Reservoir at the centre of murder mystery
Back in 1989, the body of a man who went missing in 1988 was discovered at the bottom of the reservoir during a period of dry weather, when the water was 40ft shallower than normal.
Laurence Winstanley’s mutilated and partly burned body was found wrapped in a curtain and weighed down with a pick-axe head in Baitings Dam.
Police said he had been shot once to the head in what was believed to be a gangland “execution” – but nearly four decades later, the killer has never been found.
In 2018, on the 30th anniversary of Laurence’s disappearance. detectives renewed their appeal for information.
The case featured on Crimewatch in 1989 and more than 80 officers swooped on homes in Rochdale and Littleborough in January 1990.