Manchester Pusher

Common card · No. 418898

The Manchester Pusher is the name given to a hypothetical serial killer alleged to be responsible for the deaths of a number of people whose bodies have been retrieved from the waterways (principally the canals) of Greater Manchester, England, since at least 2007. Proponents of the theory claim that the "alarming" number of deaths that have occurred in the Rochdale, Ashton and Bridgewater Canals since the early 2000s cannot all have occurred as the result of accidents or suicides, and must have involved some element of foul play. Between 2008 and 2016 alone, 85 deaths were recorded in Greater Manchester's canals. Greater Manchester Police have for years attempted to dispel the myth of the "Manchester pusher", and offered alternative explanations for the numbers of deaths, but the theory of the pusher "often returns". In 2018, Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester's city centre spokesman, dismissed the theory of a "Manchester pusher" as an urban myth, adding "It [...] will never die, and any...

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