Zoe Simpson

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

Greater Manchester (POLICE)

Missing From:

Manchester, England

Summary:

Zoe Simpson vanished on 26 October 1996 from New Bank Street in Longsight, Manchester, where she lived with her boyfriend and two young children. At age 24, police believe she was murdered, though detectives have expressed concerns that witnesses may be withholding information. She disappeared with neither money nor belongings, leaving her two children alone.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Disappearance:

After she first went missing, it was thought she had gone away because she was suffering from post-natal depression following the birth of her son eight months earlier. She was also noted to have been on medication at the time. She was known to have attempted suicide on two occasions. After the birth of their second child, Zoe Simpson suffered from post-natal depression and had gone to see her doctor about it, which was said to have helped. However, she did not go again, and someone called her doctor's clinic a few days before she went missing to say that she was sick. Zoe disappeared with neither money nor belongings in 1996 leaving her two children alone. Her boyfriend had been the last person to see her alive.

Additional Details:

In March 1997, police said they thought she had been murdered and dug up the garden at New Bank Street, which was described as a mess, being covered with scrap metal including old washers and boilers belonging to her boyfriend who was a scrap dealer. Although they found nothing, her boyfriend was later arrested on suspicion of her murder in August 1997. Zoe Simpson and her boyfriend had met when Zoe Simpson was 16. Zoe Simpson was the daughter of a design engineer. The boyfriend was noted as having had a number of run-ins with the police, both before and after Zoe Simpson vanished. He was said to have drunk to excess and to have used drugs and to have had criminal convictions for public order offences. It was noted that Zoe Simpson had inherited £65,000 in 1993 after her father died and had spent about half of it buying the house that she lived in with her boyfriend in New Bank Street. It was also heard that she had a will of her own which she had changed the year before she had vanished. Police suspected that he had killed her and then hidden her body in a scrap appliance such as a fridge or washing machine and then had it destroyed at a car shredding plant. After he was arrested, the boyfriend became highly agitated and distressed and had to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Nearly five years after her disappearance, detectives made a fresh appeal, believing there is a conspiracy of silence in the community by witnesses who know what really happened to 24-year-old Zoe. Detective Superintendent Andy Tattersall, leading the murder inquiry, stated they believe she is dead and that it is an ongoing murder investigation, noting that Zoe has left a mother and a brother and two young children. Zoe's mother Carol said she doesn't think she's alive, stating there's no body and this is the worst thing, noting that if there was a body they could put an end to everything and bury her, but there is nothing. Zoe's brother Tim added that he accepts she's dead but still wants justice for Zoe and for her children, wanting the person who killed her to be brought to justice, and wanting the family to be able to lay her to rest.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 08, 2026