Canal killer dies in prison without revealing victims' remains locations

John Sweeney, a convicted double murderer known as the "canal killer," has died in prison at the age of 69, taking with him the secrets of where he hid the missing body parts of his victims. Sweeney died at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on August 14, 2026, while serving a whole-life sentence for the murders of his former girlfriends, Melissa Halstead and Paula Fields. His death, reportedly from cancer, means the families of the two women may never learn the full truth about what happened to their loved ones. Sweeney was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2011 for the murders, which were committed years apart. Halstead, a 33-year-old American model and photographer, was killed in 1990.