Leanne Teirnan Case Study

Leanne Teirnan, a sixteen year old female of Bramely, Leeds, in West Yorkshire, Britain disappeared Sunday, November 26th, 2000 around 5pm. Commuting back from her friends house after Christmas shopping, Leanne decided to travel through a dimly lit, public walkway known as Houghley Gill, only a mile from her house. She often used this pathway as a shortcut to get home from her friends house. Little did the teenagers know, this would be the last time they would ever see each other again. Meanwhile, a figure loomed in the woods waiting for his next victim-Leanne Teirnan. Realizing her daughter never came home, Leanne’s mother filled out a missing person report that night and the search began. After months of public appeals, and an immense search

party, the police started losing hope. Fortunately, eight months later, a dog walker found her body in Lindley Woods, North Yorkshire and the clues fell into place. With the help of forensic scientists, evidence, methods of analysis and other forensic means, the murder and rapist, John Taylor was brought to justice on October 10th 2001. Only two years later, forensic scientists used their abilities associated with Taylor’s DNA to link Taylor to two other cases of unsolved rape of a prostitute and of a mother.
The conducted search party remains the largest in West Yorkshire history.

Police officers searched 1750 households. This terrain consisted of a two-mile canal, which needed to be drained before thoroughly searched along with massive woodland and several wells. Investigators ended up seizing waste collections of the households within the area. It consisted of detectives, dogs, police officers and even an air search. A common search pattern for large areas such as this one includes a quadrant search pattern. In this method, the scene is divided into zones, which is then divided into smaller sections. Chris Wegg, led the police investigation and formed a reconstruction of the crime. Unfortunately this yielded no clues. The despairing plight started showing signs of hope when a local dog walker found a body in Lindley Woods, located sixteen miles from Leanne’s house. Two days later, fingerprint analysis confirmed the identity of the body: Leanne Teirnan. Soon after, people said an unfamiliar dog walker had been seen before Leanne’s disappearance. More family appeals were made to find this suspicious man. A retired couple also reported seeing a man carrying a bundle into the woods and individuals reported screams heard around the time of her disappearance near the walkway. Although helpful, these stories gave hindsight confirmations. The prominent clues and the experience acquired from the officers and forensic scientists helped solve this

crime.
The perpetrator buried Leanne in a shallow grave with a black plastic bag covering her head.

A dog collar wrapped around her neck, along with a scarf and cable ties, held the plastic bag over her face. More cable ties also confined her wrists together, with her body wrapped with green plastic bin liner wrapped with twine. The killer then encompassed her in a duvet cover. Although the body yielded no concrete evidence of rape, officials suspected a sexual assault because her she did not have a jacket or a boot in her possession. Also, her underwear’s position was tampered with upon analysis. Experience from investigators made officials believe the criminal lived near the body’s dumping zone because he needed familiarity of the area. So the police formulated a public appeal that produced a list of names, among them, a poacher named John Taylor. At first, this index of names served as class evidence, but with more and more class evidences, the police began eliminating people of

suspicion.
Unfortunately, officials did not find any DNA on Leanne’s body, however, the tools used to fasten the body provided various helpful pieces of evidence. Pathologists revealed Leanne died from strangulation, but the decomposition of the body did not align with time of disappearance. This form of analysis is called Rigor Mortis. It is a medical condition that occurs after death and results in the stiffening of muscle mass. As the pH falls, rigidness declines. This is shown in the following graph as a function of time.