Linda Margaret Cook

Linda Cook was found strangled near to her home in a nearby lover's lane off Green Lane in Marske, Redcar, on Sunday 22 September 1963.

There were no marks of violence about her body or signs of sexual assault. A doctor said that she had been strangled, but not with a ligature.

She had been married but her husband, a 25-year-old insurance agent, moved out a week before her murder to lodgings in Queen Street in Redcar.

Prior to that, they had lived over a surgery in Kirkleatham Lane in Redcar but had given up the flat. They had been married for three years.

Linda Cook had moved out of her flat on the Friday, 20 September 1963 and spent the night with friends in a flat over-looking the sea in Newcommon Terrace.

On the night of the murder Linda Cook's husband had not been at his lodgings.

Her body was found by the driver of a milk wagon. He said:

Scotland Yard were called in during the investigation to assist.

Linda Cook had been found lying in a lover's lane, but the police thought that she had been killed elsewhere.

The police appealed for information about a woman who looked like Linda Cook that had taken a bus from Fleet to Laburnum Road.  A detective superintendent said:

The police said that they had so far traced Linda Cook's movements on 21 September 1963 up to 4.30pm when she was seen shopping in Redcar.

She had been seen earlier at 2.30pm when she left a hotel in Redcar and called at a shop for some corned beef.

The police said that the bus stop at the junction of Laburnum Road and Canterbury Road was less than half a mile away from the lane in which Linda Cook was found. however, they said that there was no evidence of a bus ticket being found in her pockets or handbag. They said that the sighting of the woman on the bus could be a lead but that they wanted verification.

On the Saturday night, 28 September 1963, the detectives visited dance halls in Redcar and Saltburn and broadcast an appeal for persons who knew Linda Cook during the previous six months to come forward if they had not already been seen by the police and said that they had had one or two people come forward as a result.