MANCHESTER, England – Nearly 20 years after the death of notorious serial killer Harold Shipman, the family of his first victim is haunted by the fear that there are potentially hundreds of additional unidentified victims.
In 1975, Shipman fatally overdosed 71-year-old Eva Lyons, a patient of his, with morphine. Moments after committing the heinous crime, Shipman nonchalantly informed her unsuspecting husband that she had passed away. The devastating revelation of Eva’s fate did not come to light until more than 25 years after her death, when a £20 million inquiry in 2002 identified Shipman as Britain’s worst serial killer, with 215 named victims, including Eva.
Now, two decades after Shipman took his own life in HMP Wakefield, Eva’s granddaughter, Debbie Bartlett, believes that the death toll attributed to Shipman is much higher. Speaking to The Mirror, Debbie expressed her certainty that there are other unidentified victims of Shipman’s sadistic and evil killings.
Eva’s family was unaware of the truth of her murder until they discovered it 25 years later. Shipman’s arrest in 1998 and subsequent conviction revealed a pattern of suspicious deaths, leading to the conclusion that Shipman had killed at least 215 of his patients. His death in 2004 marked the end of any potential revelations about his motives and more potential victims.