The Murder of Wesley Neailey
REDRUM true crime
redrumpodcast
4.6 • 532 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In June 1998, 11 year old Wesley Neailey left his home in Newcastle and cycled off to meet someone he believed he could trust. For Wesley’s family, it was supposed to be a normal afternoon. But when he didn’t come home, panic quickly set in. A missing child search began across the city... and what investigators would eventually uncover would shock the entire community. The person Wesley had been taken by was Dominic McKilligan, an adult who lived nearby. What most people didn’t realise at the time was that Dominic already had a deeply troubling past. Just months earlier, he had been released from a young offenders’ institution after committing a series of assaults against young boys. Despite those warnings, he was now living in this new community - close enough to cross paths with Wesley. On the day Wesley disappeared, he was lured by Dominic to his home. Inside his garage on Wingrove Road, the situation turned violent. For weeks, the case remained a mystery. Posters went up across Newcastle. Searches were carried out across fields and streets as Wesley’s family pleaded for information about where their son might be. As detectives pieced together what had happened, the case raised deeply troubling questions... not just about the crime itself, but about how someone already known to pose a serious risk to children had been able to get close enough to take another young life. For Wesley’s family, the loss was unimaginable. And for the wider public, the case would become a haunting reminder of the consequences when dangerous warnings are missed. REDRUM questionnaire to tell me about you: https://redrumtruecrime.lnk.to/feedback Sign up for the free REDRUM newsletter, full of all things true crime, as well as a run down of all the latest REDRUM cases. This will only ever come to you once a month... I'm no fan of spam. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/W79H87S Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redrumtruecrime/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redrumtruecrime/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/redrumtruecrime You can email me: redrumtruecrimepodcast@gmail.com COOKIES to look! : https://www.instagram.com/thiccbakess/ SHOP MERCH: redrumtruecrime.myshopify.com Podcast versions of all episodes if you prefer to listen on the go: https://open.spotify.com/show/1FCoeRZQeDkEJ5i8bGuFpy?si=ec5c7c4c945c4952 If you're able, please support me on Patreon/buymeacoffee/YouTube membership to continue bringing REDRUM content to YouTube. Thanks, Grace x Patreon monthly subscription- www.patreon.com/redrumtruecrime A one off donation- www.buymeacoffee.com/redrumhumans Youtube monthly membership levels- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvGzDaluex7D_hPe7exgKhQ/join Thanks, Grace x
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | One of the lead detectives in this case called the killer a Harry Potter look-like |
| 0:11.7 | and what shocked officers working on the case and in fact the entire community was just how young the killer was and just how evil he had been. |
| 0:21.7 | This is Red Rum, stories about the true victims of crime. |
| 0:24.9 | I upload episodes on Mondays and Thursday, so make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode. |
| 0:32.0 | Our case today takes place in Newcastle in 1998. We're in the home of Elizabeth Neely, who is mum to two young boys, Robert |
| 0:40.8 | and Wesley. Wesley had recently been diagnosed with epilepsy, this chronic brain disorder, |
| 0:48.0 | that can sometimes cause seizures and they can be unexpected, they can be unexplained as well, so it can be a pretty |
| 0:55.5 | scary time. So his mum Elizabeth really was learning how best to deal with this. And it's on this |
| 1:01.7 | June morning, he'd gone into school. But halfway through the day, Elizabeth gets this phone call |
| 1:08.2 | from the school. And they tell her that Wesley, he wasn't feeling good, |
| 1:13.1 | he was feeling that, quote, burning feeling and his chest was tight. So Elizabeth goes to the |
| 1:19.3 | school, she picks him up and she brings him home. Once they arrive home, she pops him on the |
| 1:23.6 | sofa and tells him to get some rest. And Wesley must have been tired because he pretty |
| 1:28.7 | much falls asleep immediately. He snuggled up on the sofa and slept for well over an hour. |
| 1:35.2 | And after that, when he woke up, he felt a lot better. This was very good news to Elizabeth |
| 1:40.8 | because she was dealing with this diagnosis of epilepsy that was sort of |
| 1:45.0 | new, not quite sure, not quite knowing how best to treat it or what to do. Especially |
| 1:50.5 | when Wesley's school didn't know either and just kind of sent him home, she had specific |
| 1:55.5 | time she had to give him his medicine, but that was pretty much it. So though that's the kind |
| 2:00.6 | of important part of it all for her. |
| 2:02.9 | But now Wesley's feeling better. He gets up off the sofa and he asks his mom if he can have |
| 2:07.8 | 50p. This is back in 1998 remember. So 50p as a kid you could get something nice. She asked him, |
... |
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