Is there a serial killer in the UK?

[HurdyGurdy19]

I don't know what to think. It is social media, after all. But . . .

I've seen quite a few TikTok videos recently, all listing a large number of female deaths, all being found in or near a body of water (river, canal, lake). And all ruled as "not suspicious" by the police, even before toxicology reports have been released (if they are even released).

The first video I saw listed 14 women over a period of 30 months, but some comments were saying that there have been other deaths which haven't been reported on. Other videos mention different women.

These deaths are over the country, leading to speculation that it could be a lorry driver.

Does it seem likely, or is this the latest SM scare?

Look up the Manchester canal pusher theory ..

Of course. But then there are women killed by random nutters. When women are killed by someone known to them it’s usually a current or ex partner in which case there’s no great mystery as to who did it.

I thought it was universally acknowledged that the police behaved poorly in that case. They refused to accept she may have been murdered until too late in the day by which point the early window was lost. When they discovered her relationship history they were very dismissive of her. Afaia the family felt very poorly treated by police.

No-one is particularly saying she was killed by a sk just that her presumed death is unsolved.

I mentioned in passing that the mother of one of the victims of a double murderer called Christopher Halliwell thought it was possible he was linked to her disappearance, but no evidence was found that linked him to the area.

Yeah there’s no evidence at all other than that CH is a killer of young women. But nothing tying him to the area or to her. You often get people wanting to be helpful and coming up with theories but at the end of the day the police are experts and have so much more information than the average person on the street. If there was a link they’d likely have found it. They do sometimes botch investigations but most of the time they don’t and murder has a high clear-up rate.

He does have links to the area. But it’s a moot and there’s still zero evidence as to what happened to her.

Either way I don’t share your rosy view of police. There’s something like 1000 unsolved murders currently in the U.K., around 60 a year.

They don’t tend to be ones where women are attacked by strangers. More likely to be gang or drugs related murders that go unsolved. There are exceptions of course, eg Suzy Lamplugh (although the police say they know who did it) and Claudia Lawrence (but that’s unlikely to be a stranger). Generally though if a woman is killed by a stranger, there’s a lot of resources and publicity.

But the OP didn't say the police are keeping it quiet. She said the police are deliberately lying about the evidence. Multiple police forces nationwide, all lying.

To be clear - I completely believe that some police officers are corrupt and/or lie. And some forces are corrupt and lie. But we are talking about maybe 14 separate forces all telling the same lie, for an unspecified purpose. That goes beyond conspiracy theory, into tin foil hat. Besides anything, the idea that separate police forces have the nous to even talk to each other - let alone all come up with the same lie to hide what they know - is, erm, not very reflective of what we know of police forces' general ability and level of motivation.

Lots and lots of people die in or near water. 14 women drowning is not a pattern, it's not even a coincidence. It's just 14 individual tragedies.

I absolutely believe there are multiple people (men) in this country who have killed multiple people. That's very easy to believe. But "some women died in or near water and the police say they were sober" is really not proof of anything...

Get a life OP.

Your no 2 is rather reminiscent of the urban myth about people waking up missing organs after a night out and equally believable

Why are you saying that Rachel Booth was found close to the River Mersey and River Dee? She wasn't. Those 2 rivers aren't even close to each other. She was found in a lake in the middle of a huge forest in Cheshire.

I remember reading that and finding it pretty unconvincing. Domestic violence (possibly dementia-driven) made much more sense.

Yeah they do. It took a long time to solve the Rachel Nickell case, and Suzy Lamplugh was never solved. A friend of my parents was murdered over 50 years ago and resulted in conviction in the last year. It’s actually stranger murders that are the hardest to solve because there’s no connection with the victim.

Gang related stuff is fairly straightforward as police know who are in which gangs, and they’re young and they’re stupid.

Rachel Nickell did result in a conviction though albeit the wrong man. Same with Jill Dando. There was a lot of publicity and a lot of police resources thrown at the cases and they are still in the news frequently.
Yet somehow some women get killed and the police rush to say it was accidental or suicide even though they suspect it was murder? Because that’s what this theory is saying.

Two wrong convictions. Dando still unsolved. And a lot of money wasted.

who would it help for the police to announce we think there’s a serial killer doing this but we have no idea who they are? It would create widespread panic and allow the killer to hide, it wouldn’t be in the public interest to let us know.

This doesn't make any sense to me. The public would be in a state of panic over a killer who pushes a few women a year into bodies of water?
A woman is killed by a man every 2-3 days in the UK and the majority know their killer. No panic about that...

Actually - I saw that and it was incredible how they figured things out. Very disturbing though.

It's a double edged sword.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-alleged-murder-scene-contains-10375197.amp

Well it's not the scenario you were asking about OP but the multiple bodies have been discovered today in a wood in Cornwall 😟

What is the difference between a multiple murderer and a serial killer? That's a serious question: is it (as I first thought) that one kills several people at the same time while the other kills one person at a time over a period of days, weeks, months or years? Or is there some other definition?

This is an odd one as I've just read that the police say they have only found the one body they were looking for

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime that's my understanding.

Thanks! I hoped I'd got it right.

Teen boys often end up drowning when swimming in open water with their mates whereas women seem more likely to fall in accidentally or deliberately when they are alone. Every time there is a heatwave some teen boy sadly seems to drown

Regardless of Tik Tok, I don't think it's unreasonable to think there are serial killers, or at least potential serial killers, in the UK and in other European countries.

I think your definition is pretty much correct, though there may be overlap, where a serial killer might occasionally kill more than 1 person at a time due to the situation/opportunity.

I do believe there is an active serial killer. The police are narrowing it down to accidental deaths as they have no leads. They don’t want to cause mass panic to the UK.