The Murder Of

Leanne Tiernan
A high-profile English child abduction and murder
involving a schoolgirl who was abducted less than
one mile from her home

Leanne Tiernan
a 16 year old girl was found deep
buried in a shallow grave in Lindley
Woods in West Yorkshire, England in
August 2011, by a man walking his
dog.

She went missing in November 2000

when she was walking home from
Christmas shopping with her best
friend

Lindley Woods in West

Yorkshire, England
Leanne was found with a black plastic bag over
her head, held in place, with a dog collar, with a
scarf, and cable tie around her neck. Her wrists
were also bound up with cable ties and her body
was wrapped in green plastic bin liners tied with
twine.

When Leanne Tiernan disappeared, the police conducted the biggest search for a missing person
in West Yorkshire.

The case involves up to 200 officers and hundreds of volunteers

in the search of around 1,750 buildings, more than 1,400
house-to-house inquiries conducted, underwater searches of
thirty-two drainage wells, the draining of a two-mile section of
canal and the halting of household waste collections

DNA samples were taken from 140 men interviewed by the

police in connection with the inquiry and twelve search
warrants were executed at various addresses in Leeds.

What the pathologist found

The pathologist who examined her body found that she
has been strangled and though Leanne had been
missing since the previous November 2000, a postmortem examination concluded that the body had not
been in the woods since her disappearance, but based
on decomposition, forensic experts believe that she had
been kept in cold storage or a freezer after her death up
until a few weeks before the body was found.

How the Murderer was found

Examination of the dog
collar, cable ties and twine
used to bind the victim
provided clues to Leannes
murderer
The dog collar was traced
back to a particular supplier
whom had sold several of
the collars to a man named
John Taylor.

 Cable ties were also found in John Taylors house. The

cable ties were a type exclusively used by the Parcel
Force, John Taylor's employer.
The type of twine was unusual and matched the one
found in John Taylors home. The twine was used for
rabbit netting.

Forensic Evidence

Hairs found in the scarf:

Scientist found small amounts of
DNA in the hair shaft. A DNA
examination of the hair took place
, however, the hair shafts did not
have enough DNA to conduct
proper DNA profile
Forensic experts used
Mitochondrial DNA testing
Using these results, they
managed to create a DNA profile
from the minute amounts of DNA
inside the hair shaft and it was a
match to John Taylor

Animal DNA
Forensic investigators found dog hairs on Tiernans body
The dog hair DNA sample was sent to a university in Texas,
which had developed a DNA profiling technique for pedigreed
pets.
The university produced a partial profile for a dog but
unfortunately police were unable to link this to Taylor, as the
dog he owned at the time of Tiernans murder had subsequently
died. This was the first time dog DNA had been used in a British
criminal case.

John Taylor A killer in

the woods
He was arrested in October 2011, and
convicted of the murder to Leanne
Tiernan
Taylor had abducted the girl from an unlit
wooded path where she was walking
home, took her back to his house where
he sexually assaulted her and finally
strangled her with a scarf.

 Taylor later pleaded guilty and was given multiple life

sentences for the rape and murder of Leanne Tiernan.
Armed with Taylor's DNA profile, police examined
additional unsolved incidents in the area and linked Taylor
to two other rapes committed in the late 1980s for which
he was also charged.

END