Mum of innocent teen murdered issues message amid 'turf war'

Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox at Merseyside Police HQ
-Credit:Iain Watts


The family of an innocent teenager shot dead amid a backdrop of street violence said "silence isn't an option for us" as they mark his 20th birthday. Ellis Cox was just 19 when he was fatally shot by the Liverpool Loop Line - known locally as the Ralla - near Taskers on the Liver Industrial estate.

Ellis was cycling with four friends when they were approached by "one to three males on two electric bikes" at around 10.50pm on June 23 last year. One of the group on the electric bikes opened fire and pumped three shots towards Ellis and his friends. Ellis, on a pedal bike, had attempted to make away from the scene but was shot in the back.

Today, January 18 2025, would have been Ellis' 20th birthday. Speaking to the ECHO, his mum Carolyn Cox, 46, and aunt Julie O'Toole, 50, said: "How can we now celebrate his life which had hardly begun and was taken in such a cruel, unexplainable way?" Sitting next to her sister at Merseyside Police HQ, both wearing black hoodies with Ellis' face on and carrying the message "silence is not an option," Carolyn told the ECHO: "It never gets easier. Christmas came and went as just another day.

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READ MORE: 'Silence makes friends of my murdered son as bad as those who pulled the trigger'

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"Christmas was always for Ellis. Now it’s his birthday. To me I haven’t accepted it all because I feel like I’m doing this for someone else. It’s more difficult on his birthday - we would always do something together as a family and make it nice." Recalling how they used to celebrate Ellis' birthday, Carolyn said: "I would put the shameful pictures of him as a baby all over the windows so the neighbours would see him as a chunky baby.

"I would always decorate the house and he would say 'why have you done so many balloons?' But I always did it for him no matter how old he got. The one memory we found the funniest was I put his money in 16 envelopes so he had to open all of them before he got his money.

"If he was here he would be getting spoiled today. Eating birthday cake for breakfast, steak for tea, going shopping for his clothes and trainers and then we would go out and do the shameful bringing out the cake in the restaurant. We did it every year. He would always say there was no point and then he would hear people start singing 'happy birthday' and would pull his hood up. He didn't like a fuss being made of him. He was a fusser and would rather make a fuss of someone else."

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This year's birthday will be different however. Instead of spending it celebrating the life of Ellis as he reached another milestone, his loved ones will spend it appealing to the people of Liverpool for help identifying his killer. His aunt Julie told the ECHO: "Today we are going into Liverpool town centre and will go to all the landmarks.

A photo of murdered teenager Ellis Cox, released to the media after his death
A photo of murdered teenager Ellis Cox, released to the media after his death -Credit:Liverpool Echo

"We will put posters up and take a banner and release some balloons. One of the things we are keen to do is ask people to get pictures of themselves outside the landmarks so we know the message is out there. We are going to have something to eat and talk about Ellis.

"It’s hard for us to talk about him and remember him. That’s why our focus is putting the banners up - that’s our drive. That’s our way of making sure the message is out there. It’s too hard to think of him in any other way. But keeping up the appeals keeps us going."

Since Ellis' death his family have made a number of appeals through the media and in December walked around the Ralla, where the teenager died, speaking to people and spreading the message that the wall of silence has to be broken. During a previous interview with the ECHO, Ellis' family, including his dad Chris Woods, said they believed a no grass culture was holding back the police's investigations.

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They previously said the four friends Ellis was with on the night of his murder were just as bad as the people who killed him because they had abandoned him after the shooting and refused to cooperate with police investigations. And while they have felt the support of their local community around the Walton Vale area since Ellis' death, the family have appealed to Liverpool as a city to help ensure the gunman is put behind bars.

Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox with his auntie Julie O'Toole at Merseyside Police HQ
Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox with his auntie Julie O'Toole at Merseyside Police HQ -Credit:Iain Watts

Julie told the ECHO: "The local community has been great but what we want is the wider community. When you think of Liverpool we know it as a city that comes together when it matters, we need to feel that now. We just want to keep appealing to people to speak up. We are seven months down the line now but we know people talk.

"They might think something is irrelevant but we just want them to back us and come forward. The local community has been brilliant but we want the wider city of Liverpool to get behind us, just like they have so many times when we have lost other people before. We feel the wall of silence is impeding the investigation.

"Undoubtedly there are people out there who know what happened that night. There will be names bandied about because people talk. Stop talking amongst yourself and help us. We have time - we have all the time in the world and we will keep pushing until we know the people who took Ellis from us."

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The police have made a number of arrests as part of their investigations into Ellis' murder, but have struggled to make a significant breakthrough. Speaking to the ECHO, Detective Chief Inspector Steve McGrath said the shooting of Ellis came against the backdrop of a number of incidents of violence in the Walton and Aintree area in the 12 to 18 months before his murder.

The ECHO can also exclusively reveal that the gun used to murder Ellis - a self-loading pistol - was also used in a separate shooting at a flat on Willowdale Road in Walton. The senior investigating officer said the shootings happened because of rival "street level dealers" trying to "protect their turf" - and the friends with Ellis on the night of his murder have been identified to have links to criminality.

Police fingertip search at the Liver Industrial Estate following the fatal shooting of Ellis Cox
Police fingertip search at the Liver Industrial Estate following the fatal shooting of Ellis Cox -Credit:Liverpool ECHO

DCI McGrath said the group of people including the gunman "have gone out that night with the intention of causing harm to some individuals and we believe they have targeted the group Ellis was with". He added the evidence so far suggests it was a chance meeting between the two parties. The officer added: "But I would like to stress and confirm that this doesn’t involve Ellis. He is definitely an innocent party."

The impact of Ellis' loss is undoubtedly having a continued impact on his family. Julie said: "His eldest brother Ethan is lost. You can't say anything to make it better other than to reassure that the police are working so hard. Our younger brother who was Ellis' best mate, uncle and protector all rolled into one is angry and lost and hurt.

"It feels like Groundhog Day for him. Our focus is this and that is what is driving us. We have just had a birthday - my brother’s eldest just turned nine. He was heartbroken because it was the first year he hasn’t had a card from Ellis. We have all those firsts to go through which we shouldn’t have to. Our brother said quite early on that he wasn’t going to come to any family gatherings and we said we weren’t planning any.

Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox at Merseyside Police HQ
Ellis Cox's mum Carolyn Cox at Merseyside Police HQ -Credit:Iain Watts

"We went out to eat on the anniversary of our mum's death and I think he found some comfort in that because we were all together. We had a picture of our mum and Ellis on the table. We will always feel the loss but are just trying to put one foot in front of the other. We don't know how it will feel when the police get them, that will happen, but that will be when we take a breath."

Carolyn and Julie told the ECHO they intend to continue to spread the appeal for information to keep it "fresh in people's minds". They will also go into Ellis' former school, Archbishop Beck Catholic College, where many of the family went, to speak to young people about the impacts of the no grass culture.

But despite it approaching seven months since Ellis' death, the family are determined they will find an answer as to who was the person who pulled the trigger. Determined Carolyn told the ECHO: "Today our focus will be to get through the day and make sure we continue to drive this and push for Ellis. We have time. And we know it’s only a matter of time before they are brought forward. Silence isn’t an option for us."

If you have any information, you can visit the police's dedicated web page to submit information or footage which can help in the investigation of Ellis’ murder: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/05MP23M53-PO1. You can also contact us via social media @MerPolCC or call 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 24000554719.