Pawel Relowicz raped and murdered Libby before dumping her body in the early hours of February 1, 2019. But it took 48 days before her body was finally found floating in the Humber Estuary on March 20
Libby Squire was raped and murdered after a night out with university pals in February 2019(Image: SWNS)
Libby Squire’s mum has written to her daughter’s killer demanding answers about why and how he killed the university student.
Lisa Squire is still haunted by not knowing exactly what happened to the 21-year-old university student in her last moments after being targeted by Polish butcher Pawel Relowicz while on a night out seven years ago. Evil Relowicz, 26, has twice snubbed her pleas to meet, prompting her to write to him in his jail cell, where he is serving a life sentence for Libby’s rape and murder.
In the letter, Lisa, 52, told Relowicz: “You asked me what questions I wanted to ask you. Well, there are so many. But here’s a few to get started with. When you picked Libby up, what did you say to her? How did you get her in your car? Did you promise her a lift home?
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“Did you promise that she would be out of the cold? Did you force her into your car? If you forced her into the car how did you manage to do that? When she was in your car was she warmer? Was she chatty? Was she sleepy? You made choices that night. Why did you choose to do that?
“After you raped her and murdered her, how did you throw her into the river? Did you get her in head first ? Feet first? Did you roll her in? Did you drop her in? Why did you do what you did? Why didn’t you just assault her, if that’s what you had planned, but leave her alive? If you’ve planned all along to kill her why didn’t you just kill her and leave her in the field?”
Despite the need for answers from her daughter’s killer, heartbroken Lisa admits she’s not sure if she would be able to believe a word he tells her. She wrote: “You see there are so many questions I need to have answers to. But even if I asked you those questions I don’t know if I believe your answers. You’re a psychopath. You’ll only say what will look good for you.”
Libby, the eldest of Lisa’s three children, was 20 years old when she moved from High Wycombe, Bucks, to Kingston-upon-Hull, to study philosophy at Hull University. She was attacked after leaving a club in the Yorkshire city on February 1, 2019, during a night out with university pals.
Lisa, who was working a nightshift as a nurse on a post-natal ward, remembers receiving a phone call from one of Libby’s housemates at 1.09am, telling her Libby had failed to return home. She called police at 2.57am to report her missing.
Speaking on vodcast Key Witness: Aftermath, released today, Lisa said: “I was a complete basket case – the world didn’t make sense. If Libby was in trouble, she would phone me. My baby had disappeared. It was torture – it’s like she vanished into thin air.”
Police launched an appeal for information and received a tip about a car, which they traced to Relowicz, who lived locally with his partner and young children. The police later searched the silver Vauxhall Astra and found a bag filled with women’s underwear, sex toys and photos of unidentified young women.
After luring Libby into his car, Relowicz had driven them to the Oak Road Playing Fields, where he raped and murdered Libby, before dumping her body in the early hours of February 1. But it took 48 days before her body was finally found floating in the Humber Estuary on March 20, following the largest search in Humberside Police’s history.
In her letter, Lisa told Relowicz: “Because of you Libby died in the most horrendous way. A way in which all women fear. When she was recovered, 48 agonising days later, she had lost all her hair.
“You might remember her hair. It was thick, brown, beautiful hair. She lost it all in the water so I couldn’t wash her hair. I couldn’t put make-up on her. I couldn’t put clothes on her because she was too delicate.
“You did that and I hope that she haunts you and the visions of what you did to her stay with you for the rest of your life. I could’ve come and seen her. I could’ve washed her hair. I could’ve dressed her. I could’ve done all the things a grieving mother wants to do for their murdered child.”
Addressing any misconceptions the killer may have about her, Lisa wrote: “I don’t wish you harm, but I don’t wish you a pleasant life either. You may have seen in the Press that I have said that I don’t hate you, maybe this confuses you? The truth is I don’t hate you because I don’t allow you any space in my head.
“Thinking about you and hating you would take precious time and energy away from thinking about and loving Libby and thinking about and loving my other three children, who now because of your actions have to face a life without their big sister, the person they should have had in their lives for a very long time. The person they looked to for advice, for help, for guidance.”
Lisa added: “You may also have seen in the Press that I am working to keep you in prison for the rest of your life. Please rest assured that I am going to do that and you will never see the light of day again if I have anything to do with it. Believe me when I say that I usually mange to get what I want. The last thing I want to say to you is that I am so so proud of my daughter because of her the women of Hull are safer. She took you off of the streets.
“She ruined your plan of a no body murder. She came back and she gave the irrefutable evidence that you had raped her and then murdered her. Libby may not be physically present anymore, but she’s still very much in our lives and I am so so proud of her, and I love her more than you could ever fathom.”
Relowicz, a married dad-of-two who had carried out a string of other vile sex crimes, including Peeping Tom style offences and -masturbating in front of women in the street in the months before, was jailed for life, and ordered to serve a minumum of 27 years, at Sheffield crown court in 2021. In a final rebuke at her daughter’s killer, Lisa told him: “I have nothing else to say to you.
“I know you probably won’t want to read this letter because you’re a coward and I think that’s fairly obvious from the actions that you have shown in the past by abducting, raping, and killing a vulnerable girl and by refusing to see her mother – fairly cowardly actions.”
Since losing Libby, Lisa has worked closely with Thames Valley Police on the It Does Matter campaign – encouraging victims of non-contact sexual offences, like upskirting and voyeurism, to report these crimes. She said: “I did some work with a criminologist who said not all non-contact sexual offenders go onto become stranger rapist and murderers, but all stranger rapist murders started as a non-contact sex offender. I can’t let her [Libby] hard work go to waste. I have to be her voice now.”
Speaking to Key Witness: Aftermath presenter, Daisy Maskell, Lisa added: “She wanted to be found. She kept herself intact and she held onto that evidence and she got him. I remember feeling that pride – you got him.”
