We fear our daughter was MURDERED after spotting chilling clues bumbling cops missed… but they refuse to listen

The Irish Sun

7 days ago

LAYING half-naked in just a bra and one sock, surrounded by blood splatters and with mysterious marks on her body - Katie Beattie was found dead in harrowing circumstances.
But while cops claim her death involved "no criminality", her family are convinced there are too many clues and chilling evidence that points to her falling victim to a heinous crime.
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Katie Beattie was found dead on July 1 last year
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Katie's sisters Emily Beattie and Kellie Rhodes are desperate for answers
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Katie - seen on the far right - in CCTV footage entering her flat with a male (left) two days before her body was found
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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The mystery man, right, arriving at the flat
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
The former supermarket worker, aged 27, was adored by her family, and loved being an auntie to her nieces and nephews when tragedy struck.
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It is believed she had been dead for at least a couple of days when firefighters broke down the door into her flat in Lancaster on Monday, July 1 last year.
Her family claim cops bungled the investigation, failing to act within a brief enough window to gather evidence - and even missed a key clue showing how she'd possibly died.
Two days after her body was found, sister Kellie Rhodes and mum and dad Shonna and David Beattie had travelled from Lancaster to Preston to the mortuary where Katie was being kept.
They had a theory: that she had been injected between her toes with an illegal substance, possibly heroin. This had potentially caused her to overdose and die, and the culprit had fled.
Katie's
next
door neighbour had sent them Ring doorbell footage - also seen by The Sun - of her entering her flat with a man on the Friday before her body was found.
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He was seen again leaving alone on the Sunday afternoon, they claim.
A staff member at the mortuary agreed to check her toes, and the family were right, there was a fresh puncture mark, they say.
Kellie, 37, told The Sun: 'When she came back her face basically said it all. She told us 'you're right', there was a puncture mark between the fourth and fifth toes on her left foot, and the foot's been cleaned.'
The family passed the information onto police and two hours later were told the force had agreed to authorise a forensic post-mortem examination, Kellie said.
'But it wasn't until the following week, so it worked out nine days after she'd died,' her sister continued.
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'We believed bloods had already been taken, but they hadn't, so for nine days Katie's blood had been deteriorating.'
It meant determining what was in her blood, which could prove how exactly she died, was almost impossible.
Since then, cops have told them there isn't enough forensic evidence to convict a possible killer.
But the family say this is down to police failure, and believe they've collected enough evidence on their own to prove push for charges.
Kellie said: 'There's literally so much that the police haven't done, and we've done their job from the get go.
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'Right from the start, we've pushed it every step of the way.'
On the Friday before she was found dead, Katie had been dropped off at home by her parents who were heading to Southampton for a cruise.
She'd come out of a mental health unit two weeks prior and had been staying with Shonna and David, who often acted as her carers.
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Kellie with her parents Shonna and David Beattie have been collecting their own evidence
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Katie's old flat is still vacant a year on
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Kellie took photos inside her sister's flat, showing what she believed was blood
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
Katie was classed as highly vulnerable - she had Addison's disease, meaning she needed to take daily steroids, and had been diagnosed as autistic.
She also had an alcohol dependency, namely vodka, and had been in and out of hospital 18 times in the year before her death, including twice in intensive care in the final six months.
Her family say she was also wrongly prescribed methadone, and believe she had never been a frequent drug user.
Instead, they claim she was often targeted by 'predators', and had told them how when she was drinking, shady men, some she'd met in detox and rehab, would inject her with illegal substances before robbing and raping her.
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Due to her lack of strong veins, however, their go to method was injecting her between the toes.
Kellie said on the day she was dropped off at home she was 'totally fine… she was bubbly and looked really well - the wellest she's looked in a long time'.
However, hours later her next door neighbour sent Shonna and David the video footage of the male entering the flat and 'thought it was odd'.
'Mum and dad contacted Katie but she wasn't answering her phone, then when she finally did she didn't want to speak,' explained Kellie.
Over the next couple of days, Kellie continuously tried to call and message her younger sister, to no avail.
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Shonna and David were by this time on the cruise and struggling for signal, but they tried to contact any services they could that had helped Katie in the past, after they claim police had refused to do a welfare check.
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Katie's gravestone describes her as 'always loved'
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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A vodka bottle and chocolate bar wrapper can also be seen
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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Shonna and David, with their children Thomas, Kellie and Emily, as well as Katie's auntie Amanda Jackson and granddaughter Esme, two
Eventually, they managed to get in touch with their daughter's former social worker who 'got the ball rolling', said Kellie.
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'Police still wouldn't go, even when [adult] services contacted them - but eventually an ambulance went at 6pm [on Monday, July 1 2024].'
This was nine and a half hours after the alarm had first been raised to police, the family claim.
Kellie said cops still refused to attend the scene to help paramedics gain access to Katie's flat and so they called the fire brigade, with firefighters then knocking down the door.
Kellie drove the 15 minutes from her home in Heysham and described seeing two ambulances outside, with paramedics 'going up and down the stairs'.
Her sister's neighbour invited her into her home and she was joined by her other sister Emily, 33 - then a short time later a police officer told them Katie had died.
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Kellie said she asked 'has she been there a long time?' and an officer nodded, telling her rigor mortis had set in.
Kellie went on to say her and Emily gave statements and she explained about the CCTV and even gave the name of the man they believed was shown going into the flat.
'They knew straight away who he was,' she said, claiming the officer described him as 'hardened'.
Kellie said she asked another officer what her sister had been found wearing and he told her: 'Oh, not very much, just a little bra top and one sock.'
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Katie with her siblings Kellie, Emily and Thomas
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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Katie had struggled with alcohol for several years before she died
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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Katie and her older brother Thomas
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
She explained that Katie was a 'creature of comfort' and always wore 'big fluffy pyjamas', even if she was drinking, so to be in almost nothing was 'totally out of character'.
The officer also told her they'd found empty bottles of vodka, and allegedly: 'That's just how it is, unfortunately. It's one of them.'
Kellie was a little taken aback, saying: 'Katie had had issues with alcohol for a few years, I can't see how a bit of vodka would've killed her.'
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She said she and Emily were also led to believe cops were securing the scene while they went to Blackpool to collect forensic foot plates to help gather evidence.
A detective allegedly said they'd have an officer on the door all night and would 'work into the early hours'.
Kellie said: 'I was thinking oh, great, they're taking it seriously. I told them 'you won't move her?' and they said 'no' she'd remain in the same place.'
She then went home at around midnight, but at 3am the police turned up at her door with Katie's pet Guinea pig in a carry box, some new keys, telling her they'd changed the locks, and a leaflet for an undertakers.
'They'd shut the case, that was all they'd wanted to do,' Kellie said.
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The following morning the mortuary rang and asked if Kellie could come and ID her sister's body.
Shonna and David were trying to get home from
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Katie's nieces and nephews at her grave
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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Katie was adored by her family
Credit: Kellie Rhodes
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Outside Katie's old flat in Lancaster city centre
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At the mortuary they were told Katie would be taken to Preston the following day for a non-invasive CT scan.
Kellie said: 'I asked 'what about police?' and they told us the police haven't handed Katie over as anything suspicious. I couldn't believe it.'
She continued: 'She had one sock off and one sock on. Predators, if she was out of it, would rob her, rape her and because she had bad veins they would inject her between her toes.
'I tried to explain that the one sock meant we believed she'd been injected.'
She said it was agreed that Katie would not be taken to Preston the next day, with her mum and dad arriving back home on the Wednesday morning.
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They went with Kellie again to the mortuary and persuaded staff to look between her toes, which they did after authorisation, and the puncture mark was found.
Cops agreed to the post-mortem but it would prove inconclusive due to the time lapse. A toxicology report also later showed she didn't have alcohol in her system at the time of death, claims Kellie.
'The only reason Katie went for the forensic post mortem was because of us her family seeing the needle point between her toes,' she continued.
'Knowing the importance of this and drugs being a possible factor in Katie's death, you would think they would have rushed the forensic post mortem through, or at least preserved Katie's bloods.'
The mortuary didn't have Katie's jewellery and so her sister, with the keys police had given her, went back to her flat.
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Shonna desperately tried to get welfare checks done at Katie's home before she died
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Kellie is leading the campaign for answers
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Katie's siblings Emily, Thomas and Kellie are all heartbroken
'I didn't want to go because it's upsetting, but also in case I contaminated anything,' she explained.
'I knew there was more to it than police were saying.'
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While collecting Katie's jewellery, she also took photos of the scene. 'There was blood spots,' she said. 'She was found laid on her bed naked with her foot dangling, and right under her left foot there was blood on the floor, quite big blood spots.'
Kellie continued: 'I also noticed blood on the ceiling, I was thinking it was the male's. Katie's blood wouldn't have squirted that far due to her veins.
'I fed all this back to the police. They didn't say anything, they weren't interested whatsoever.'
Kellie said a detective came out to see the family multiple times at her parents' home. She said he told them it wasn't blood on the floor but bile and that there was 'vomit in the toilet and bodily fluid'.
'He said 'just wait until the toxicology report' - he was clearly hoping it was alcohol. When it came back there was no alcohol he didn't know what to say at the house.'
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They've seen alcohol, they've seen Katie's history with services in the past, and they've come to an assumption that it's one of them, and they've not looked into anything
David Beattie
Katie's dad
Kellie said the report did, however, say there were traces of cocaine and pregablin, a prescription drug used to treat epilepsy but which is also used recreationally, including to enhance the euphoric effects of drugs like heroin.
Kellie explained: 'The only time she'd ever take substances were when predators got in.
'With Katie it was always just vodka, she'd be curled up in her bed, she'd be drinking two or three litres of vodka a day.
'She wouldn't eat, wouldn't drink - six months before she passed away she'd been in intensive care three times. It was always alcohol, never drugs.'
David said: 'As far as the police are concerned they went into Katie's flat and presumed straight away it's one of them.
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'They've seen alcohol, they've seen Katie's history with services in the past, and they've come to an assumption that it's one of them, and they've not looked into anything.'
Manslaughter at very 'minimum'
David believes at the very 'minimum' detectives should be pursuing a manslaughter charge, 'but because of police failures he's got away with it'.
He added: 'It's just an absolute disgrace, it's been one thing after another.'
He explained forensic officers only went into Katie's flat two months after her death because they 'kicked up a fuss and got a solicitor'.
'The first 24 hours are crucial, they're going two months after - they've basically sabotaged the case, they've done it on purpose,' he said.
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'It's discrimination, Katie at minimum was the victim of manslaughter, but could've been murdered.'
He went on to say: 'They've gone into that flat and found my daughter naked apart from her bra, and straight away that should be ringing alarm bells.
'They just don't want to spend any time on it or any money and just shut the case. I told them at the start I'm not going to let it go.'
David said cops, after taking back the keys, told the family they'd done fingertip searches of Katie's flat, and had been looking for methadone, drug paraphernalia and his daughter's missing bank card.
However, allegedly they said they found none of that.
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Earlier this month, the family got the keys back and went into the flat and immediately found a full bottle of methadone on the sofa, the bank card in her coat pocket in the hallway, four crack pipes, and Katie's empty steroid pills pot, David said.
He said they have put that evidence 'in bags because it could have DNA on it'. What also baffled them was they realised Katie had a pet lizard in a six foot tank in her flat, which police never mentioned - despite a supposed thorough search - believing it proves they didn't return at all.
'It's just unbelievable,' said David. 'It's that bad. There's that many things in my head. It's an absolute disgrace.'
Kellie said: 'We've got the keys back and found everything they've supposedly been looking for in their so-called finger tip search. That's information, about her medication, that should've been known at the inquest. We've basically proved she did take her pills the day she died and didn't touch the methadone.'
The subsequent inquest could not determine a cause of death.
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The coroner's conclusion, following two hearings on April 17 and June 12, stated: 'It has not been possible on the available evidence to determine how Ms Beattie came by her death.'
Kellie said the last contact they had with police was on June 23 when officers came out to the house.
'They told us there's no evidence for manslaughter or murder,' she said. 'We just think they didn't get the answer they wanted from the coroner so they're backtracking.
'We went into the flat and did everything. We found the full bottle of methadone, we thought for a year maybe she overdosed.'
Kellie went on to say: 'The coroner can't say what's killed Katie, but he's said while it's not his job to point the finger, he will follow up with police… he did take on the delay in getting the forensic post mortem done.'
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However, she said during one of the inquests, the pathologist did say if he'd been called on the night Katie was found he could have determined a needle stick injury if there was one.
'He should've been called on the night,' said David. 'They treated Katie like a piece of muck, they presumed she wouldn't have family to follow it up.
'She comes from a good family, we'll fight it right to the end. They didn't bank on that.'
He said despite no supposed forensic evidence 'there's tonnes and tonnes of circumstantial evidence' that needs properly investigating.
'They don't want to be proven wrong. We've been fighting the police, they should be helping us. We've been fighting them every inch of the way.
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'They only speak to us when we ring them.'
The family also say that cops claim they've been unable to gain access to Katie's iPhone.
Kellie then contacted Apple herself and claims the company told her if she could get a court order they could unlock the phone for them.
This was then passed to the police, who allegedly said they weren't willing to get one because they 'don't believe there's anything' of worth on the device, but said the family could pursue one themselves if they wish.
David also went around all the local shops, as well as a hostel behind Katie's flat to gather CCTV footage himself in a bid to help piece together what might have happened.
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Furthermore, the family claims that decorators, one of whom they know personally, who had been painting outside the flat at the time Katie was found, had not even been questioned by police as possible witnesses.
When they pointed this out to cops, they say they were told officers can speak to them if they wish.
David said: 'It's like you're missing the point, we're doing your job for you. You should be going down every avenue you can do. Every inch of the way we've had to push them.'
He added: 'They don't want to find anything. Immediately after her body was found they'd made their decision, all they want to prove now is they're right and we're wrong.
'That's where it's stuck. Katie meant everything to us, our lives are ruined now. We won't stop.'
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Lancashire Police told The Sun: "First and foremost, our thoughts remain with Katie Beatie's loved ones.
"We launched an investigation after Katie was sadly found deceased in her home in Lancaster on 1
st
July 2024.
"However, there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate her death was a result of any criminality.
"We acknowledge that a complaint has been made to our professional standards department, therefore it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time."
The Sun has contacted the Professional Standards Department for comment.
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A spokesperson for the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed the case had not been referred to them.
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