Emily Grace Jones was born in Bolton on the 18th of January 2013 to parents Sarah and Mark. Mark worked as a credit manager and Sarah was a solicitor. Emily was their only child. Emily was described as being full of joy and laughter with a heart as big as her smile. She loved the great outdoors and playing sports, throwing herself into anything and everything. She was fearless and loved to go hiking and climbing as well as swimming and riding horses. Mark said his daughter was a bit of a daredevil who was sociable and outgoing. Her teacher said she was creative and loved to draw and write stories. She was very popular with those in her class and got along with everyone. Bright and hardworking, she would often joke with her teachers that she had finished her work before her classmates had even written the date. Although Mark and Sarah were no longer together, they were still on good terms and committed to co-parenting Emily. Mark would usually look after Emily on Sundays and he and Sarah had arranged to meet in Queens Park on Sunday the 22nd of March 2020.
That Sunday was Mother’s Day and Emily had given her mother a card that morning. At around 2:15 p.m., Emily and Mark were in the park and she was whizzing around on her scooter and her dad was encouraging her to go faster. Emily saw Sarah who was jogging and said to Mark,
“Daddy, daddy, I want to go to mom.”
He told her she could and she set off. Emily called out to Sarah, but Sarah didn’t hear her because she had headphones in and was too far away. As Emily scooted over, Mark saw a woman stand up from a bench and go towards his daughter and Emily was suddenly on the ground, but he was unsure exactly what had happened. He assumed that she’d fallen over as he could hear her crying and that the woman was helping her up. People nearby began shouting, clearly horrified and distressed, saying that his daughter had been stabbed.
The woman who had her hood up briskly walked away with a knife in her hand. Mark immediately ran over to his daughter; she had a catastrophic injury to her neck and was struggling to breathe. Her dad told her,
“Just stay with me, Emily, stay with me, don’t leave me.”
Sarah was still in the park but was unaware of what had happened. Mark called her and a nurse came over and quickly began to try and help Emily. She was deteriorating rapidly. One of the people in the park at the time, Tony Canty, was there with his wife and baby daughter. He ran after the woman who had been seen with Emily as she tried to flee the scene. He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened or if she was armed but continued to chase her. Tony’s wife gave Mark her baby’s muslin cloth to try and stop Emily’s heavy bleeding. The emergency services arrived within minutes and paramedics worked quickly to try and save her. The first paramedic to get there saw Emily being hugged by her father from behind as she lay on the ground. She was bleeding heavily and unconscious. She was also in cardiac arrest. The paramedics began to administer CPR and she was given adrenaline before being loaded into the air ambulance.
As he pursued her, Tony’s wife told him that the woman had a knife on her, but he still bravely carried on, disregarding his own safety instead prioritizing the safety of others. He knocked the woman to the ground and sat on her to stop her from running away and also called 999, telling the operator:
“There’s been an incident at Queens Park in Bolton and a child’s bleeding.”
He also spoke about the woman,
“I don’t know what she’s saying; she is agitated.”
His wife also heard the woman saying that she no longer needed injections, Tony had killed her family and that he was killing her. Tony told her,
“You’re not well, the police will help you.”
The woman said to Tony,
“I don’t need you to tell me to be calm.”
He proceeded to keep hold of her until the police arrived and took over.
“Hands over, put your… take the bag down, let me take your bag off. Yes, stay still, okay. Hands behind your back, thank you.”
“Have you seen a child anywhere? Is she on a road? Right, a child down there, get down there quick.”
“The ID from… Yes, it’s in my bag.”
“What is in my bag?”
“ID, everything.”
“What’s in your backpack?”
“ID and everything.”
“ID?”
“Yes, and the knife.”
“And a knife?”
“And a knife.”
“Right, the time now is 14:45. At this point in time, you’re under arrest on suspicion of attempted murder. You didn’t have to say anything, but it may be defense if you do not mention something when questioned that you allege to rely in court, and anything you do say may be given in evidence. Okay, your arrest is necessary to protect vulnerable people and to ensure a prompt and effective investigation to this offense. Okay, what’s your name?”
“Eltiona Skana.”
“Eltiona Skana, okay. Where do you live?”
“19 Turnstone Road.”
“19 Turnstone, yes.”
“Just confirm… what’s in… what’s inside your bag? You can control… it’s just, no, no bombs, no nothing. It’s just my ID card.”
“ID card, and my mom’s ID card, there’s a knife, some water, some juice. Okay, nothing.”
“Okay, that’s it, so there’s nothing… nothing that’s going to harm me?”
“No, no.”
A cordon was put up around the area and specialist officers were on the case trying to build a clear picture of what had happened. Emily was taken to Salford Royal Hospital and the helicopter landed there at 3:27 p.m. She was ventilated and given blood transfusions but remained in cardiac arrest. Tragically, at 3:56 p.m., all the attempts to restart her heart had failed and Emily’s time of death was called. This was now a murder inquiry.
The following day, Sarah was given the awful task of formally identifying her daughter’s body. A postmortem was carried out and it was determined that Emily had died from an incised wound to the neck. In a statement, her family said:
“We are beyond devastated that this random act of violence means we will never get to see our beautiful little girl grow up into the wonderful young lady she was showing such promise of becoming. It is truly heartbreaking to wake up to a world without Emily in it and we cannot comprehend why this has happened. We would like to thank the members of the public that assisted us in the park and express our gratitude to the emergency services for doing their utmost to save Emily’s life.”
The community was in shock. The teachers from her school were heartbroken and her headmistress paid tribute to her saying:
“I want you to know how much Emily was loved. She will be missed by all her friends and all the staff. Her loss has left a hole in our hearts and the school will never be the same again.”
The police needed to start building a picture of their suspect. The woman they had arrested was 30-year-old Eltiona Skana, and she was detained under the Mental Health Act. Dr. Suanthini Farrell was the on-call doctor when she was arrested. She was said to be cooperative and calm and when asked about her mental state, she responded,
“Not very well.”
She said she couldn’t remember anything about the park, but Dr. Farrell said this appeared to be because she didn’t want to discuss it, not because she couldn’t remember it. Dr. Farrell also described her…
Mark said he has not forgiven Eltiona for what she did.
“I know people say it’s good for your mental health to forgive, but in this instance, I’m afraid I can’t. How dare she touch my daughter? How dare she put her hands on her? So no, I can’t forgive her.”
Eltiona Skana would later appeal her sentence, but this appeal was rejected. Lady Justice Macur said that there was sufficient evidence to find Eltiona knew that what she did was wrong and attempted to escape detention and escape the scene. Mark said he was more relieved than happy that the appeal was rejected, saying:
“She’s a manipulative and dangerous individual and all three judges saw that today.”
Eltiona Skana remains at Rampton Hospital where she’s being treated. Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust, who had been responsible for Eltiona’s care, conducted a review. In a statement, they said:
“We treat incidents of this kind with the utmost seriousness,” and completed an internal rigorous review. “Whilst this identified learning for our services, the review found there were no markers of deterioration in Miss Skana’s mental state or behavior which would have foreseen this tragic event.”
NHS England disagreed with the trust’s conclusion saying that it was clear she was unwell and posed a risk to others. By 2017, their report said:
“Our most important finding is that the trust’s understanding of risk concepts was poor.”
Mark later demanded an apology from the trust saying that it was absolute nonsense.
“They are just trying to relinquish all responsibility, and she was their responsibility. They knew she didn‘t comply with oral medication but they allowed her to take it on her own volition. That is a ridiculous thing to do. She was a ticking time bomb. I want the horrible story of what happened to my daughter to be told. It’s not that I want people to feel sorry for us, but it needs to be told because it’s an absolute public outrage.”
Following Emily’s death, her school said they were going to have a memorial set up for her and more than £11,000 was raised. The headteacher said she was blown away by the support the school had received from the community. Emily’s school friends were helping to design a garden in her memory, something that would reflect Emily’s love of life in the outdoors, also creating a space for people to go and remember her.
Mark teamed up with the charity Hundred Families, which supports relatives of those killed by somebody suffering from mental illness, to change the way patients are managed within the community. He said:
“Someone said to me, ‘What are you trying to achieve from all this? It’s not going to bring Emily back.’ It’s not, but I don’t want another family to have to go through what we have been through. I don’t want Emily’s death to have been in vain.”
In another fitting tribute to Emily, her mother Sarah launched a GoFundMe to raise money for Bolton Lads and Girls Club with the aim of helping children have support and access to various opportunities. It raised nearly £30,000 and was a truly beautiful way to remember Emily. For her devastated family and those left behind, life will never be the same. Emily was a bright and kind little girl with her entire life ahead of her, a life that would have undoubtedly been filled with joy and love and immense promise. On what was a Sunday that should have been filled with joy and happiness, her life was taken in the most appalling of circumstances, and the aftermath of her death is quite simply devastating. As Mark and Sarah said:
“Emily was the beat in our hearts, the spring in our step, and the reason we got up every morning.”
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
