03-03-2025
'Haunting' murder of Wigan teenager Lisa Hession to appear on Crimewatch 40 years after tragic discovery
The haunting murder of a Leigh teenager will feature in a BBC Crimewatch documentary more than four decades after her death.
On December 8, 1984, Lisa Jane Hession's body was found just minutes' walk from her home, where her mum had been waiting for her to return. She had been out to see her friends at a party.
Her mum Christine had relented on the condition that she be back home by 10.30pm. In 2016, heartbroken, she died without ever seeing justice.
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In the 40 years since her death, Lisa's killer has never been found. Despite kissing her boyfriend goodnight and leaving with plenty of time to make her curfew, Lisa never made it home.
Her anxious mother went out to search for her three times, inadvertently walking past the alleyway where her daughter was lying each time she went out.
Eventually, the 14-year-old was found by a passer-by lying on her back in a recess by garage doors. She had bruises on her neck, and police would later confirm that she had been the victim of a sex attack.
Among those appearing on Crimewatch, which will air at 10.45am on Tuesday (March 4) is Manchester Evening News chief reporter Neal Keeling, who covered the case when he worked for the Bolton Evening News. He recalled: "This case has remained with me for 40 years.. There's just a handful that you never forget, and this is one of those."
He added: "People still are searching for answers."
Lisa's body was just 200 yards from where her mum had been anxiously waiting for her.
Christine would later recall: "I stood on a corner watching for her white boots to come along the pavement. I felt if only I could see them everything would be all right. But she never came."
Despite a major police investigation, Lisa's killer was never found. Christine would die in 2016, having never seen justice for the killer of her only child.
Just three days after Lisa's murder police revealed that over the preceding four months three young women had been victims of sex attacks.
During each of the assaults, the attacker had threatened to kill the women.
Martin Bottomley, the head of Greater Manchester Police's Cold Case Unit, said that there is some correlation with the circumstances of the other attacks.
He said: "We can't link Lisa's murder to the other attacks definitively because we have no forensic evidence (from them). But the circumstances of the various attacks or near misses tends to suggest that there is a sexual predator out there at the time who has escalated his behaviour resulting in Lisa's death."
Crimewatch Live is broadcast on BBC One at 10.45am every weekday from 3rd to the 21st March. The programme is also available on iPlayer for 30 days.
