Candlelit vigil will mark 40 years since schoolgirl Lisa Hession's murder
A candlelit vigil is being held to mark 40 years since the murder of a Wigan borough schoolgirl.
Lisa Hession was just 14 when she was sexually assaulted and strangled in a dark alleyway behind Rugby Road, in Leigh, as she walked home from a Christmas party.
Despite a huge manhunt, national media coverage and numerous re-appeals and investigations, no-one has ever been charged for the brutal attack on December 8, 1984.
The Bedford High School pupil has never been forgotten by people in Leigh and they are now set to come together on the 40th anniversary of her death to hold a candlelit vigil.
As well as honouring Lisa, her mother Christine will be remembered. She died in 2016 without seeing the perpetrator brought to justice.
People are being invited to meet at 6.30pm on Sunday, December 8 outside Christ Church Primary School, on West Bridgewater Street, ready for a walk to start at 6.45pm.
Organiser Ryan Daly, one of the people running the Justice For Lisa Hession Facebook page, wrote: “We are walking the route from West Bridgewater Street, then we will go onto St Helens Road, following the walk that Lisa should have walked on the night – St Helens Road, Buck Street, Poplar Street, Oak Street, Newlands Road, then onto Bonneywell Road.”
He said the people who now live in Lisa’s home on Bonneywell Road had agreed that flowers could be placed outside in her memory.
Ryan continued: “We will continue to walk down Bonneywell Road and onto Pennington Road and we will walk down Rugby Road on the right-hand side (where the odd numbered houses are), so the people of the street can remember, as it affected a lot of people on that street and that estate. We will not be walking down Rugby Road backs at any point, only on the street of Rugby Road.
"Then we will go back to Newlands Road and have a minute silence.
“Also we will be playing three songs on the walk which Lisa’s friends suggested and one of them is a David Bowie song.”
He encouraged people who live on the route of the walk to light a candle as they pass.
He added: “Let’s light the path for Lisa that should have led her home to safety.”