Leanne Tiernan was just 16-years-old when she was kidnapped and murdered by John Taylor nearly 20 years ago – but the exact circumstances of what happened after her death remain a mystery.
Taylor, at the time a 44-year-old divorcee, is believed to have stashed her body in a freezer in his home for nine months before dumping her body in Lindley Woods, Yorkshire, where he used to go poaching with ex-girlfriends.
His neighbours had always deemed Taylor, who was known to torture animals that he poached, as strange yet no one could have believed the true horror Taylor was capable of.
Witnesses claim that ‘pet man’ – a nickname he was given because he had 30 animals in his home – had a freezer in his house which one day disappeared.
Police believe that it could be down to this twist of fate that the horror of Taylor’s crimes were unearthed, as he was forced to dump the body which he had kept for nine months.
Leanne Tiernan was just 16-years-old when she was abducted in November 2000 by John Taylor
Leanne’s disappearance on the 26 November 2000 sparked one of the largest manhunts in West Yorkshire Police’s history, whereby more than 10,000 homes were visited by officers and 40 drains were searched.
DCI Chris Gregg said: ‘He is a callous, cold, cunning individual, he thought he had got away with it.
‘He made many mistakes. But he kept Leanne in a freezer in his kitchen for nine months. Why did he take her out when he did and dispose of her body 20 miles away when he did? We will never know because he has never confessed to that part.
‘The simple explanation we feel, is his freezer broke down. People who used to go into that house told us he had an upright freezer that suddenly disappeared. That sums this guy up. He is dangerous. He should never be released from prison.’
Taylor confessed to police that he had been looking for a girl to snatch that evening and DCI Gregg explained Leanne was ‘simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
DCI Gregg, who appears a CBS Reality show ‘Written in Blood’ to discuss Leanne’s killing by Taylor, said: ‘He knows what he has done, I think I know what he has done. Hopefully the evidence will be found. He will never confess to anything unless his back is against the wall and he has got the overwhelming evidence facing him.’
He had blindfolded her with a scarf and wrapped his coat around her and brought her back to his house, where he admitted he planned to rape her, although it remains unclear exactly what he did.
Her body was found 20 miles away where she went missing at Lindley Woods, near Otley. Her body was discovered by a dog walker.
DCI Gregg said: ‘Leanne’s body was found encased in 10 bin liners, the green ones, the heavy duty plastic ones. She was top and tailed like a Russian doll. Whoever had put her in the plastic bin liners, had put her in, tied one bin liner, tied it with a black twine, then put another bin liner the other way, like a Russian doll, tied that and so on and so forth, ten times.
John Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder. He is currently imprisoned at HMP Wakefield
‘Around her head was another bin liner which was secured with a leather dog collar and her hands were tied behind her back with three cable ties – one round each wrist and one linking like a daisy chain.’
The yellow cable ties, the dog collar around Leanne’s neck and the duvet she was found wrapped in, which contained traces of dog hair, were evidence which led detectives to Taylor.
The ties belonged to Parcel Force – which he was employed by – and a database revealed Taylor had bought the collar three month’s before Leanne went missing.
Once police searched his property, they found fibres which matched were found on Leanne’s body and the green plastic which matched the bin bags she was swaddled in.
Another success in bringing down Taylor was a police appeal which saw a man walking his dog, where Leanne’s body was later found and he was known to walk his parks in.
DCI Gregg added: ‘The dog that he was walking that day was a terrier dog which we found in the back garden with two other dogs buried. That terrier dog had had its head stoved in with a meat cleaver because we had put an appeal in the paper with a photo fit of that man, asking if anyone knew him. So he got rid of the dog.’
DCI Gregg added: ‘Alarm bells were ringing from the off, because of the circumstances and how Leanne had disappeared. It was a late November night.
‘Quite simply we were looking at half a mile. That half a mile from the bus stop to her home.’
Taylor admitted to the murder of Leanne Tiernan and was sentenced the same day on July 2002.
DCI Chris Gregg, a former Detective Chief Superintendent and head of West Yorkshire Police’s Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, said Taylor was a ‘a callous, cold, cunning individual’
During sentencing, Taylor was told: ‘After the death of this girl at your hands you wanted sexual deviancy with a girl of similar age. That not only demonstrates how dangerous you are but demonstrates your lack of remorse. Not by chance were you in this area for this purpose.
‘You were not acting on impulse, you chose a secluded place and a vulnerable young girl who suited your purposes. This was as cold and calculating as can be imagined. You are a dangerous sexual sadist. Your purpose in kidnapping this young girl was so that you could satisfy your perverted cravings.
‘The suffering you caused her and the suffering you continue to cause those who loved her simply cannot be measured. You must expect to spend the rest of your life in custody.’
Detectives also believe that Taylor could responsible for other killings, including the death of prostitute Yvonne Fitt, whose body was found just 100 yards away from Leanne’s body, eight years earlier in 1992.
Following the conclusion of the trial, Detective SuperintendentGregg announced: ‘We do not believe that this is the first major crime he has committed. We feel that the way this murder was pre-planned, and the way he hid and disposed of the body, was calculated. We cannot exclude the possibility he has killed before.’
Other cases which have been reopened include Deborah Alison Wood, 20, Lindsay Jo Rimer, 13, and Rebecca Hall, 19.