Killers who set Burnley woman's bed alight are still at large (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Killers who set Burnley woman's bed alight are still at large

2:00pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in News By Peter Magill, Chief reporter

THE family of a great-grandmother who died in a nursing home fire two years ago have spoken of their frustration that her killer has never been brought to justice.

Detectives launched a murder investigation after former Burnley textile weaver Edith Stuart died in a suspicious blaze at the Cleveleys Park home in the Lancashire resort.

But despite two early arrests following the October 2010 tragedy, the killer or killers of the 96-year-old remain at large.

Mrs Stuart’s family have been left with nothing but questions over the cause of the fire, which left the OAP with 50 per cent burns to her body.

One of her daughters, Shirley Fish, from Poulton-le-Fylde, 76, said: “We just hope and pray that some new evidence will emerge or someone will come forward so we can know for certain what happened and why.

“We have just been left feeling so very angry that no-one has been prosecuted over this.

“We know that the police say the file is still open but it is very frustrating.”

Earlier this year coroner Simon Jones, recording an unlawful killing verdict, said it was a ‘disgrace’ that no-one had been brought to justice over the fire.

The inquest heard that someone had apparently deliberately held a flame to the side of her bed and a green lighter was later found in the bedroom of the non-smoker.

Coroner Mr Jones told the hearing that there were discrepancies between the accounts of two care workers, on duty at the time, about their whereabouts when the fire alarm sounded. The Crown Prosecution Service later ruled that there was insufficient evidence to charge either care worker in relation to the death.

The inquest heard that Mrs Stuart had moved from the Burnley area to the Fylde coast after her husband Bill died in 1983.

Detectives from Lancashire Police’s major incident team have confirmed the investigation is still open and any new information on the case would be considered.