Natalie Kelly was twenty-two years old and had a five-year-old daughter. She lived in Liverpool, England; she had moved back in with her mother after the house in Tuebrook she’d shared with her boyfriend Gary Watkinson was firebombed in November of 2000. Natalie and her daughter escaped the flames, but her partner did not. Tragically, Natalie would die herself less than one year later.
At around eleven a.m. on October 22nd, 2001, she was found dead at a house on Guelph Street in Kensington. She had died from two severe blows to the head, one in the front and one in the back.
Natalie had been dating one of the residents of the house, John Tierney, and had been there with him and his roommate John Dooley at the time of her death. According to Dooley, Natalie and Tierney had argued two days before Natalie died but seemed to have mended fences. Dooley further stated that Tierney had come into his room on the morning of the incident and told him something was wrong with Natalie, that she had fallen out of bed and hit her head on the floor.
Initially, the death was believed to have been accidental as Tierney claimed, but at the inquest, the coroner stated that he could not rule out homicide, as the victim had visible handprints on her arms, as though someone had been grabbing her tightly. Both Dooley and Tierney were arrested in connection with the crime but were later released without charge.
There was also speculation that her murder might have been linked to the earlier slaying of her boyfriend Gary Wilkinson. Two men were arrested in that case as well, but again, neither was charged, and the crime is still unsolved. Though investigators did look into a possible connection between the two events, they admitted that it was unlikely that Natalie’s death had anything to do with Gary’s.
The nebulous crime is unresolved nearly twenty-five years on.
Crime Immemorial 