‘Nobody was there for us’: mother urges Andy Burnham to reopen case of daughter killed in Texas

Jane Coates, from Warrington, wants the UK government to reopen the case after a Cheshire coroner ruled that her daughter, Lucy, was unlawfully killed. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Jane Coates, from Warrington, wants the UK government to reopen the case after a Cheshire coroner ruled that her daughter, Lucy, was unlawfully killed. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian ‘Nobody was there for us’: mother urges Andy Burnham to reopen case of daughter killed in Texas Lucy Harrison, 23, was shot in 2025 with her father’s gun. He was never arrested and a grand jury chose not to indict him Lucy Harrison felt that 2024 was her best year yet. The 23-year-old had graduated from university with first class honours, landed her dream job and bought her first house with her boyfriend. She was a “big girl adult” now, Lucy would say. She shed tears of joy seeing her idol, Taylor Swift, at Wembley on the Eras tour that summer. Life could hardly get any better. “All the hard work, all the tears, everything was coming to fruition ,” said her mother, Jane Coates, from Warrington in north-west England. View image in fullscreen Jane Coates, pictured here with Lucy for the final time, raised her daughter alone from the age of two. Photograph: Jane Coates That Christmas, Lucy and her boyfriend, Sam Littler, flew to Texas to spend time with her father, Kris Harrison, who had left the family home when she was two. The pair had a complex relationship – Harrison was a recovering alcoholic – and Littler, 24, did not want them to go. But Lucy enjoyed seeing her two younger half-sisters at their home in Prosper, an affluent suburb 30 miles north of Dallas. Lucy and Littler were due to fly home to the UK on 10 January 2025 when Coates received a knock on the door. It was Littler’s mother. Lucy had been shot, she said. She was dead. It was only later she learned that Kris Harrison had been holding the gun. He was never arrested and a grand jury chose not to indict him, based on an investigation by local police. Eighteen months on, Coates is urging Andy Burnham’s government to encourage US authorities to reopen the case after a Cheshire coroner ruled that Lucy was unlawfully killed. C oates, a deputy head teacher, raised Lucy as a single parent from the age of two. The pair had an incredibly close bond and would talk about virtually everything. As a child, she was always outside exploring, climbing trees, riding her bike, before becoming engrossed in Harry Potter books – a “comfort blanket” she would turn to time and again into adulthood. By the age of nine, she was a devout Swiftie, performing a Taylor Swift song at her school leavers’ assembly and later going to three of her concerts. Anyone who knew Lucy knew her contagious laughter. “We call it like the Barbara Windsor belly laugh,” said Coates, 49. Like many young adults, Lucy went through difficult times. She struggled with the uncertainty of what she wanted to do with her life