IT IS important that unsolved murders - both historic and recent - remain in the public's thoughts and are occasionally explored - new information can always help with continued police investigations.

Below is a list of some of the murders which took place in and around Reading, West Berkshire, Bracknell or Wokingham, which families still have no answers to.

Vera Holland - 1996 (Reading)

Married mother of three Vera went missing on Thursday, November 14 1996 on her way to a local KFC restaurant in Shinfield Rise, south Reading.

Her husband, Brian, reported her missing when she failed to return home.

Devastatingly, her body was found close to the A327, in a road south of Reading two days later.

The cause of her death was strangulation.

An appeal for new information was made by her children and Thames Valley Police on the 20 year anniversary of her death in November 2016 but, to date, no one has been charged.

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Emily Salvini - 1997 (Reading)

Seven-year-old Emily Salvini was asleep in her home on Hemdean Road, Caversham, Reading, when petrol was poured through the letterbox and then lit in the early hours of May 3, 1997.

Emily's mother, Katie, was able to escape the blaze in the house along with Emily's brother, Zach, who was three years old at the time. Both were treated for severe burns at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and recovered from their injuries, but Emily died of smoke inhalation.

It was found that phone lines to the house had been cut prior to the arson attack to prevent calls to the emergency services.

On May 3, 2017, on the 20 year anniversary of Emily's death, her mother and brother made a new appeal for information but the case remains unsolved.

Bracknell News:

Ruth Bradbury, 1976 (Crowthorne)

14-year-old Ruth Bradbury was shot dead in Simons Wood, close to Wellingtonia Avenue on the morning of March 29, 1967 as she walked home from a shopping errand for her grandmother.

Close by in the woodland was evidence that someone had been using trees and tin cans for target practice with a .22 rifle.

It was believed that Ruth was accidentally shot as she walked through the woods.

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Mark Tildesley, 1984 (Wokingham)

Seven-year-old Mark Tildesley disappeared while visiting a funfair in Wokingham on the evening of June 1, 1984.

He was lured away from the fair and his bicycle was found chained to railings nearby.

In 1991 it emerged that Mark had been abducted, drugged, tortured, raped and murdered by a London-based paedophile gang on the night he disappeared.

The police received a Judge's Commendation for pursuing an honourable and sustained investigation which led to the eventual solving of the Tildesley case.

However, the police admitted in public that the case had not been finished as Tildesley's body had not been found and tragically, his brave mother died recently without ever finding out.

Only one man, Leslie Bailey, ever served any prison time or admitted to the murder.

He was killed in prison by two other inmates in 1993, just nine years after he and three others had murdered Mark Tildesley.

Bracknell News:

Stacey Queripel, 1993 (Bracknell)

Seven-year-old Stacey Queripel disappeared from her home in Birch Hill on January 24, 1993 after asking her mother to go to bed early.

She was last seen alive at 5.30pm, but her body was found by a police dog handler several hours later in woodland near South Hill Park.

Initially, police thought the youngster's necklaces had become entangled in branches, leading to her asphyxiation.

But a post-mortem revealed marks on her body consistent with being strangled.

A Home Office pathologist concluded that she was probably killed elsewhere as her shoes were clean despite the muddy ground where her body was found.

Police arrested the girl’s mother on suspicion of murder but she was later released.

The East Berkshire coroner, who recorded her death as an unlawful killing, said at the time he feared without fresh evidence her killer may never be found. No-one was ever charged with her murder, and police admit the trail has run cold.

Bracknell News:

Cheryll Grover - 2000 (West Berkshire)

Cheryll Grover, 21, was last seen alive by a visitor to her home on Audley Close, Turnpike, Newbury, at 10.30pm on Friday, May 12, 2000.

Cheryll spoke to friends on the phone at 2.35am on Saturday, May 13, but efforts made by her estranged husband, Steven, to contact her later that same day came to nothing.

Concerned for Cheryll's welfare, Steven, and his mother, visited Cheryll's home at 3.30pm and Steven climbed the drainpipe to reach the first floor bedroom window.

Inside, Cheryll was found dead in her bedroom.

Someone had strangled her with a dressing gown cord.

Police suspected that Cheryll was selling drugs from her home and an appeal led to a number of people coming forward.

A 32-year-old man was arrested but released without charge.

Although Cheryll's death was investigated as a murder, the inquest returned an open verdict. In May 2006, Thames Valley Police announced that Cheryll's death was being reviewed by a cold case police team.

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Aivaras Danilevičius - 2015 (Bracknell)

A body was found wrapped in bin bags and a blanket in Hawthorn Lane, Bracknell, on July 24, 2015.

The skull was found to have two injuries indicating blunt force trauma.

It is not known how the body got to Hawthorn Lane or who put it there.

The man was thought to have been 30–40 years old at the time of his death between 2008 and 2013.

In July 2016, he was identified as Aivaras Danilevičius.