Imran Vohra

Imraan Vohra was found sexually assaulted and strangled in Avenham Park, Preston on 15 July 1985.

In 2006 the police identified a DNA profile from the evidence found on Imraan Vohra, however, the man that it matched had since died.

A man that was initially considered a suspect in Imraan Vohra's murder committed suicide by taking a massive overdose of alcohol and aspirin tablets, blaming suspicion on him and police harassment.

When the police broke into his house in St David's Road in Preston, after neighbours spotted untouched milk on his doorstep, they found a neatly printed card propped up on a bedside cabinet near his body which was laying sprawled across a bed.

At his inquest on Tuesday 18 February 1986, the Coroner said that he thought it relevant that the contents of the note should be made known. The note read:

A detective sergeant denied that there had been any harassment.

The alcohol content in his body had been 520mg, which was more than a normally lethal dose, and a biochemical report revealed that he had taken something like 40 aspirin tablets.

When the Coroner returned a verdict that he had killed himself, he said:

Imraan Vohra had lived in James Street in Preston. He disappeared after leaving Frenchwood Junior School on 13 July 1985 and his body was found two days later in Avenham Park in bushes.

It was noted that prior to his murder he had mentioned to a friend that he had met a mystery man who spoke German and it wasn't until later developments arose that it was possible to connect that piece of information to the man later suspected of being his murderer.

Following Imraan Vohra's post mortem, semen was found on him which was said could only have been from the killer. However, at the time DNA analysis was limited and it wasn't until a relative of the suspect committed an offence and his DNA went on the national database and it allowed them to connect the sample they had to a relative. However, he had been dead for twelve years, having died of lung cancer in 1997. However, DNA taken from a lung biopsy taken at the time of his treatment was a match for that found on Imraan Vohra.

When the police looked into his past they found he had a history of sexual and other offences and had spent some time around Lancashire, although he came from London. He was also known to have lived in Germany for a while when he served in the army and had a German wife and had learned German. As such, it was described as being too much of a coincidence that he had not been the person that had spoken to Imraan Vohra in the days before his murder and whose DNA was on his body when he was found dead.

It was noted that he later moved to Preston in 1981 and thought that he would have been there in 1985 when Imraan Vohra was murdered.