Police have opened a murder investigation into the case of a man who died last year from stab injuries sustained 15 years earlier.
Detectives said they believed the death of Chris Linton, 40, could be directly linked to an “unprovoked and terrible attack” on him near a Blockbuster video shop in Bury on 4 October 2008.
Linton died on 30 May last year, days after he was admitted to hospital. Greater Manchester police (GMP) said he died as a result of medical complications that were “believed to be directly linked” to the assault “and from which he never fully recovered”.
His mother, Tracey McLeod, made an emotional plea for the public to help the investigation.
“Words cannot describe the pain and trauma that Chris’s death has had on our family,” she said. “The pain and sadness is with us all day and night and it doesn’t go away. I am pleading as a mother for help from the public. Please help us as a family get some closure from the grief we are going through.”
She said Linton was someone who put himself before others. “He had a heart of gold. He was funny, loving and, most of all, caring.
“His greatest achievement was becoming an RAC inspector, which he was very proud of and his family was incredibly proud of him.”
Police said Linton had left the Derby Arms pub in Bury and was walking along Bolton Road when he met and began talking with two women near a Blockbuster and Rajah’s Indian takeaway.
The two women got into a black car with two men, and as Linton continued to speak to the women, he was stabbed in the neck by one of the men.
He managed to get back to the pub where he was given first aid before an ambulance took him to hospital for life-saving treatment.
McLeod said her son was “brutally” stabbed in the neck “and the people involved left my son for dead. This happened at the back of Blockbusters on Bolton Road”.
Two men were arrested after the incident but no one was charged with assault, GMP said.
DI Alex Wilkinson said that despite the passage of time between the incident and Linton’s death, “the investigation team remains determined to identify the person or persons responsible and bring them to justice”.
He added: “Chris was an innocent victim of an unprovoked and terrible attack that tragically resulted in his death.
“Although Chris passed away years after the incident took place, this has not lessened the impact on his family, who have had to watch the person they love pass away from an act of senseless violence.”
He appealed for anyone with information to “do the right thing” and contact the police.
“The information you have could be the piece we need to solve this investigation and finally bring some closure to a grieving family.”
