The story of two crimes linked with John Cannan

Instead, the case against Cannan claimed, he had driven her to a wooded valley known as Dead Woman’s Ditch in the Quantocks, Somerset, where he murdered her.

Her body was found in a shallow stream in the area more than six months later, months after Cannan had been arrested on suspicion of her murder in December 1987.

Three weeks after Shirley disappeared a tax disc for her Mini was discovered in Cannan’s car.

The Mini itself was later discovered in his garage, having been painted blue, and investigators found her thumb print in the Leigh Woods flat in which Cannan was living at the time.

Cannan was charged with Shirley’s murder and his trial began on 5 April 1989.

He also faced eight other charges including sexual offences and attempted abduction relating to incidents involving other women.

He was jailed for life in 1989.

In October 2023 a parole board ruled Cannan was too dangerous to release with the panel hearing how he had still insisted on his innocence and had not engaged with any programmes to reduce his risk of reoffending.