Unsolved Middlesbrough murders to be reinvestigated

The disappearance and deaths of three Teesside women are to be reinvestigated after police were awarded £3.77m by the Home Office.

Cleveland Police will set up a team to look into the cases of Rachel Wilson, Vicky Glass and Donna Keogh.

The women went missing between 1998 and 2002. The bodies of Ms Wilson and Ms Glass were later found, but Donna's body has not been discovered.

Each case was treated as murder. It is not known how closely they are linked.

The money will fund the launch of a historic investigation unit.

Cleveland Assistant Chief Constable Jason Harwin said: "There is commonality between the cases through the sex and ages of the victims and all being linked geographically to Middlesbrough.

"It is too early in the re-investigations to say if there are other links.

"In our funding bid to the Home Office we made it clear that these are complex investigations that will require meticulous investigation over a number of years to complete."

Donna Keogh was last seen in Middlesbrough in April 1998. She was 17.

Three years ago, Cleveland Police apologised to her parents over its handling of the investigation.

The mutilated body of 21-year-old Vicky Glass was found on the North York Moors in November 2000, six weeks after she went missing from Middlesbrough.

She had turned to prostitution to fund her heroin addiction.

Rachel Wilson, who was also a sex worker, had been working in Middlesbrough and was last seen in May 2002.

Ten years after her disappearance, her skeleton was found in a ditch on the outskirts of the town.

Officers believe the 19-year-old was murdered elsewhere.