A taxi driver brutally murdered almost 40 years ago, a banker shot on his doorstep in Scotland, and a woman killed in her own home in Darlington are among the shocking cases which have never been solved.
The victims range in age from missing 14-year-old Sarah Benford who is believed to have been murdered, to 69-year-old Nora Tait.
Among the unsolved murders are that of Alistair Wilson who was shot dead on his doorstep in Nairn in 2004
Meanwhile, the killer of George Murdoch still remains at large. The taxi driver was attacked with a cheese wire while working in Aberdeen on 29 September, 1983.
Police have continued to hunt for those responsible for the murders in order to get justice for the victims and their loved ones.
Here are some of the most shocking unsolved murder cases from the past four decades.
9. Alan Rosser
On 12 November 1999 Alan Rosser was found collapsed outside his garage, Imperial Engineering in Blackpool. The motorcycle enthusiast was found at around 6.30pm with a gunshot wound to the head. He died from his injuries the following day. The investigation into the 34-year-old death involved looking into the theory that he had got mixed up with drug trafficking. Months prior to his death he was kidnapped by a group of 10 men. In December that year three men were convicted of his kidnapping. It transpired £40,000 worth of equipment was stolen from his garage. Investigators believed Alan owed a considerable sum of cash, possibly to underworld connections. After Alan was shot a man wearing a dark bomber jacket and a woolly hat was seen running from Egerton Road to Carshalton Road, towards Sherbourne Road, before disappearing. Artist impressions were handed out in a bid to trace him. However his identity remains a mystery, as does that of Alan’s killer. | contributed
10. Sarah Benford
Sarah Benford was last seen in the Kettering area of Northamptonshire on 6 April, 2000, before a murder probe was launched three years later. The 14-year-old disappeared after absconding from a care home on 3 April. On 6 April, she visited her mum where she worked in an amusement arcade in Kettering town centre. They argued. That was to be the final time she saw her daughter. Last year, Northamptonshire Police said they would begin excavating a 70-metre by 70-metre area in Kettering. However, her body was not found.
11. Michelle Bettles
Michelle Bettles was 22 years old when she was murdered. She operated as a street prostitute and was last seen in the red light district of Norwich during the early hours of Thursday 28 and Friday 29 March 2002 Easter weekend. Unusually she had not kept a pre-arranged appointment with a regular client of hers. They had arranged to meet close to her home address. CCTV footage shows Michelle walking along St Benedict’s Street towards the city centre at 8.20 pm that night. Clearly, for whatever reason, she had never intended to keep the appointment with the regular client since she was heading in the opposite direction to their meeting. There was a series of sightings of Michelle in various locations in the red light district of Norwich by people that knew her, the last being at about midnight. On the morning of 31 March 2002, Michelle’s body was found in woodland by the side of a country track known as Rush Meadow Road in Scarning, near Dereham - around 20 miles from Norwich’s Red Light district. She had been strangled. | Norfolk Police
12. Alistair Wilson
Scottish banker Alistair Wilson was gunned down on his own doorstep in 2004. Around 7pm on Sunday, 28 November, a man called at the family home in Nairn, and spoke to Alistair’s wife Veronica who answered the door and asked for “Alistair Wilson”. Mr Wilson, 30, went downstairs to speak to the man and was handed a blue envelope with the word “Paul” on it. He went inside briefly and then returned to the door for a second time when he was fatally shot. No one has been apprehended over Mr Wilson’s murder. The gun was recovered from a drain nearby days later. In March this year police travelled to Canada to carry out witness interviews in Nova Scotia. Recently they said they believed the answer to his murder lies in his personal life rather than his professional one. They appealed for information about a planning application for decking outside a hotel opposite his home which he had objected to shortly before his death. Police have also called for anyone who had been in the Havelock Hotel two days before the shooting. Officers believe the objection was discussed in the hotel bar on Friday, 26 November, 2004, and over the weekend up until Mr Wilson’s murder on the Sunday night.