Diane Sindall was just trying to get home from work.
The 21-year-old florist had finished a shift at her second job at the Wellington pub in Bebington, Wirral, on Friday 1 August 1986. She was working the extra job to save for her wedding, planned for 1987. She left the pub just before midnight, heading for her Seacombe home, but her blue Fiat van ran out of petrol on Borough Road, Birkenhead. Between midnight and 12:20am on 2 August, Diane was seen walking along the road by witnesses.
Twelve hours later, her body was found in an alleyway off Borough Road.
Diane had been sexually assaulted and suffered extensive injuries – her cause of death confirmed to be a cerebral haemorrhage.
Property belonging to her was recovered at Bidston Hill, around two miles away, on 17 August.
Investigating officers from Merseyside Police identified witnesses who had seen a small fire there on 3 August, as well as a man running from the scene.
The murder shocked Merseyside and was a catalyst for a group of women to establish the Wirral Rape Crisis Counselling Service, which became Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (RASA) Merseyside and still operates today.
Josephine Wood, who has worked for RASA for 21 years, was born and grew up in Birkenhead. She remembers the impact the horrific crime had on the town.
“I went to school up the hill from where this happened”, she told The Independent. “Every night for 14 years, I got the bus at that bus stop on Borough Road. Nobody would ever have thought twice about walking along there [previously].”
Matters changed after Diane was killed, however.
“The people [from the charity] I’ve spoken to who were around at the time, said the women became prisoners in their own homes,” Ms Wood said. “They daren’t go out, none of the women would dare leave the house, unless they were accompanied by brothers or fathers.
“They got picked up from work, they got picked up from nights out, it was a really, really bad time. Nobody knew what was going on. This didn’t happen in Birkenhead.”
For 38 years, people thought her killer had been brought to justice.
Peter Sullivan, 68, was convicted of her murder in 1987. Dubbed the ‘Beast of Birkenhead’ and the ‘Mersey Ripper’, he spent decades pleading his innocence before he had his conviction was quashed in 2025.
The Court of Appeal heard that DNA evidence had been unearthed due to scientific advances, showing that it was another, unknown man who sexually assaulted and murdered Diane.
Merseyside Police had reopened the investigation into Diane’s murder in 2023 and last month a £20,000 reward was offered by Crimestoppers to find the actual killer, almost 40 years on from the crime.
Police are now working to identify the person whose DNA was left at the scene, knowing it is not Mr Sullivan. The team investigating have obtained samples locally, with screenings also taking place in Swansea, Perth, London, Hull and Newcastle through voluntary DNA elimination samples.
Some 461 males have been eliminated from the investigation, the force said last month, as it was awaiting the forensic results in relation to a further 43 samples.
Merseyside Police hopes the Crimestoppers reward can be the catalyst for finally putting the killer behind bars and ending a long wait for answers.
Detective Superintendent Rachel Wilson said: “Although it has been nearly 40 years since Diane’s murder, we still believe there are people who know what happened, or have their own suspicions, who haven’t yet come forward.
“My message would be ‘it is never too late to do the right thing’.”
‘This is going to be solved by the people of Birkenhead’
The reopening of the murder investigation has “resurrected trauma” for lots of people in Wirral, according to Ms Wood.
She said: “For the people that were then in their late teens and early twenties, who it really impacted at the time, they thought for 38 years that they were safe – they got the guy locked up.
“Particularly the people who lived close to where it happened – there are a lot of people who still live in the same houses as they did before – they’ve been quite impacted by it.
“They’ve realised that they haven’t got the person who committed that crime.”
Despite that, Ms Wood believes somebody in the area knows who killed Diane – and the onus is now on them to come forward.
In her role at the charity, she said she has been told by people they know who actually committed the crime, though they would not provide a name.
“We had a really strange incident at one of our events, when I was approached by three women”, Ms Wood said.
“One said ‘they got the wrong fella you know, we all know who did it and they’ve got the wrong fella’.
“I asked what they meant, she said ‘the murder, we all know who did it’. They disappeared, I asked the person whose event it was, but they’d all gone.
“We’ve had clients over the years reporting that they got the wrong person. Somebody knows.
“This is what our appeal is about – somebody somewhere knows something. As time has marched on and we’ve changed, people have moved areas, they’ve changed partners, they’ve changed loyalties, they’ve grown older and wiser – now is the time to come forward with your suspicions or concerns.”
The £20,000 reward is due to expire on 22nd April 2026. Crimestoppers is independent of the police and the reward is for information given exclusively to the charity that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Diane’s murder.
Until then, the search for answers goes on. It is tantamount for Diane’s family that closure is provided by that answer, Ms Wood believes.
“This is going to be solved by the people of Birkenhead”, she said. “Somebody knows, many people know or suspect – and only by them coming forward and speaking to the police can anything happen.”
“People owe it to Diane and her parents. The pain must be overwhelming now that whoever did this has got off scot free. Their DNA is not on the database. It is one of the big mysteries and it needs to be solved.”
To this day, people still leave flowers at Diane’s memorial stone on Borough Road, as a community hopes for justice. The memorial plaque on that stone reads: “Diane Sindall. Murdered 2.8.1986, because she was a woman.”
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