Exclusive:Jailed murderer Peter Turner "not cooperating" with police search for Sheffield victim's body 31 years on
It comes as killer Peter Turner is to bid for his freedom in a hearing set to take place next month
A jailed murderer awaiting a Parole Board hearing in his bid for freedom is “not cooperating” with a resumed search for his victim, police have confirmed.
When Teresa Shephard first disappeared in June 1995, police commenced a routine missing person investigation.
Enquiries led detectives to Teresa’s ex-boyfriend, Peter Turner, against whom she was due to give evidence in an upcoming trial.
Just over a year after Teresa was last seen, Turner, then aged 24, was convicted of her murder in July 1996, following a Sheffield Crown Court trial.
A short time later, he received an indefinite life sentence, and has remained behind bars since.
Turner’s conviction came after police were able to build a case against him despite Teresa’s body, the whereabouts of which have remained a mystery for the last three decades.
However, a newly-resumed search for Teresa’s remains on farmland off Piper Lane in Aston, Rotherham, has led to fresh hopes her family may finally be given answers.
The new search was embarked upon on Tuesday (September 15, 2026), less than a month before Turner is set to bid for his freedom in a Parole Board hearing schedueld to take place on October 6, 2026.
However, police have seemingly ruled out any link between the resumed search and Turner’s upcoming hearing.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson told The Star that Turner is “not cooperating” with the search for Teresa’s body.
Officers remain at the site in Piper Lane today.
When the search was confirmed on Tuesday, the force said it was expected that officers would remain in the area for the “next few days.”
Turner’s trial heard how he had insisted to police he had not seen Teresa. But when he was searched they found a book of apparently innocuous Supertram tickets.
They bore serial numbers and further investigations revealed they had been purchased with Teresa's credit card on the last day she was seen alive.
Turner had no obvious use for Supertram tickets and could give no adequate explanation of how he had tickets bought on Teresa's credit card long after he claimed to have last seen her.
A forensic examination also revealed traces of smeared blood on Turner's leather jacket and spattered on the interior of a Metro car used by the former student.
Blood samples taken from Teresa’s mother and estranged father, along with DNA from hairs found on a brush in Teresa’s Basegreen flat, allowed scientists to confirm the blood on Turner’s jacket and in the car was hers.