Libby, Are You Home Yet? Who was popular Hull university student Libby Squire and what happened to her?

Libby Squire was born in High Wycombe on New Year’s Day in 1998 to parents Lisa and Russ Squire.

She was very close to her three younger siblings, had a particularly strong bond with her brother Joe and was also very close to her mother. Libby was eager to go to university and chose the University of Hull where she was studying philosophy.

Libby was out clubbing in Hull with her friends on the night she went missing in the early hours of February 1, 2019. Butcher, Pawel Relowicz, was sentenced to a life in jail with a minimum of 27 years for rape and murder following her death.

Childhood and education of Libby Squire

Libby was known to everyone as being very sociable and she was surrounded with a good group of friends. She was also known to be very studious, organised and ambitious, having completed all of her homework on time.

She sat her GCSEs in the summer of 2014 and earned five A* grades, two As and a C. Despite not achieving the A Level grades she was hoping for, Libby got accepted to study philosophy at the University of Hull, which she chose because she was taken with its surroundings and the opportunities the course had to offer.

Before starting university, Libby decided to take a gap year and travelled to Paris.

Libby started her course in September 2017, when she was 19 years old.

Despite the mental health struggles she faced growing up which led to her being referred to NHS services Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), her parents said that she was in the best place she had ever been and loved life.

Her idea of a fun day out was spending time with her friends, visiting museums and art galleries and going on family holidays.

During her university years she was living with three other girls in Wellesley Avenue, Hull, a popular student area.

What happened to Libby Squire?

On the evening of January 31, 2019 Libby was out with friends after a day of lectures and were all excited for a night out at the Welly Club in Beverley Road. The girls started drinking at their own house for pre-drinks before visiting another friend’s house in Cromer Street for another round of pre-drinks before they headed into town.

According to her friends, Libby was ‘really funny, laughing and generally enjoying herself’ that night. By the time they arrived at Welly Club at around 11pm, Libby was turned away for being drunk. As the weather was very cold, her friends called her a taxi and paid the £10 fare for her.

The taxi dropped her off outside her home in Wellesley Avenue but she decided to keep walking on. A woman at the corner of Wellesley Avenue took her inside and asked her if she needed help, but Libby left the house at around 11.30pm.

Her house keys were found in her garden and CCTV footage showed her walking up Beverley Road where she was spotted by a few witnesses who offered to help her.

After midnight she got into the front passenger seat of a silver Vauxhall Astra, owned by local butcher Pawel Relowicz.

The car was seen driving from Haworth Street, onto Beverley Road, Beresford Avenue and then to Oak Road playing fields in the early hours of February 1.

Footage then showed Libby and Relowicz leaving the car, but Relowicz returning at 12.19am. This was the last sighting of her alive.

Friends and family of Libby desperately searched for her - looking in all nearby streets - but no one had heard or seen her and the police were called at around 2.30am.

Her body was found in the Humber by a fishing boat on March 20, 2019 and was pulled out after being carried down the River Hull which passes the Oak Road playing fields.

A forensic scientist revealed that an internal DNA swab taken from Libby’s body matched that of Relowicz.

He was subsequently charged with the rape and murder of Libby in October 24, 2019.

He pleaded not guilty to all counts and his trial began at Sheffield Crown Court on January 12, 2020.

Following 27 hours and 55 minutes of deliberations, the jury found him guilty of the rape and murder of Libby and he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 27 years.