True Crime Sheffield: Watch Shots TV crime series video on why killer of Michaela Hague has never been caught

While families across the city were enjoying bonfire night events on November 5, 2021, Michaela was targeted by a man with a knife who stabbed her a total of 19 times in her neck and back.

Her killer has never been caught.

The case features on Shots TV in a True Crime series episode available to watch on demand here.

Michaela, who was working as a prostitute when she was killed, was picked up by a man trawling the streets of Sheffield’s red light district at that time.

He picked the 25-year-old up in a car from Bower Street, off Corporation Street in the city centre, and drove her to a 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.

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

Michaela, who lived at Lopham Street, Pitsmoor, told the police officer that her attacker was white, clean-shaven and wore a wedding ring. She said 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 her attacker would be recognised but detectives have never identified the killer.

Appeals for information were even made on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in case the killer was from elsewhere in the country and may only have 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 was told.

In a press conference held after her murder, Michaela’s heartbroken parents, Jackie and Mick Hague, who lived in Parson Cross, spoke of how their daughter was loving and from a caring family.

Mrs Hague described her as a ‘lovely, beautiful daughter’ and said her death had ripped their family apart.

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

It took officers across 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.

Anyone with information on the murder should call South Yorkshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.