Michaela Hague: Murder of Sheffield mum stabbed 19 times in horror attack continues to baffle detectives

Michaela Hague, aged 25, was knifed in her back and neck in a frenzied attack on Bonfire Night 2001.

While families across the city were enjoying firework displays, Michaela, a mum-of-one, was being stabbed on a car park by a man who had picked her up while she was working as a prostitute.

After 21 years, the murder remains unsolved, with Michaela’s killer still potentially walking the streets.

MORE: Sheffield murder victim's son calls for independent review of unsolved case

She was picked up by a man in a car on Bower Street, off Corporation Street, and was driven to a dark, secluded car park nearby – opposite a pub known then as The Manchester, but which is now The Harlequin.

An old-style blue Ford Sierra was seen driving away from where Michaela’s body was discovered by another sex worker, who raised the alarm.

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PC Richard Twigg was the first police officer to arrive at the crime scene and Michaela managed to pass on some information about her attacker, including a description, which the police officer jotted down on his hand as he tended to her before she was rushed to the Northern General Hospital, where she died three hours later.

Michaela, of Lopham Street, Pitsmoor, told the police officer that her attacker was white, clean-shaven and wore a wedding ring.

He was around 38 years old, 6ft tall and was wearing a blue fleece and glasses.

A police E-fit was later produced in the hope that he would be recognised but detectives have never identified the killer.

Appeals for information about the murderer were made on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme at the time in case he was from elsewhere in the country and may have only been travelling through the city on the night of the fatal stabbing.

Michaela, who had a five-year-old son, worked as a prostitute to fund a heroin habit. She had started working on the streets just six months earlier, an inquest into her death heard.

She was described as a ‘lovely, beautiful daughter’.

The investigation into Michaela’s murder is one of the largest in South Yorkshire Police’s history, with thousands of people interviewed over the years.

Officers travelled the length and breadth of the country in their efforts to track down all the owners of blue Ford Sierras in circulation at that time in the hope of tracing the killer.

On the tenth anniversary of the murder, Michaela’s partner, Mick Holmes, urged those with information to come forward.

“There can be no bigger sin than taking a mother away from her child,” he said.

Mick also said he feared that the killer would strike again.

Chris Dorries, the coroner who oversaw the inquest into Michaela’s death, said at the time that he hoped advances in forensic technology would eventually snare the murderer.

South Yorkshire Police carries out regular reviews of unsolved murders and other serious incidents such as rapes to ensure no stone is left unturned.

Anyone with information should call South Yorkshire Police on 101.