Janet Murgatroyd

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

lancashire-police

Offense Location:

Preston, Lancashire

Summary:

Janet Murgatroyd was a 20-year-old university student studying at the University of Central Lancashire and working part-time for Lancashire Police. She was found dead in the River Ribble on June 16, 1996, after being attacked near the river on June 16. The case remains unsolved 30 years later.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On Saturday, June 15, 1996, Janet had been shopping with her best friend Fiona Watson in Preston and visited pubs in the city centre, returning to a flat in Ashton before going back into Preston. Later in the evening Janet left The Adelphi pub with a man before leaving him close to Boltons Court. Witnesses spotted her leaving the Adelphi pub with an unidentified man at around 12:30 a.m., and later a taxi driver told police he saw a blonde woman matching Janet's description at a little past one in the morning running across Penwortham Bridge, apparently being pursued by a man. At 1:10 a.m. John Livesey and his mother spotted a figure on Penwortham Bridge and Lancashire Police detectives believed this was Janet and her killer. After reaching the bridge, Janet was subjected to a violent attack on Holme Road near the entrance of Priory Park on the south side of the River Ribble, sustained fatal head injuries, and was later found in the river by members of the public on the morning of Sunday, June 16. Around noon, Janet's body was found floating in the River Ribble between the Bridge Inn Pub and the Continental Pub, and her clothing with the exception of her jeans was found on the river bank by Priory Park. A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as drowning and head injuries.

Additional Details:

On August 2, 1999, Andrew Greenwood, then aged 25 and a stranger to the victim, approached two police officers on duty and told them that he had murdered Janet, and was arrested and made repeated and detailed admissions in five interviews throughout that day. Greenwood was first tried before Judge Leveson in October 2002 but the jury was unable to reach a verdict, and he was retried before Judge Holland in June 2003 where he was convicted of manslaughter by a majority verdict and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. A man convicted of her manslaughter had his conviction quashed on appeal in 2004, with Andrew Greenwood having been found guilty at a retrial the year before. Andrew Greenwood's manslaughter conviction was overturned in 2004 and he was not part of the current investigation, while Brendan Connell, who kissed Janet on the evening before she died, is still being treated as a witness, not a suspect. Among the most baffling aspects of the case is the disappearance of a pair of stone-washed Wrangler jeans Murgatroyd was known to be wearing on the night she died; while several personal items and articles of clothing were recovered during the investigation, the jeans were never officially found, and according to reports a group of children claimed to have discovered the jeans but by the time officers made it to the reported location the piece of clothing had vanished; investigators believe the missing jeans may have contained valuable forensic evidence. Lancashire Police said Janet was the victim of a sexually motivated attack. Independent charity Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of who is responsible for Janet's murder.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 13, 2026