Who Killed My Mum? Patricia (Pat) Grainger. Sheffield Hartley Brook Murder 10/08/1997 Appealing for information on the murder of my mum patricia grainger in sheffield on 10th august 1997
Police have arrested two men after a teenager set up his own internet site in a desperate attempt to trace his mother’s murderer.
Daniel Grainger was five years old and has only fleeting memories of his mother Pat who was strangled and stabbed to death in 1997.
With the crime still undetected after 11 years, he launched the website www.whokilledmymum.com while urging police to re-open the case.
Daniel, from Sheffield, used it to appeal for people to give information to detectives and hoped advances in DNA technology may also provide a breakthrough.
His site has received almost 200,000 hits from all over the world, mostly with messages of support, but also some with details which have been passed on to the police.
South Yorkshire Police have revealed they are questioning two local men aged 51 and 59 in connection with the murder.
Daniel, a 16 year old college student, said: “I’m pleased that there has been an important development in the investigation because nothing seems to have happened for the last 11 years.
“The police have told me they have arrested two men but I don’t know much more than that because it is in its early stages.
“I think the website has played a big part in providing important information to help the police. At one stage there were so many hits that the site had to be closed down.”
The website features a digital clock counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds which have passed “since my mum was murdered”.
Miss Grainger’s body was found by youths in a brook near her home in Parson Cross, Sheffield, on Aug 9 1997.
She had been strangled, stabbed and sexually assaulted, covered with a discarded mattress and left in the water and lay undiscovered for around 24 hours.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Two men aged 51 and 59, both from Sheffield, have been arrested in connection with the death of Patricia Grainger in 1997. They are currently helping police with inquiries.”
Daniel has just one photograph of him with his mother, who would now be 36, and still recalls the time he was told of her death.
He said: “I remember crying, seeing the police everywhere on the street, and seeing her photo in the paper.
“I don’t know what kind of life I would have had with her – I was robbed of the chance of finding out and really getting to know her.”
On his website, which includes previously unpublished family photos and a moving blog, described his mother as “a lovely woman who would not hurt a fly”.
He says: “Articles printed at the time of her murder said my mum had a mental age of 10, although it was thought she had ADHD.”
Source: The Telegraph
