UK Deborah Wood, 20, Leeds, burnt body found 10 days after going missing, 4 January 1996

[AcbMurders]

Pub where Deborah Wood was last seen 'had been frequented by killer'

Taylor is likely to die behind bars for murdering Leanne Tiernan, 16, in 2000 and a string of rapes and other sex attacks, but detectives believe he may have killed four other young women

www.dailymail.co.uk

• Deborah, 20, was last seen alive leaving Big Lil's bar in Leeds on January 4, 1996
• Deborah's burned body was found 10 days later but her killer is yet to be found
• Now, Big Lil staff members claim murderer John Taylor was a regular at the bar

The mystery around the disappearance of factory worker Deborah Wood almost three decades ago has taken a fresh twist after the managers of the pub where she was last seen told a cold case review that sadistic killer John Taylor was a regular there. (…)

Now Garth Durkin and Allan Moss, who ran Big Lil's, have revealed that Taylor would wander around the pub, chatting up other customers.

Taylor is likely to die behind bars for murdering Leanne Tiernan, 16, in 2000 and a string of rapes and other sex attacks over three decades.

But detectives believe he may have killed four other young women in West Yorkshire before they caught him.

Moss says he remembers Taylor and recalled: 'He used to come in just after 5pm, probably when he finished work. He was a bit of a creep - touchy, touchy, feely, feely. I didn't like the man. That's it, pure and simple.

'He was one of them that used to wander round and talk, and it was mainly females he'd talk to. He was hands-on, putting his arm around them and rubbing his hand up and down and feeling.

'The younger the female the better. If you're asking me: 'Did he leave with her that night?' I couldn't tell you. But if he'd have been in that night, she's gone missing, he'd have been talking to her.'

Mr Moss was talking on a cold case investigation, by Silent Witness star Emilia Fox and criminologist Professor David Wilson, for their TV series In the Footsteps of Killers on Channel.

The show uncovered Moss and his former colleague Durkin as potential witnesses after Deborah vanished.

Durkin told the programme: 'If they had approached me, I would have sat with the police in my office. We would have gone through the video tape, and we would have pointed out all the regulars.

'Allan would have remembered all their names and that's how it would have been done because we've done this with the police over other incidents. As far as I can remember – and it's a long time ago – I didn't even have one police officer speak to me, show me a picture.'

Deborah's charred body was found on January 14 on an embankment near Burley Park rail station in Leeds – a 12-minute walk from Taylor's home in Bramley. (…)

 

[dotr]

2021 rbbm

Deborah Wood: Appeal to trace killer 25 years on

Deborah Wood was last seen alive in January 1996 after leaving a pub in Leeds.

www.bbc.com

Deborah Wood's body was found on an embankment near Burley Railway Station on 14 January 1996

"Deborah was given no dignity in death with her body being burned to the extent that she was only identified using dental records and DNA".
Police said the case remains under investigation and a forensic review is ongoing.''

 

[AcbMurders]

After watching the latest documentary on Ch4 (In the footsteps of killers), I’m shocked by the opportunities missed by police in this case

 

[dotr]

In the Footsteps of Killers

Emilia Fox, Professor David Wilson and Dr Graham Hill investigate the murder of Deborah Wood, who disappeared after leaving a city centre bar in Leeds in January 1996. Deborah's body was found having been set on fire on a railway embankment at Burley Park train station, just two miles away from...

entertainment.ie

''Season: 2 | Episode: 3 | Length: 65m

Emilia Fox, Professor David Wilson and Dr Graham Hill investigate the murder of Deborah Wood, who disappeared after leaving a city centre bar in Leeds in January 1996. Deborah's body was found having been set on fire on a railway embankment at Burley Park train station, just two miles away from where she was last seen. The team pieces together a number of chilling clues that help narrow the investigation down to one suspect.''

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I’ve just stumbled on this. I was a student in Leeds in 1996 and my landlord had a little back office in Big Lils so I went in there every month to pay my rent. Odd place full of odd people.

Never heard of the case though, despite living within a mile of Burley station at that time. Going to do some more reading!

 

[Legally Bland]

I’ve just stumbled on this. I was a student in Leeds in 1996 and my landlord had a little back office in Big Lils so I went in there every month to pay my rent. Odd place full of odd people.

Never heard of the case though, despite living within a mile of Burley station at that time. Going to do some more reading!

Your landlord wasn't the landlord of Big Lil's was he? He murdered a customer.

The Leeds pub so rough the landlord murdered a customer

City centre 'saloon bar' was like the Wild West

www.leeds-live.co.uk

I only ever went in once, never again.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

No, not him though the name Barrie does sound familiar now (am I getting mixed up with the infamous Barry’s on Briggate?) My old landlord SJM now has a proper office in Hyde Park (been there years/decades!) and actually, when I think about it I can’t see him being connected to Big Lils and wonder if I paid Barrie? Who knows? I’m rubbish with faces so pictures wouldn’t help, and later in my lease someone came and collected the rent.

So basically, no help whatsoever except that I too can confirm the place was a total dive with a very dodgy vibe - and I was only ever there in daylight hours!!