The oldest Greater Manchester cold case is the wartime murder of 17-year-old Minnie Stott
16:58, 09 Nov 2025Updated 17:09, 09 Nov 2025
Minnie was killed in November 1940 and is the oldest unsolved murder on GMP’s books(Image: Dominic Salter)
A wartime killer who used the blackout to escape justice is one of the oldest crimes among more than two dozen Greater Manchester cold cases highlighted in a new crime map revealing 1,000 unsolved murders.
Every case has been the subject of a major police investigation, with some dating back to the pre-war era and others occurring in the last decade.
This exclusive list was compiled from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to every police force in the country, supported by research through a wide variety of local newspaper archives.
Cases include many seemingly random attacks, usually on women, carried out by strangers with no apparent motive.
The oldest Greater Manchester cold case included in the files is the wartime murder of 17-year-old Minnie Stott in in 1940.
A police constable found the Bolton teenager’s body during a routine check of a lock-up shop.
It was believed Minnie had been strangled with her own scarf, which was missing, along with her underwear, indicating she had also been the victim of a sex attack.
Minnie was killed in November 1940 and is the oldest unsolved murder on GMP’s books(Image: Dominic Salter)
Tragically, around two weeks earlier, a 15-year-old had been murdered in a similar fashion in Liverpool, and Minnie’s mother had warned her “never to allow herself to be drawn into conversation with strangers”.
At the time, Bolton was in blackout due to the war effort to protect lives and property from German bombers, and this provided the perfect cover to allow the killer to get away with murder.
Other Greater Manchester cases highlighted in the map include the shocking murder of nine-year-old schoolgirl Susan Thomas, who was strangled in Platt Fields a few hours after she went missing in 1963, and 14-year-old Lisa Hession, who was found strangled in an alleyway in Wigan in 1984.
You can search our interactive map to find out if there are any unsolved murders near you.
The online map has been produced to support the special publication Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders Vol II: Midnight Stalkers.
It seeks to reexamine cold cases that have been held in the files of police forces nationwide, in some cases for decades.
The publication includes a full timeline of 1,000 unsolved murders, dating from the pre-war period to the last decade, alongside more than 20 in-depth features.
Many of the cases are so famous that they remain locked in the national psyche, such as the Bible John murders that terrified Scotland during the 1960s.
Other mysteries – however shocking at the time – have been consigned to history, such as the Cardiff murders of Mabel Harper and Alice Pittman, who were both strangled during the wartime blackout.
Each remains an enigma, with families still seeking justice and answers – and in many cases, the murderer may still walk the streets.
You can purchase a copy of Britain’s 1,000 Unsolved Murders Vol II: Midnight Stalkers in newsagents or by following the link to our online shop.