Eighteen-year-old Tina Bell lived with her family in a flat in Billingham, County Durham, England. On the evening of Saturday, June 2nd, 1989, Tina had promised her little brother John that they would have a campout in their back garden later on in the night. Before that, though, she was just going to visit a friend for a brief time, leaving the flat shortly before eight-thirty p.m. with no money and no other indication that she was going to be gone long. Tragically, however, Tina never returned home.
Her frantic parents and siblings searched high and low for her, telling police in no uncertain terms that she would not have run away from home, that she was expected back at her job in Hartlepool on Monday, and that she had likely been abducted. The missing persons investigation dragged on for ten long months, but on April 21st, 1990, the family’s worst fears were realized: a skull, collarbone, and shoulder blade were discovered on waste ground near ICI’s Cassel Works in Billingham. Forensic examination confirmed that the remains were Tina’s.
Authorities were almost certain that Tina had been murdered the same night she disappeared. They also found that whoever had killed her had attempted to dissolve her body in some kind of corrosive bath, as there were traces of the chemicals left on the bones.
The two main suspects at the time were a man named Vince Robson and his associate, Billy Dunlop, both of whom were reportedly the last two people to see Tina Bell alive after she left her flat. Dunlop was convicted in 2006 of the 1989 murder of Billingham woman Julie Hogg, while Robson, who died in 2005, was a suspect in the 1994 murder of thirteen-year-old Lindsay Rimer in West Yorkshire. Robson was also believed to have known both the Bell and Rimer families, through his work as a painter and decorator in the area. Though both Robson and Dunlop were questioned in the Tina Bell case, neither was ever charged with the crime.
Two suspects were arrested in 2016 and 2017 for the Lindsay Rimer murder, but no charges were brought there either.
A new plea for information was made by Tina Bell’s family as recently as 2019, but as of September 2024, the killing of the eighteen-year-old is still unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 