Serving prisoner arrested on suspicion of murdering girl, 13, who went missing in 1994

A serving prisoner has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 13-year-old schoolgirl over 30 years ago. The case of Lindsay Jo Rimer remains one of Britain's highest profile unsolved child murders and the arrest comes just weeks before the 36th anniversary of her death. Lindsay from Hebden Bridge, in West Yorkshire, disappeared on the evening of November 7, 1994, after going out to buy a box of cornflakes. A huge search operation was launched but she remained missing for five months until her body was found dumped in a canal five months later.

Despite numerous investigations, police have been unable to snare her killer. But West Yorkshire Police has now revealed that cold case detectives had arrested a man at an undisclosed UK prison, where he is currently serving a sentence for other offences.

The force said he would be interviewed over the course of Monday and Tuesday.

Officers said they were also making fresh approaches to potential witnesses, mainly in the Hebden Bridge and Halifax areas, who had been identified by the investigation.

Det Ch Insp James Entwistle, the senior investigating officer, said: "We remain very firmly committed to doing everything we can to get justice for Lindsay, and to give her family the answers they still so desperately need after all these years.

"The arrest we have made comes as a result of our continued focus on progressing the investigation. We are keeping Lindsay's family updated and, while we appreciate the understandable public interest that the arrest will bring, we do not anticipate any immediate developments at this stage.

"Although it is now more than 30 years since Lindsay was murdered, we remain convinced there is someone out there who has vital information that could finally help to ease her family's pain, and we urge them to do the right thing and tell us what they know."

Lindsay, who lived with her parents and two sisters in the small town made famous by Sally Wainwright's dramas Happy Valley and Riot women, was last seen at around 10.22pm on November 7, 1994, after visiting a branch of Spar close to her home.

After leaving the shop with a box of cornflakes, she set off for home, but never arrived.

An extensive search took place but it was not until five months later, in April 1995, that her fully-clothed body was recovered from the Rochdale Canal at Rawden Mill Lock, around a mile upstream from the centre of Hebden Bridge.

It had been weighed down with a concrete block, and a post-mortem examination confirmed she had died as a result of strangulation. The pathologist also said there was no indication that she had been a victim of sexual assault.

During the lengthy murder probe, police spoke to over 5,000 people, including a number of known criminals.

Nine years ago, West Yorkshire Police said it had obtained a potential DNA profile of the suspected killer, which officers hoped would help unlock the case.

Two men in their 60s, from the Bradford area, were arrested on suspicion of murder but later released without charge.