Are these women linked to deaths?

DETECTIVES are combing through files on unsolved killings and missing women in West Yorkshire.

More on the Bradford killings, with video

Police in North Yorkshire are also sharing information about York chef Claudia Lawrence, who vanished 14 months ago.

Miss Lawrence was last seen walking near her Heworth Road home after finishing work at the University of York's Goodricke College on March 18, last year. Officers upgraded the inquiry to a murder investigation the following month.

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As cases are reviewed, the mother of Yvonne Fitt, a prostitute who was stabbed to death 18 years ago, has spoken of the pain she lives with every day.

Ms Fitt's killer was never found – the 33-year-old single mother, of Manningham, the home village of Susan Rushworth, was last seen at the Department of Social Security office in Bradford in January 1992 and her mutilated body was found eight months later in a shallow grave in nearby Otley.

Her heartbroken mother Ena Fitt said: "I feel as bad today as I do every day, I grieve for her every day," she said.

"There is no relief, I mourn everyday and I never stop thinking about her.

"For us it's over, it was over when she died."

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Mrs Fitt, whose Leeds home is adorned with photographs of her murdered daughter, offered her sympathies to the parents of the missing sex workers in Bradford.

"Nobody deserves what happened to Yvonne. I'm so sad for the families because I know what they are going through."

Huge inquiry failed to find any answers

MORE than 600 people have been interviewed about the murder of Yvonne Fitt but her killer has never been traced.

The 33-year-old's body was found in a shallow grave at Warren Point, Norwood Edge, between Otley and Pateley Bridge, on September 12, 1992.

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Discovered by a man collecting mushrooms at the beauty spot, the body was so badly decomposed it took forensic experts five days to establish Miss Fitt had been murdered.

Detectives in Harrogate, who checked almost 140,000 missing persons records to confirm Miss Fitt's identity, said she had died from multiple stab wounds.

And she had been killed up to two months before her body was discovered, scientists concluded.

Miss Fitt, whose daughter was only 11 at the time of the murder, worked as a prostitute in Bradford and Leeds.

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She lived in the Manningham area of Bradford in the late 1980s but her last known address was at a house in Harehills Avenue, Leeds.

An inquest in February 1993 heard that three people had been arrested in connection with the killing but even after taking 100 witness statements West Yorkshire Police had insufficient evidence to charge anyone.

The case featured on the BBC television programme Crimewatch, prompting calls from around 80 viewers but the murder weapon was also never found.

Mother says disappearance doesn't add up

THE search for missing Yorkshire woman Gemma Simpson has taken police to mainland Europe but detectives have uncovered few clues as to her whereabouts.

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Miss Simpson was 24 when she disappeared in May 2000 after a row with her elder sister Naomi.

She lived in a flat in Compton Terrace, Harehills, Leeds, and was last seen boarding a bus heading for the city centre.

She had told a friend she was going to see another friend in Huddersfield.

In May 2001, appealing for information on the first anniversary of Miss Simpson's disappearance, Naomi said: "It's quite frightening. Gemma might be anywhere.

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"She might be living a life of luxury with someone and be really happy – or could be being held by someone."

Police travelled to Amsterdam after receiving reports that Miss Simpson may have gone there but the trip proved fruitless.

In 2003 Miss Simpson's photograph was carried on 40ft-long lorries in a campaign organised by the National Missing Persons Helpline.

Her mother Linda Umpleby said at the time: "I think she would have come back by now, but she hasn't even sent us a postcard. It doesn't add up. As time goes on you think someone has hurt her."

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When she was last seen, she was 5ft 2ins, slim and had waist-length dark brown hair.

There is no indication Miss Simpson worked as a prostitute.

Short, sad life ended in murder

Bradford sex worker Rebecca Hall's short, sad life was brought to a violent end more than nine years ago.

The 19-year-old mother went missing on April 13, 2001, after leaving her home in the Little Horton area of the city.

Her stripped and battered body was found almost two weeks later, on April 26, in an alleyway off Thornton Street.

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Forensic scientists initially believed that Miss Hall was abducted and held for several days before she was killed.

But detectives later ruled out that theory, determining she was killed on the night she went missing, possibly with a hammer, and her body had lain undiscovered for 13 days.

Miss Hall's son was only four months old when she died.

Police uncovered evidence Miss Hall had been lured into drugs and prostitution, unbeknown to her family, when she was just 14 or 15.

At 16 she was abducted by two men who raped her and held her with another woman for several days. In 2001 the police officer leading the investigation described it as "one of the saddest cases I have ever worked on".

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Detectives later explored links between Miss Hall's case and the murders of two other prostitutes, Michaela Hague in Sheffield and Carly Bateman in Bolton.

Geoffrey Porter, from Wigan, was jailed for life in 2002 for Miss Bateman's murder, but Miss Hague's killer has never been caught.