Cold case appeal for young woman found dead in field

More than three decades ago a cyclist riding past a carrot field in Rainford, Merseyside, came across the naked body of a young woman.

Her killer had strangled her at some point between the night of 5 August 1994 and the following lunchtime, before leaving her close to the Wheatsheaf Hotel near the A540 Rainford Bypass – making little effort to conceal her remains.

The woman was identified as 23-year-old Julie Finley, from Liverpool, who had struggled with a heroin addiction and whose weight had dropped to about six stone (38.1kg) when she disappeared.

Since then, despite offers of cash rewards for information, Crimewatch reconstructions and numerous media appeals, no-one has been charged with her murder.

Now Merseyside Police are urging anyone with information, and who may have kept quiet in the past, to come forward.

Finley was last seen at about 22:30 BST on 5 August 1994 on Pembroke Place in Liverpool city centre, behind then the Royal Liverpool Hospital building.

She was talking to a man aged in his 20s or 30s, who has never been traced.