SAM LIMMOND:
Liu called, and I went running over there. I’d never seen anything like it. Between us, we eventually got into Al’s room, got her calmed down. Liu could be nosey, a bit of a gossip, and she could talk a Samaritan to death, but at least she tried. She always made an effort, she made time for people, and I’ll never forget her being there for me that night. Bad as it got, she stuck by me. Al didn’t know where she was. She barely knew who she was—she fully disassociated. I thought about doctors, calling her mum, but I knew how scared Al was of being committed. Plus, well, I found pills in her room. Like, illegal stuff. In the end, it took us two hours to talk her down.
LIU WAI:
The second she was asleep, Sam went almost as crazy as she had. And, like, I was right there with him. Anyone who cared about that girl would have been angry. He wanted to know who she’d been with, who’d given her these pills. I just told him the truth. Like, no one comes and talks to me about their drug use.
All I knew was that there was this other guy in her life. Well, Sam knew that, but I still saw his heart, like, actually breaking as I said it. Then I got an idea where the drugs might have come from.
JAI MAHMOOD:
So I opened my door and got launched back into my room by that guy Alex was seeing, Sam, screaming at me about selling pills to her. I was like, “Whoa, mate, a hundred percent no.”
SAM LIMMOND:
I was possessed that night. I think I actually had him by the throat. Jesus Christ. We went back and forth, me slowly calming down because I thought it sounded like he was telling the truth, that he’d never sold to her. Then he remembered something, seeing Al around with some other guy he’d sold pills to a few times.
He said, “Maybe he gave them to her?”
And look. Yeah, I knew Al was seeing someone else. It can’t always be equal, sometimes you love someone more than they love you. I guess I’d known all along that whoever this guy was, he was bad news. I didn’t dare make a big deal of it, because I was scared she’d choose him over me. If I’m honest, I know she would have. But this was different. This wasn’t Al canceling plans or turning up at mine strung out or hungover. It was life or death. He’d given her this stuff that no one in her condition should have been taking. He used her, then walked off without a word to anyone while she was midbreakdown. I wanted to know what kind of man could treat another human being like that.
JAI MAHMOOD:
I didn’t know the guy’s name, but I thought I had his number from a buy a couple of weeks before. Sam wasn’t getting out of my face anytime soon, so I called the guy up and asked if he’d be interested in some Xans, which is what he was into. He agreed to meet us at the Great Central, so we went over there.
SAM LIMMOND:
Jai pointed him out to me through the window. A real prick, sitting at the bar reading a paperback, this smug look on his face, stupid floppy blond hair. I went in, grabbed him by both shoulders and headbutted him as hard as I could. It’s the only time I’ve ever tried to hurt another person, and I wasn’t proud of it, but if you’d seen Alex that night, you’d know. I had to do something, to try and protect her—no one had done the same for Zoe and look what happened. He hit the floor, I saw blood all over his copy of Fear and Loathing, and I just about managed to tell him to stay away from Alex before the bouncers dragged me out.
JAI MAHMOOD:
I felt pretty bad about it for a second, man. I’d thought we were there to talk. I picked the guy up and helped him into the toilets. His nose was obviously broken, like, streaming with blood. He made me take a picture of him on my phone, then started demanding I send it to him, saying he was gonna sue Sam, sue Alex, all this shit. I laughed and put my phone away, like, “Mate, to be honest, it sounds like you’re getting off easy.” I told him to lose my fucking number, then left. Never saw him again.
SAM LIMMOND:
No, I never saw him again either. It was the next day when I went around to check on her. Kim opened the door and we knocked on Al’s. There was no answer, so we both looked inside. We just saw a piece of paper in the center of the bed that had “Sorry” written on it.
I called her about a hundred times that day, but she never picked up.
“I’ll love you until the end of the world”
20-year-old woman who fell from Stockport viaduct named as friends pay tribute to “thoughtful, beautiful girl”
A young woman who tragically fell to her death from Stockport Viaduct has been named as Alex Wilson.
The 20-year-old plunged 110 feet from the Victorian structure and died at the scene of the tragedy, near to Manchester city center, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Alex, who was studying psychology at the University of Manchester, was originally from Nottingham.
Her family released a statement via Greater Manchester Police.
It read: “Alex was a thoughtful, beautiful girl. Our lives, our world, will never be the same without her. She will always be missed and loved by her friends and her family.”
Floral tributes and messages have been left at the scene.
One read: “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you. I’ll love you until the end of the world.”
Another said: “I can’t believe this is happening.”
Alex was a roommate of missing student Zoe Nolan, but Greater Manchester Police have moved to assure the public that the two incidents are unrelated.
Detective Inspector Gregory James, who is leading the investigation into Zoe’s disappearance, urged people to allow the Wilson family to grieve in private.
Manchester Evening News, Wednesday, 11 Jan, 2012—E.M.
SARAH MANNING:
No, I’d never even heard that story before—Jai and Sam and this other man. Our investigation never overlapped with the inquest into Alex Wilson’s death. Everyone acknowledged that Zoe’s disappearance and the investigation itself were probably stress factors for her, but beyond that, there was no suggestion of any link between our case and her death. From what I remember, there seemed to be no question that it was a suicide. Alex had a history of mental illness, of self-harm, one serious attempt in her early teens, and I know the blood tests came back negative for drink or drugs. With that said, if this other man was preying on her in the way that it sounds like he was, then we would have been extremely interested to talk to him.