Brian Hardwick

Brian Hardwick was shot dead at his workplace, Huddersfield Car Electricals on Colne Road.

He had been shot twice, once in the chest and once in the back of the head. He was last seen alive at 5.30pm on 21 November 2001 his body was found the following morning at 8pm.

When he was first found the police thought that his death was due to natural causes, however, when they saw a head injury they ordered a post-mortem to be carried out during which it was said that a Home Office pathologist was shocked to find that he had gun shot injuries.

The pathologist that carried out his post-mortem said that his shooting amounted to an execution. He said that he thought that Brian Hardwick had been fixing his puncture at the time as when he was found he still had the dust cap in his hand.

It was said that a man had deliberately punctured Brian Hardwick's car tyre so that Brian Hardwick would stay on at the garage after his colleagues went home.

After he was shot his wallet was stolen and minutes later £350 was withdrawn from his account at a cash machine at an Asda store in Fartown, Huddersfield. His purse and a chain and pendant were also found missing. He had written the PIN number for his bank card on a piece of paper in his wallet.

It had been raining on the evening he was shot.

The police said that robbery was an obvious motive but said that they thought the reason for his murder lay in his background, suggesting the possibility of a secret that he had kept from his wife. However, the police said that they could find nothing in his background that stood out as a motive for his murder.

The police said that there were four people that they were trying to identify:

The first man was white, age 35 to 45 with short dark neat hair and had been well dressed. He had turned up at the garage without an appointment a few hours earlier and had asked Brian Hardwick to look at an electrical fault in a red car but had then sworn at Brian Hardwick and stormed off.

The second man was described as being aged between 25 to 30, about 5ft 6in tall with short dark hair and wearing a dark padded jacket. He was said to have been seen staring at the garage at about 10.30am from the opposite side of Colne Road.

The third man was seen just after 4pm and was described as African-Caribbean, between 20 to 25 years of age, well built, about 5ft 5ins tall and wearing dark clothes. He was seen crouching near a window at the garage.

The fourth person was seen about 20 minutes before Brian Hardwick found the puncture on his car. he was described as white, aged 20 to 35 years old, about 5ft 9ins tall and having a stocky build and a chubby face. He was said to have had stubble, short dark hair and to have had piercing dark brown eyes and dark eyebrows. He had been wearing a dark three-quarter-length jacket with dark trousers and was seen in the car park behind the Amsterdam Bar getting into a sporty old Mini car with wide wheels. There was a young woman in the car who was said to have been aged between 18 and 25 years old and had long bleached blonde hair.

He had been married for six months and was interested in the Wild West and Country and Western music.