’t know.
Detectives reportedly believed Lindsay may have been killed by someone she knew the same night she disappeared.
Enquiries were made to find the driver of a red Honda Civic that had been stolen from Leeds and spotted around Hebden Bridge when Lindsay disappeared.
It was thought the driver had attempted to talk to schoolgirls in the town and may have been spotted near the SPAR.
But these investigations brought no results.
Lindsay’s murder was looked at again in 1998 by detectives across a number of forces as part of Operation Enigma – a national police enquiry into the murders of 207 women who died between 1986 and 1996 to try to establish links between the crimes.
I still remember when Mum called me to say my little sister was missing. I felt instantly that something was wrong.
Lindsay's sister, Kate
However, no links to Lindsay’s murder were determined.
Lindsay’s mother, Geri, remained convinced her daughter’s death was committed by someone in the Hebden Bridge community.
She spoke out in 1999, on the fifth anniversary of Lindsay’s disappearance.
“It happened in this community,” she said. “It still affects this community – and I believe that someone from this community did this to Lindsay.”
But still, no one was arrested.
As the years rolled into decades, police, along with members of Lindsay’s family, have issued renewed appeals for information into the death of the innocent 13-year-old.
A ‘life sentence’ for Lindsay’s family
In 2015, 20 years after the discovery of her sister’s body, Lindsay’s sister, Kate, said her family had been given a ‘life sentence’ while her killer had gone unpunished.
Kate, who was 20 when Lindsay disappeared, said: “I still remember when Mum called me to say my little sister was missing.
“I felt instantly that something was wrong.
“From the beginning we have been filled with grief and we cannot stop the grief and instead remember her with love until this comes to an end.
“We miss her so much but every memory of her is tainted – it is so painful and bleeds into everything we do.
“It is about time this came to an end – it is a life sentence for this family.”
The following year, in April 2016, there was renewed hope for the family when West Yorkshire Police sent DNA evidence to Canada to be analysed using the latest scientific techniques.
Lindsay’s younger sister, Juliet, who was 17 months old when Lindsay went missing, also spoke out for the first time.
She said: “There will always be a void.
“A piece of everyone’s soul is missing and I often wonder how our lives would have been if we were not a ‘broken’ family – the advice Lindsay would have given me, the fights we might have had, the things we may have shared.
“Getting the answers wouldn’t change the hurt, but it would help bring closure to us all.”
No further details about the DNA testing were revealed but then, in November 2016, a 63-year-old man from Bradford was arrested.
Speaking at a press conference after the arrest, Lindsay’s mother, who divorced Lindsay’s father, Gordon after their daughter’s death, said: “My little girl deserves justice.
“My little girl does not deserve to be dead.
Arrests made but no convictions
“I made a vow when her body was found that I would not give up until the conclusion. We owe it to Lindsay.
“I miss her every day – we all do.”
The 63-year-old man was released on bail but then, five months later, in April 2017, a second man from Bradford, a 68-year-old, was arrested.
But he too was released, without charge.
In 2017, retired detective sergeant, John Matthews, from Cleveland Police said that a man he had questioned in connection with the murder of two women in County Durham had connections to Hebden Bridge and the Rimer family.
Mr Matthews said the man, who died in 2005, had moved to Hebden Bridge in 1990 and worked at the Trades Club, and should have been considered a suspect.
However, West Yorkshire Police has said the suspect was interviewed at the time of Lindsay’s disappearance and investigated since his death and they were satisfied he was not someone detectives should pursue.
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: “We are encouraging anyone who may have information to come forward as the investigation remains ongoing into Lindsay’s murder.”
