View source for Was Barbara Mayo a Peter Sutcliffe Victim

Barbara Mayo, 24, was a student teacher from Mansfield.  Barbara Mayo left home on the morning of Monday, October 12, 1970, but never returned to the flat she shared in London with David Pollard.

Barbara was found strangled in woods at Ault Hucknall by friends in 1970. Barbara had been  raped, battered and strangled. It is believed that Barbara was brutally murdered while hitch-hiking to Catterick, North Yorkshire.

The investigation brought many leads but none were successful. Peter Tobin, already convicted for murdering young women,  was a suspect. The investigation, dubbed Operation Anagram, was formed in 2006 and was carried out by Strathclyde Police. 

Derbyshire Police originally investigated Barbara's murder, and Inspector Kam Bria said: "Any new information will be looked at by Derbyshire Police, in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service."

A witness reported a possible sighting of Barbara at Trowell service station. Subsequent reports suggested that Barbara got into a white Morris 1000 Traveller on the A610 at Kimberley.

Since the hunt for Barbara Mayo's killer began there have been:

* 126,300 people interviewed
* in excess of  47,000 statements taken 
* almost 185,000 Morris Travellers checked
* 78,000 telephone messages taken
* Keith Hellawell, a former detective, spent 10 years visiting Peter Sutcliffe in Broadmoor Hospital in an attempt to get him to admit to more, unsolved, crimes. Keith Hellawell actually got Sutcliffe to admit to two unsolved murders.

Mr Hellawell said he confronted Sutcliffe with a list of 10 attacks on women - eight of whom were killed.

It is believed that Barbara Mayo and 14-year-old Judith Roberts, who was killed in 1972 in Staffordshire, could be among the victims.