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Who are the women in the Bradford murder case?

BBC Published May 27, 2010 Reviewed Jun 30, 2026 ✓ Reviewed by citations.press editors
Citation-ready fact
Stephen Griffiths, 40, is charged with the murder of three women.
3 · women
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Citation-ready fact
Suzanne Blamires was missing for four days before her body parts were found.
4 days · missing period
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Citation-ready fact
Susan Rushworth had been off heroin for five weeks when she vanished.
5 weeks · heroin abstinence period
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Citation-ready fact
The last sighting of Susan Rushworth was on 22 June 2009.
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Citation-ready fact
Shelley Armitage disappeared one month ago.
1 month · disappearance period
detectives
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Shelley Armitage was filmed on CCTV on 26 April.
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Mature student Stephen Griffiths, 40, of Thornton Road, Bradford, has appeared in court charged with the murder of three women who were all working as prostitutes on the streets of Bradford.

The body parts of Suzanne Blamires were found in a river on Tuesday and the search continues for Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage.

The 36-year-old was missing for four days before her body parts were found in the River Aire in Shipley.

Ms Blamires lived in Allerton, in Barkston Walk, just a few streets from Ms Armitage's home.

Her mother, 55-year-old Nicky Blamires, said she was a "bright, articulate girl" who was training to be a nurse.

"Unfortunately my daughter went down the wrong path and she did not have the life she was meant to have."

She said what had happened to her "much-loved daughter... will haunt me to the day I die".

"Even though she ended up on the wrong path she tried to protect her family and kept herself to herself so people knew very little about her," Nicky Blamires said.

"She always knew she could come home and that the door was always open. We also saw her all the time and were always there for her.

"At the end of the day nobody deserves this. All these girls were human beings and people's daughters."

The families of all three women are being supported by West Yorkshire police family liaison officers.

The 43-year-old grandmother went missing just as she was starting to turn her life around, her family say.

Ms Rushworth, known as Sue or Susie, was battling heroin addiction when she disappeared in June last year.

She had been receiving help to try to wean her off the drug, and had not used it for five weeks, according to her son, James Rushworth, 23.

Her grandchildren, who she had only just started seeing, were also becoming part of her life, he added.

Ms Rushworth, who suffered from epilepsy, had two other children, Kirsty, 20, and Aaron, nine.

The last sighting of Ms Rushworth was near her flat at Oak Villas, in the Manningham area of Bradford, on 22 June, 2009.

The 31-year-old sex worker, who disappeared one month ago, was "a much-loved daughter and sister", detectives say.

Ms Armitage, who had drug and alcohol problems, was filmed on CCTV on the evening of 26 April. She was last seen in Rebecca Street in Bradford city centre.

Detectives said her disappearance was all the more unusual as she had recently bought a puppy which she adored and hated to be parted from for long.

A local market stall holder, who works near Bradford's red-light district, said she would often speak to Ms Armitage and described her as "just a normal girl".

Earlier this month, West Yorkshire Police launched a poster appeal to try to trace Ms Armitage, who lived in Bentcliffe Walk, in the Allerton area.

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