Seven-year mystery solved

Janet Murgatroyd had been out with friends on the night she died

The mystery surrounding who killed Janet Murgatroyd on a midsummer evening had puzzled the people of Preston since her death in 1996.

Now - following seven years and two lengthy trials - the truth is finally known after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court convicted Andrew Greenwood, 28, of manslaughter.

It brings to an end a long quest by police officers to bring the 20-year-old student's killer to justice.

Her death - following a night out with friends in pubs around Preston - was one of the most high-profile cases in Lancashire for years.

One of the last sightings of her in June 1996 was at the Adelphi - a student pub close to the University of Central Lancashire where Janet was studying law.

Andrew Greenwood later retracted his murder confession

She was later found dead in the River Ribble at Penwortham. It is believed she lay unconscious for hours before being swept up by the tide and drowning.

Her friend, Fiona Watson, said: "We couldn't have been happier [on that night]. We were both on top of the world that day, we thought nothing was going to stop us from here on in.

'Worst thing'

"We had been in the pub quite a lot of the afternoon and it was going to be our last night out before we went on our holidays so we were making it a good night.

"Somehow we got separated and we ended up parting company and going our own way home - and that was the last time I ever saw Janet.

"The worst of it is that I can't even remember the last thing I said to her or the last thing she said to me."

Janet Murgatroyd's body was found in the River Ribble

A massive police hunt and television appeal on the BBC's Crimewatch programme followed but failed to catch her killer.

There was no forensic evidence and no eye witnesses to the attack on Janet.

Then in August 1999 - three years after Janet's death - Andrew Greenwood took a taxi to the police station and confessed to murdering her, saying she had spurned his advances after a chance encounter.

Graham Gooch, who was the Detective Superintendent in charge of the case, said officers were keen to establish whether Greenwood was making his confession up.

Confident detectives

The now-retired detective said: "It had to be dealt with very clearly to see if he had just made up the stuff or if it was things, as he later said, that he got from the press.

"But when his home was searched... he had no collection of newspaper cuttings, a video of news, the Crimewatch programme, or anything like that.

A Crimewatch appeal failed to find Janet's killer

"So it would be extraordinary if he could remember from three years before the details that he heard at the time."

Detectives were confident they had got their man but, while Greenwood was waiting on remand in prison, problems began to appear.

At first he expressed his remorse in letters to his family, in which he spoke of killing two people: Janet, and the man who found her body who later committed suicide.

But then he started to doubt the accuracy of his confession, revealing in a letter: "Everything is starting to get blurred. Maybe it's still self-denial. I cannot get the story straight at the moment."

Eventually he decided he was not the killer and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), citing lack of evidence, decided not to prosecute in December 1999.

Janet Murgatroyd was caught on CCTV cameras in Preston

Undeterred, the police pressed ahead with their search for evidence that would pin Greenwood to Janet's death and, in October 2000, he was charged with murder.

But in 2002 a jury at Liverpool Crown Court failed to deliver a verdict and the case went to a retrial.

This time, the jury was able to reach a verdict, taking 15 hours to unanimously find Greenwood guilty of Janet Murgatroyd's manslaughter.