Taking A Look At Tiernan's Murder Investigation

Sunday, November 26, 2000 was the last time Leanne Tiernan was seen alive. Tiernan, a young 16 year old schoolgirl, went missing about a mile from her home in Bramley, Leeds, UK. After a day of Christmas shopping with her friend Sarah Whitehouse, Tiernan took a shortcut home alone and walked through a desolate and dark path locally known as Houghley Gill. Leanne reportedly had disappeared around 5pm.

A search quickly ensued, involving the searching of over 1000 properties and the draining of a 3-mile long canal, using K-9 units, air support, and even underwater searches. The search would prove to be the largest West Yorkshire had ever seen. Tiernan’s missing person investigation was headed by Detective Superintendent Chris Gregg of the West

Yorkshire Police. With the help of Whitehouse and Tiernan’s sister Michelle, police tried retracing Leanne’s steps but they found no leads. Tiernan’s parents also appealed to the public for any information on their daughter. Police received several tips from people reporting they had seen Leanne, but were led to dead ends. The investigation grew cold for several months.
On August, November 20th, 2001, after 8 long months, Leanne Tiernan’s body was found by Mark Bisson who was walking his dog in Lindley Woods in North Yorkshire.

Police officially identified the body as Tiernan’s from her fingerprints 2 days later, and Gregg declared the case a murder investigation. Her body had been found wrapped in plastic bags and then covered with a floral patterned quilt, buried not too far under the ground. Detective Gregg said her hands had been tied with plastic cables, which were also used to strangle her. Police also found a scarf around her neck. “When Leanne's body was found we discovered a number of bindings on her body. Her hands had been bound,” Gregg said. A black bag covered her head, secured in place by a leather dog collar. Her hair was still in the same ponytail she had it in on the day she disappeared, with the same hairbands and clips attached. The only items missing were her jacket and her boots. Forensic scientists were believed Tiernan’s body had been frozen after her death up until a few weeks of her body’s discovery, based on the state of decomposition of her body . Her body was then examined by a cryobiology expert, who looked at the microstructure of Tiernan's cardiac tissue and determined her body was frozen for a

while.
Police now knew the cause of her death: strangulation.

But given just the information and clues from the findings of her body, they had reached another stump in the case. From her body alone, they were unable to determine who the abductor and killer was. Detective Gregg and the police had to try a different tactic: “piecing together a jigsaw of evidence obtained through tenacious policing that made sure no stone was left unturned”. The police used forensic science to assist with the investigation; without the help and services of the Forensic Science Service, it is very unlikely that police would have found Tiernan’s

killer.
One of the first aspects of the investigation involved finding people in Bramley, Leeds who had bought a dog collar matching the one found on the body. That specific collar was made by a company in Nottingham who supplied 220 retailers. Those retailers were contacted by the investigating police, who got a lead after contacting the 112 company called Pet Pajamas. Pet Pajamas confirmed having customers in the Leeds area and sent police a list of three names, of which one was a resident of Bramley: John Taylor. John Taylor was a known poacher and used to go to the woods the body was found in. Taylor’s name had also shown up on a previous list police had compiled of people familiar to the place Leanne was taken and where her body was found. This fact raised a flag to police, who placed Taylor as their prime suspect.
John Taylor became the top priority of the investigation, and the police turned over every rock of information on him. They found that he lived less than a mile away from where Leanne was taken and was an employee of Parcel Force. Police also found that the cable ties that were found on Tiernan’s body were supplied almost only to the parent company of Parcel Force. After learning this, police were able to obtain a search warrant and search his house. They found more of the cables and another dog collar, both of which were identical to the ones found on Leanne’s body. The Forensic Science Service examined the twine used to bind the body and it was determined that it was of a unique batch; the exact type of twine was also found in Taylor’s residence. The Forensic Science Service also examined small traces of red carpet fibers found on Tiernan’s body. Taylor had recently removed his carpet, but left enough traces to be matched exactly to the ones the FSS examined. By using an expert in forensic pollen analysis, the FSS was able to put the icing on the cake. Based on the pollen found on Tiernan’s person, the forensic expert was able to place Leanne in Taylor’s garden before she was killed.
The evidence the police had against Taylor was strong and solid. He was arrested on October 16th, 2001 for the abduction and murder of Leanne Tiernan. Even after his arrest, traces of Tiernan’s blood was found under the floorboards of his home. With all the evidence piled up against him, Taylor pleaded guilty on July 8th, 2002; he was found guilty and sentenced to 2 life sentences. With the help of The Forensic Science Service and the science of