Mum fears opportunities missed in son's murder probe

The mother of a man at the centre of an unsolved murder investigation launched three years ago has said she fears police may have missed opportunities to properly investigate her son's death.

Matthew Schofield was found unresponsive in Belgrave Road, Leicester, in the early hours of 11 June 2023, with his death initially treated as "unexplained".

His mother Emma Daniels believes officers were not thorough enough in the initial stages of the investigation, leaving her family with unanswered questions.

Leicestershire Police said the possibility the 34-year-old might have been assaulted had been considered "from the outset" and his death remained an active investigation.

A total of 19 people have been arrested in connection with the case. Three years on, 14 remain under investigation but nobody has been charged.

Eight men, aged between 20 and 37, are under investigation on suspicion of murder while five men, aged 22 to 34, and a 63-year-old woman are under investigation on suspicion of assisting an offender.

"They [the police] treated it as an unexplained death but they didn't treat it as suspicious from the get-go," Daniels said.

"My [other] son received information about that night and told the police it was an assault but they said said there was no evidence of that. That changed pretty quickly."

The 55-year-old said police received CCTV footage from a local business which indicated that Matthew might have been assaulted.

She believed if Matthew's brother's concerns were taken more seriously, officers would have been more thorough with their inquiries.

"My worry is that police have missed opportunities in that initial 72 hours to investigate what happened," she said.

"After he was found, they opened the road quite quickly and that concerned me."

In an initial appeal to the public, Leicestershire Police said Matthew had "suffered a head injury" but Daniels said her son also had bruises she believed indicated he was attacked.

She added that it was difficult to accept despite 19 arrests, there had been no further action.

"I cannot understand with the number of arrests why young people are not coming forward and saying what happened. I feel as though they're protecting each other," she said.

"Families should know something and I feel that they should be ashamed of themselves."

The force said it received the footage in response to a public appeal it issued the day after Matthew was found but said "CCTV recovery and scoping was already being progressed".

Det Insp Lorna Granville, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit Major Crime Team, said: "Matthew's death being initially treated as unexplained did not prevent officers from carrying out vital enquiries in the immediate hours after he was found, and the possibility that he may have been assaulted was considered from the outset.

"However, prior to the CCTV footage being recovered, the information available to police was not independently corroborated and did not provide a sufficient evidential basis to identify suspects or justify immediate enforcement action."

The force added a post-mortem examination at the time found "no definite cause of death".

"The cause of his death was not immediately apparent and was therefore treated as unexplained," Granville said.

"An investigation commenced straight away to establish the circumstances surrounding his death and fast-track actions were completed.

"These included CCTV scoping and recovery, forensic assessment and searches of the area."

On 14 June 2023, the force issued a press release to say a murder investigation had been launched. Granville said that investigation was launched the day after Matthew was found.

Police have shared a number of appeals since Matthew's death but the wait for answers has taken its toll on Daniels and her family.

"My family - I've got my sisters, my husband, my children, I've got grandchildren who keep me busy," she said.

"But we are all completely different, we're all really fractured.

"I sometimes feel really sorry for my children because I laugh, I smile, but I'm just flat and I'm sure that they miss the person I was."

Granville said: "Matthew's death remains an active investigation and I would continue to appeal for anyone with information to please come forward.

"This can be done anonymously through Crimestoppers or by calling 101, quoting crime reference 23*356157."

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