Police Find Evidence in 1971 Teenage Murder Case

Dorothy Layden was raped and killed after a concert in Manchester in 1971. But today police said new evidence has turned up.

Manchester police said today they have recently uncovered DNA that could help find the man who had murdered a teenage girl 37 years ago.

Seventeen-year-old Dorothy Layden was raped and murdered on April 25, 1971 outside a pub. Her body was discovered hours after she had attended a concert in Manchester.

A public appeal was made on television on Monday in an attempt to jolt the memory of possible witnesses to the crime. According to Detective Superintendent Martin Bottomley, the appeal yielded ‘great response’ from the public and the police had been given ten names of suspects who will be questioned and have their DNA tested.

- A lot of people believed then that a man called Trevor Hardy was responsible. He is in prison for a number of other murders, but forensic evidence clearly indicates he did not kill Dorothy. The suspicion about Hardy may have allowed the real killer to hide all this time –Bottomley told the BBC.

- Police investigation methods have changed significantly in this time and this has allowed us to use forensic evidence that would have been impossible then – he added.