The first victim of the Moors murderers has been reburied after police returned a number of her remains to her family.
Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12 1963. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley later confessed to her killing and her body was recovered in 1987 following a search of Saddleworth Moor.
Reade’s family had believed they had finally laid her to rest after a funeral ceremony, but last year it emerged police had kept some body parts, including her jaw bone and samples of her hair for 30 years without their knowledge.
On Monday, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “Today a private exhumation and re-burial is taking place at Gorton Ceremony at Pauline Reade’s family plot.
“We recently became aware that human tissue belonging to Pauline Reade had been stored in external premises on behalf of GMP.
“The samples had originally been kept for investigative purposes.
“As soon as we became aware of this, we contacted Pauline’s family to make arrangements so that the samples could be laid to rest in whichever way they felt most fitting.
“Pauline and the other Moors Murders victims are ever-present in our minds and Greater Manchester Police will always do everything we can to support their relatives and honour their memory.”
Reade’s remains were discovered at Leeds University after an audit following Brady’s death, aged 79, on 15 May 2017 at Ashworth High Security Hospital in Maghull, Merseyside.
The serial killer’s crimes shocked the nation as he tortured and murdered five children in the 1960s along with Myra Hindley, who died in prison in 2002.
After Reade, John Kilbride, 12, was snatched in November that same year. Keith Bennett was taken on June 16 1964 after he left home to visit his grandmother, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964, and Edward Evans, 17, was killed in October 1965.
Reade’s remains – in a wooden casket – were returned to her niece, Jackie Reade, in November last year.
Speaking at the time, Ms Reade, 44, from Wythenshawe, said: “I am devastated. It has brought it all back. I am disgusted that part of Pauline could be kept like this.
“I was 13 when Pauline was found. I remember the day very clearly. My nana and grandad, (Pauline’s parents) Joan and Amos, were still alive at the time.”