Twenty-three-year-old John Haselden worked as a self-employed car dealer and lived alone in a residence on Borron Road, Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside, England. According to friends and family, he was a fun-loving, larger than life chap, and though he had a prior conviction for handling stolen goods, he didn’t appear to have any other links to the criminal underworld.
Shortly before eleven p.m. on the night of Monday, December 1st, 1997, John left his home in his blue Ford Escort, seemingly without a care in the world.
An hour later, he was found bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head, slumped in the passenger seat of his vehicle in the maternity parking lot of Whiston Hospital. John was quickly taken into the facility, but medical personnel were unable to save him.
According to witnesses, a man who had been driving John’s car asked passersby to help the victim before leaving in another car with two men. It was unclear whether the man driving John’s car was involved in the murder, or whether he was simply a Good Samaritan who had come across the scene and decided to help by taking John to the nearest hospital. The individual was described as white, in his mid-thirties, and standing about five-foot-nine. He was clad in light-colored jogging pants, a light-colored t-shirt, dark shoes, and a yellow oilskin jacket with the hood pulled up. The car he left in was white, and was followed by a red Maestro that contained two teenage girls.
Authorities speculated that the crime may have been drug-related, especially after learning that John had been severely beaten not long before the murder occurred. However, police could find no evidence that John had been involved with drugs, despite their prevalence in the area.
Neither the man who drove John’s car to the hospital, the two men in the white car who picked him up, nor the two girls in the red car who followed them have ever been identified.
About six months after the murder, a man named Stephen Lawlor was arrested at the conclusion of a hearing about an unrelated charge. Lawlor resisted police and vehemently asserted his innocence. After questioning, he was released due to lack of evidence. In 2001, Lawlor was himself shot dead, though this crime is not believed to be linked to the John Haselden case.
As of September 2024, the seemingly random slaying of the young car dealer remains unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 