A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Blackpool man Eddie Forrester.
Sixty-five year old William Wilkinson, of Seafield Road, appeared via a prison video link, and spoke only to confirm his name and that he could hear and understand the proceedings. Wilkinson is accused of killing Mr Forrester. No body has yet been found but the search for the missing man continues.
Mr Forrester was last sighted on Seafield Road, Blackpool, during the afternoon of Friday 1st September at around 1.30 p.m. He was reported missing the following day. Wilkinson was remanded in custody and will return to court to enter a plea in November. Judge Robert Altham set a provisional trial date of 4th March, 2024.
Meanwhile, detectives are still particularly keen to hear from anybody who saw the white Peugeot Boxer van (shown in photographs below), registration KX09 XPA, between 6 a.m. on Saturday, 2nd September, and 1 a.m. on Tuesday, 5th September. They believe the van has been in Blackpool, Lytham St Anne’s and Cumbria, including Kendall and Windermere during that period. It has since been recovered by police.
DCI Mark Haworth-Oates, of Lancashire Police’s Force Major Investigations Team, has earlier said: ‘This is a fast-moving investigation and the fact a man has now been charged with murder is clearly a significant development. Eddie’s family have been made aware of this and my thoughts are with them at this distressing time.
We have a dedicated team of officers working night and day on this case to get to the bottom of what has happened to Eddie and find him. However, we believe that he has sadly come to harm.’
Anyone with information, doorbell or dashcam footage is asked to email forcecontrolroom@lancashire.police.uk or call 101, quoting log 1384 of September 2, 2023. For immediate sightings call 999.
