Ellis Cox’s family targeted 10,000 households in a mail drop campaign
The family of Ellis Cox launched a huge mail drop across the city this weekend to appeal for more information over the 19-year-old’s murder. The teenager’s family claim the investigation is being held up by a “wall of silence” as people with information are not speaking out.
Ellis was fatally shot by an unknown group close to Taskers, on the Liver Industrial Estate, in Aintree, at around 11.10pm on June 23. An ongoing investigation into the teen’s death indicates Ellis, who was not linked to criminality, was not the target of the shooting and it could be connected to an ongoing dispute between a group of his associates and a rival street gang.
Four people have been arrested so far in connection with Ellis’ murder, including a 17-year-old boy from West Derby and a 61-year-old from Huyton. However, four months on, the family still don’t have answers and his auntie, Julie O’Toole, along with Ellis’ parents Carolyn Cox and Chris Woods, have been tirelessly campaigning to urge anyone who might know something about the teenager’s murder to speak out.
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Yesterday (Saturday, November 9), Julie, along with Ellis’ parents, friends, family and officers from Merseyside Police embarked on a mail drop of leaflets. They walked from L9, close to the loop line and the area where Ellis was killed, to the city centre.
The aim was to contact 10,000 households, as well as businesses and people out and about, in a huge appeal for more information about the teenager’s death. People taking part wore hoodies printed with a photo of Ellis’ face along with the slogan ‘silence is not an option’.
The family had already placed banners across Walton and Aintree as well as the loop line and surrounding areas providing details on how to get in touch with Merseyside Police. Following the mail drop Julie told the ECHO how the campaign had received a “great response.” She said: “It went brilliantly and was so well received. We met some amazing people while out walking who showed nothing but support for us and the appeal.
“One lady stopped me, hugged me and told her story of how she lost her brother to murder many years ago. She told me to keep the faith as she did and justice will be served and not to give up.”
On the day Ellis was shot, the 19-year-old had turned up at the house Julie shared with her husband Kev. Ellis asked them for a bike as he and his friends were planning to get the train to Southport and ride back via the Liverpool Loop Line close to their house, known locally as the Ralla.
Doorbell footage released earlier this week shows him smiling on Julie’s doorstep just before he headed out. The friends got the train from Aintree to Ormskirk. Officers believe the group hung out around the Edge Hill University campus before getting the train back to Maghull and riding through Melling and Aintree. Their journey took them through the industrial estate towards the Liverpool Loop Line which led up to Ellis’ home.
Talking through the events of that fateful day, Julie said: “My husband was doing bits in our house and I was in my sister’s. Ellis was there and he was like, ‘oh, have you got a bike?’ I was like, ‘oh God, love, I don’t know, we’ve probably got a few in the shed’.” Despite some reluctance from Kev, Julie persuaded him to give Ellis a lift back to her house and pick up a bike.
“That picture of him on the doorbell footage – he’s talking to my husband as he was fixing the wheel for him and he gave him my bike. It was the worst decision ever but Ellis was adamant he was going to go on the bike ride. I suppose he would have got one from somewhere.
“We both said to him ‘be careful’ because you think the roads are dangerous and they won’t wear helmets, will they? They’re too cool for that. That was our biggest fear. We would never have dreamt in a million years that something like this would happen.”
Julie says the decision to embark on a bike ride late in the afternoon was somewhat out of character for Ellis. He’d usually spend his spare time going around to his friend’s to watch football or boxing, and a family member would usually give him lifts to and from their houses.
She said “He said to me they were getting the train to Southport, and then they were going to ride back. I said, ‘oh, it’s a bit late’, and he was like, ‘Julie, it’s only half four.’ Even though he was 19, we were so protective of him. He never went anywhere. He only ever went to his two best friends at their houses. This was a new thing.”
At 1am, Julie was woken up by her husband and realised he was on the phone to her sister Carolyn. Her memory of what happened next is a bit of a blur. She said: “My heart dropped and then I was like, ‘is she okay?’ I got the phone off of him and I was talking to my sister and she was saying, Ellis might have been hit, but they don’t know whether it’s him.
“I was instantly thinking someone’s knocked him off his bike. And then she said, there’s something about him being shot. I can’t even remember getting to the hospital, to be honest, I can’t remember any of that.
“The only next thing I can remember after that is the policeman telling us that he’d passed away. My husband had to go and identify him. And that was the last thing I really remember about the hospital. I have two brothers. Apparently I told one of them and my sister’s best friend about it. I can’t remember any of that. It was horrendous.”
Ellis’ family have been relentless in their efforts to keep his name in the headlines and to encourage people to come forward, from displaying his face on Goodison Park’s big screen to giving talks at Archbishop Beck Catholic College, based on Long Lane, which Ellis used to attend. Despite this, Julie says the absence of people coming forward with information about his murder is preventing his killers from being brought to justice.
She said: “We’ve been thrown into this world that none of us knew existed. We’re very law-abiding. I’ve seen some things in the past and called Crimestoppers – I thought that was the norm. I’ve realised how naïve I am. I’m actually going into my son’s school, which was also Ellis’s school, today to talk about this ‘no grass’ culture. Silence isn’t an option. If it goes well, I’ll be looking to go out further to more local schools.
“It is frustrating and I don’t know the reasons why. Maybe it’s fear. I don’t know, but we’re not going to stop until obviously we find out who took him from us. It’s as simple as that.”
If you have any information, you can visit Merseyside Police’s dedicated web page to submit information or footage which can help in the investigation of Ellis’s murder: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/05MP23M53-PO1. You can also contact police via social media @MerPolCC or call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 24000554719.
