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Detectives have launched a cold case probe into killer Christopher Halliwell over the unsolved murder of a young woman 26 years ago.

They acted after the Mirror traced a new witness who said Halliwell was living four miles from the spot where Julie Finley’s body was found in Rainford, Merseyside, in 1994.

And the killer, portrayed last year in ITV drama A Confession, drove a white transit van like one seen at the scene.

The breakthrough has been welcomed by Julie’s mother Pat, whose husband Albie died a year ago without seeing justice.

Pat, 75, said of the new information: “It’s too much of a coincidence and needs to be looked at. I’d love justice to be done. Before I go, I want to see this man caught.”

Det Chief Insp Rachel Wilson, who is leading the cold case probe, said: “We are investigating a new line of enquiry.

(Image: PA)

“A new witness has come forward with information and has been spoken to by detectives.”

Julie had just turned 23 when she was last seen in Liverpool around 11pm on August 5, 1994. The next day, her naked body was found 15 miles away in a field near the Rainford bypass, Merseyside.

The new witness said Halliwell was working in North Wales at the time fitting windows, and was living at nearby Aughton Park, Ormskirk, and returning to his home in Swindon, Wilts, at weekends.

This is believed to have been confirmed by a second person.

The new witness said Halliwell, a former cab driver, drove a white D-reg Ford Transit van, like one spotted near Rainford.

A woman calling herself Tina told police Julie said she was going to see a taxi driver.

Someone fitting Julie’s description was seen at 12.30am on August 6, yards from where her body was found, arguing with a man who was forcing her into a white transit van.

Halliwell, 56, is serving a whole life term for the murders of Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, and Sian O’Callaghan, 22.

Sian was abducted in Swindon at 2.53am on March 19, 2011. Her body was found near the remote Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire.

(Image: Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)

The killer met Becky while working as a cabbie in Swindon in January 2003. He lured her into his taxi before strangling her and dumping her body in a field in Gloucestershire.

DS Steve Fulcher, who snared the killer in 2011, believes he committed other murders. Speaking in 2016, he said Halliwell told him “police want to interview me about eight murders”.

Pat, a mum of five, said her husband was now buried with their daughter.

She said: “The two of them are together and that was what he always wanted. When he wasn’t well, he would say, ‘My girl, I’ll be with you soon’.

(Image: PA)

“She died alone, no-one there to help. He would say he was her father and he should have been there to help her.

“He never got justice, I want it now for the two of us.”

Pat called on anyone with information on her daughter’s murder to come forward.

She said: “If they found Julie’s murderer the family could rest.”

If you have information, contact @MerPolCC, call 101, or @CrimestoppersUK, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.