Vicky Glass was murdered at the age of 21 in the early hours of 24th September, 2000. On the 21st anniversary of her unsolved murder, police have opened up a new appeal.

I became aware of this case earlier this year when searching for unsolved UK murders. There are so few of these in the public consciousness that it’s easy to think that most murders are solved. This quickly turns out not to be true. Certainly, if the killer is known to the victim, the cases tend to be solved pretty quickly without any particular deductive leaps of the imagination. With modern DNA techniques and other incredible forensic tools, many murders are solved quickly and without fanfare. But there is an eye-catching number of unsolved cases in the UK alone. The best resource I have found for this is this one.

Vicky’s case is particularly sad. Her childhood was reportedly happy and unremarkable, and she appeared to have a full life ahead of her when she got in with the wrong crowd at the age of 18. This led to a dependence on drugs and Vicky turned to sex work to get by. Twenty years ago this small fact alone would have labelled Vicky and perhaps explains the lack of public awareness about her murder. Although we like to think that attitudes have moved on, I am not convinced that attitudes have moved enough. Coverage of the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa in recent months shows that women very quickly get labelled in the press in ways that men never would be.

Crime Guy won’t be getting too involved in this case because there is an active police appeal ongoing, to coincide with the 21st anniversary of the death of this innocent 21 year-old girl, but we are watching and will pass on any information received to Cleveland Police. You can find their contact details at the new Vicky Glass website.

Sources

The Guardian, 24th September 2021

Police appeal website for Vicky Glass