The crucial piece of evidence that led to Liam Smith's killers finally being caught

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

In the words of Det Chief Insp Gina Brennand, it was a 'proper whodunnit from the start'. At 6.40pm on November 24 last year, Liam Smith was shot dead yards from the front door of his home in Wigan.

His cold-blooded killers then doused the dad-of-two's face and body in sulphuric acid and fled the scene. And, initially at least, the brutal murder left detectives baffled.

There were no witnesses, no suspects, no evidence and no motive. And to add to the confusion very little was known about the victim. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features But then came the breakthrough every big case needs.

CCTV pulled from varying sources showed a car driven by the killer Michael Hillier. "Footage, some from Liam, the victim's home address itself, and some from a bin wagon and an Asda delivery van, captured the vehicle driven by the suspect Michael Hillier on the day of the murder," said DCI Brennand. "What that showed us was that that car was outside of Liam's home address for almost 10 hours before he got out and murdered Liam. "We knew the build up in that we knew the movements of the vehicle.