My mum's killer still at large 14 years on (From Warrington Guardian)

My mum's killer still at large 14 years on

A BRUTAL, sadistic murder left a Widnes mum slumped over the wheel of her car in a secluded country lane.

Yet, exactly 14 years after the bloodstained body of mother-of-two Vera Anderson, 42, was discovered, her killer is still free.

Her devastated daughter, Lorraine Bibby, 33, this week pleaded with detectives to re-open one of the biggest murder inquiries in Cheshire.

"He'll think he's got away with it," said Lorraine, whose brother Bob lives in Runcorn. "They should have someone working on this all the time.

"It's on my mind every day. When I wake up, it's there. Until I know why mum was killed, I can't rest.

"I'd sit there with the police every day going through paper work if it would help."

Despite repeated requests by The World, Cheshire police was unable to find anyone to speak to us about this unsolved murder.

Vera dashed out of her home in Hadfield Close, Halton View, in her flip-flops, at 10pm on Saturday, August 24, 1991, after receiving a mystery phone call.

She left her seven-year-old son, Neil, with a neighbour, saying she'd only be 10 minutes. She left the telly on and didn't even take her purse.

Five hours later she was found dead in Tannery Lane, Penketh.

In a violent struggle, she had been strangled and her throat slashed. She had not been raped, robbed or sexually assaulted and her bank account showed no sign of wealth. She was last seen alive talking to a man in the Crown and Cushion pub in Penketh. He has never been traced.

Lorraine, then 19 and pregnant with her second daughter, recalled the anguish of identifying her mum's body.

"Her face was black and blue, her hair had been ripped out of the side of her head and her neck was broken. I can't believe how one person could have done that."

She says the trauma has destroyed her life.

"I've had a nervous breakdown, lost my husband, lost my beautiful home and everything," said Lorraine, who now lives in a council house with her two teenage daughters.

"I miss my mum. No one deserves to die like that

"Somebody somewhere must know something. The motive is what we need and we'd be half way there."

A £30,000 reward was offered to anyone who can help solve this brutal murder. Call Crimestoppers on 0800-555 111 if you have information.