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Son's bid to find killer
A SHEFFIELD boy who was just five years old when his mum was strangled and stabbed to death has launched a website to try to find her killer, 11 years on.
On the anniversary this weekend of his mother's death, Daniel Grainger, now 16, wants South Yorkshire Police to re-open the case into the murder of his mum Patricia, killed in Sheffield in 1997 when she was 25.
And the teenager hopes advances in modern DNA technology may at last provide a breakthrough.
"I can't rest knowing her killer is out there," he said. "Someone has got to know something about what happened to my mum, and why."
Daniel's website - the starkly-titled www.whokilledmymum.com - urges anyone with information to examine their consciences and call the police.
It features a digital clock counting the days, hours, minutes and seconds which have passed "since my mum was murdered".
Pat's body was found by youths exactly 11 years ago tomorrow, in a brook near her home in Buchanan Road, Parson Cross, on August 10, 1997.
She had been strangled, stabbed and sexually assaulted, and her body covered with a discarded mattress and left in the water.
It is believed Pat lay undiscovered for around 24 hours - but to this day detectives do not know whether she was killed and attacked near the brook or murdered elsewhere and dumped.
Daniel, who has just one treasured photograph of him and his mum together, says he can still vividly remember the day he was told of her death.
Speaking exclusively to The Star 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."
Daniel says he does not plan to visit his mother's grave tomorrow.
"I don't want that day to keep reminding me of what happened to my mum, I want it to be a day to remember her," he said. "I went on the day last year and I couldn't think of my mum, all I could think of was how she died."
On his website, which includes previously unpublished family photos and a moving blog, Daniel says his mother - who would now be 36 - was "a lovely woman who would not hurt a fly".
"Articles printed at the time of her murder said my mum had a mental age of 10, although it was thought she had ADHD," he said.
"She would talk to anyone who talked to her - there is no reason why someone would do what they did.
"I'm hoping someone out there will come forward to help put my mum's killer away, to let her rest in peace, and to allow myself and my family to try to continue life the best we can.
"How can someone keep something like this bottled up for almost 11 years?"
And in a heartfelt plea direct to those who hold the secrets to his mum's murder he said: "A harmless 25-year-old woman who had her all life ahead of her had it taken away for some sick reason in a most horrific way.
"Why would you protect someone who could do that?"
- Call South Yorkshire Police on 0114 220 2020 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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