Moors Murders Victims

Case background and investigation

The Moors murders were a series of killings of children and teenagers carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The five known victims were Pauline Reade, 16, who disappeared on July 12, 1963; John Kilbride, 12, taken from a market in Ashton-under-Lyne on November 23, 1963; Keith Bennett, 12, who vanished on June 16, 1964, while walking to his grandmother's home in Chorlton-on-Medlock; Lesley Ann Downey, 10, abducted on December 26, 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, killed in October 1965.

According to the BBC's account of the case, the crimes came to light after Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith, witnessed the killing of Edward Evans at the couple's house in Hattersley and went to the police. He also told officers that Brady had spoken of burying other victims on the moors. A left-luggage ticket found in Hindley's prayer book led detectives to a suitcase containing photographs and tape recordings, and a photograph of Hindley on the moor helped locate John Kilbride's grave. The bodies of Kilbride and Downey were recovered from Saddleworth Moor in October 1965.

The trial opened at Chester Assizes on April 19, 1966, before Mr Justice Fenton Atkinson; both defendants pleaded not guilty. On May 6, 1966, Brady was convicted of the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride and given three concurrent life sentences. Hindley was convicted of murdering Evans and Downey and received two concurrent life sentences; the BBC reported that she was found not guilty of murdering Kilbride. At that time Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett were still listed as missing.

Greater Manchester Police reopened the inquiry in the mid-1980s. According to LBC and the BBC, both Brady and Hindley admitted in 1987 to killing Reade and Bennett, and each was taken back to the moor separately to help with the search. Pauline Reade's remains were found in 1987. Neither offender was tried for those two murders. Hindley sought release several times, without success, and died in November 2002 aged 60. Brady spent his later decades at Ashworth high-security hospital and died in May 2017 aged 79.

Keith Bennett remains the only victim who has not been found. His mother, Winnie Johnson, campaigned for decades for information and died in 2012. In September 2022 police searched a site on Saddleworth Moor after an author reported finding what he believed were remains; The Guardian reported that the week-long search ended on October 7, 2022, with no evidence of human remains. After a 2025 BBC documentary, Greater Manchester Police said that visible searches had paused but that a team was still working on the case, according to LBC.