Letter: The murder of Dawn Shields

The body of 19-year-old Dawn was found in a shallow grave in the Peak District on May 20, 1994. She had been strangled.

In today’s (Monday’s) Times, there was a report of the conviction of a man called Alun Kyte.

He was found guilty of sexual offences against a child.

He is reported to be already serving a life term for the murders in the 1990s of two prostitutes whom he strangled, stripped, and dumped in remote areas.

The Times reports that the police believe he might have killed other women in the same way.

Kyte was a lorry driver, and detectives believe that he roamed the motorway network looking for victims.

The Times article then stated: “He has been linked to other unsolved murders, including … Dawn Shields whose body was found at the Mam Tor landmark in the Peak District in 1994.”

The murders are linked by various features, especially the disposal of the bodies out in the middle of nowhere.

However, there might not be enough evidence to prosecute Kyte for the murder of Dawn Shields.

It all happened nearly 30 years ago.

Nevertheless, the police are confident enough to link the man by name to the crime.

I think of Dawn Shields often (although I wasn’t acquainted with her) and her caring mum, and her son, whose name I can recall, but won’t divulge in this letter, for the sake of guarding his privacy.

Poor Dawn – she was drawn into drug-taking and then prostitution by an exploitative partner.

She was only 19 at the time that she died.

One particularly upsetting feature of this case was that after her death, her mother, who was looking after the child, said: “Well, he won’t miss her that much, as I was already looking after him for much of the time anyway”.

Such a dreadful life, such a dreadful death, and unmourned.

Poor girl.

Ruth Grimsley

Oak Park, Sheffield, S10