Unsolved Cold Case Teen Found Strangled After Cinema Trip

Minnie Stott died 84 years ago. Her murder in Bolton remains unsolved. She was a teenager during wartime blackouts. Minnie told her dad she was going to the cinema. She left, but she did not come back.

Minnie was strangled, and her body was left in the cold on November 16, 1940. Minnie was seventeen, and friends called her Peggy. She looked older than her age and wore a blue coat, green skirt, and brown shoes.

Minnie managed a grocery shop and was a sociable dancer. She lived with her parents near town. She told her dad about the cinema at 7:45 pm and later visited her mom at a restaurant, saying the same thing.

A shop owner saw Minnie with a girl on Bridge Street, but the friend never came forward. A police officer found Minnie’s body before midnight near a garage on Bradshawgate. She had been dead for around two hours.

She was likely strangled with her scarf, which, along with her underwear, was missing. This suggests a sexual assault occurred. Minnie was buried a few days later, and the inquest gave an “open verdict”, citing strangulation by someone unknown as the cause of death.

The killer has not been found after all these years. Minnie’s murder prompted a big investigation that was covered by the media locally and nationally. Police appealed for help finding the killer and sought information on her friends that evening.

Many leads went nowhere. People said she was followed by men, and some saw her get into a car. Someone heard her argue with a man nearby, but it took two months for anyone to share information; they had seen her the night she died.

A woman spoke to Minnie’s parents, saying Minnie was with two other girls. Two men followed them in Bradshawgate, and Minnie got into a car with the men while the other girls ran away. No one ever found these girls, and the men remained unknown too.

Police heard Minnie arguing with a man near where they found her body. They looked for a man with a dark coat and hat who was seen near Bradshawgate. Someone saw a man leaving the garage, wiping his hands.

Minnie was seen with a soldier at a dance before her death, but the soldier gave an alibi, and police cleared him. The police reviewed the case in 2012 and found no prospect of finding the killer as time had passed by.

A historian felt Minnie might have been a sex worker, explaining why no one spoke up. Friends might have protected her reputation or been sex workers themselves. The truth may never come out now, sadly, as protecting her might have protected her killer.