The mum of a Liverpool woman strangled 25 years ago wants detectives to probe suggested links between her daughter's unsolved murder and an infamous convicted killer.
Julie Finley was found naked and dumped in a carrot field off the Rainford by-pass in August, 1994, after possibly being snatched from the street and bundled into a car.
Her killer has never been found, but now connections between the 23-year-old and notorious Christopher Halliwell, who remains behind bars for the murders of Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, and 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan, have emerged.
Today, Patricia Finley, Julie mum, spoke for the first time in years about the new links.
The 74-year-old is keen for officers to quiz Halliwell about her daughter's case.
She told the ECHO: "I would like to know have they [police] been to interview him?
"I've been told this is being looked into.
"Halliwell took his victim's clothes as a trophy.
"I want to know if Halliwell murdered my daughter."
Last week, our sister newspaper The Mirror revealed how a witness was now urging police to look into possible connections between Halliwell and the murders of a shocking FOUR other women, including Julie's.
They said the connections begin with the fact that Halliwell drove a white van similar to the one spotted at the
scene of Julie's unsolved murder.And he said taxi driver Halliwell, now 55, lived just four miles from the field where Julie Finley’s body was left after she had been snatched in Liverpool city centre.
The witness said Halliwell stayed in nearby Aughton, where he worked as a window fitter, from Monday to Friday before returning to his home town of Swindon.
And he claimed the killer would have driven a 1986 made, D reg Ford Transit van, like the one spotted near the scene of Julie's murder.
Ms Finley said: "I'm being told he worked up here at the time and he had a white van.
"This was not far from the Rainford Bypass where he was working.
"I'm definitely interested in finding out about this new connection.
"Police should investigate and go and speak to Halliwell.
"He could then deny or admit it."
As well as being connected to Julie's murder, the witness who spoke to the Mirror also believes Halliwell could have also killed Carol Clark, Jackie Waines and Yvonne Fitt.
In 2016, evil Halliwell was given a full life term for the sexually motivated murder of Becky Godden-Edwards, almost four years after being jailed for killing Sian O’Callaghan.
He joined notorious killers such as the Moors murderer Ian Brady and Rose West who will never be released.
A woman calling herself “Tina” contacted police soon after the murder saying Julie had said she was going to see a taxi driver.
And a witness claimed a young woman fitting Julie’s description had been seen arguing with a man, who was trying to force her into a van.
The Mirror traced the witness after analysing scores of unsolved murders for cases that shared Halliwell’s methods and matched locations he may have been in while working over the UK.
In all the unsolved cases, the victims were lone women, probably lured into a vehicle in an urban area and then dumped in a rural spot.
Julie was last seen alive at around 10.30pm on August 5, 1994, near the Royal Liverpool Hospital. She was talking to a white man, of average build, aged in his 20s or 30s.
Her body was found by a cyclist the following day.
There was no indication that she had been murdered where she was found.
A witness who came forward at the time said he saw a young woman arguing with a man at about 12.30am on August 6 outside the Wheatsheaf public house in Rainford, just yards from where her body was found.
The unknown man was attempting to force the young woman into a white Transit van.
Mum Patricia spoke of the way the murder cast a shadow over her life, and also that of her husband Alby, who died from illnesses linked to lung disease and an aneurysm.
The pair are now buried together in a plot in Springwood Crematorium in Allerton.
Patricia, who lives in Kirkdale, added: "I think police could do more to investigate this.
"Can't they go and question Halliwell?
"He was working up that end and had a white van, and he drove his taxi every weekend.
"Everything seems the same.
"Julie's clothes were never found, they were taken by the killer as some sort of trophy.
"I still think of Julie a lot.
"I miss her and her dad so much.
"I talk to Alby's photo by my fireplace.
"I say, 'you're with Julie now.'
"I had five kids and Julie was the second.
"She was funny... the things she got up to as a kid...
"She had ADHD, and was always skinny... she never put any weight on.
"She got up to mischief.
"But she was good natured.
"I think back to when she was a child.
"I wonder if she'd have married and have kids of her own..."
DS Steve Fulcher, who snared Halliwell in 2011, believes he committed other murders.
Speaking in 2016, the officer said Halliwell told him “police want to interview me about eight murders."
He added: “There’s no question, from all the information I gathered when I was running this inquiry in 2011, he committed other murders.”
Halliwell was portrayed by Joe Absolom in ITV's A Confession, a drama about the murders he committed and the police investigation which got him convicted.
Senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Ian Warlow, of Merseyside Police, said: “It is now over 25 years since the tragic murder of Julie in August 1994, and we continue to appeal for any information which can help her family find some closure after all these years.
“We are as determined as ever to find the person, or persons, responsible and are still offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
"If you have information which could help Julie's family find justice I would urge you to come forward.
"We are still keen to speak to a friend of Julie, called Tina, who contacted the investigation team shortly after the murder.
"Tina told officers that on the night of the murder Julie had said she was going to meet a taxi driver from Prescot.
"Tina promised to re-call the officers she had spoken to, but never phoned back.
"I would appeal to Tina to search her conscience and recontact us, as she could have vital information which could help Julie's family in their fight for justice to be done."
Anyone with information which could help the investigation team should contact Merseyside Police via our social media desk @MerPolCC, call 101, or @CrimestoppersUK, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Anyone with information should contact the Major Incident Team on 0151 777 8629, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
