The mother of a British woman shot dead by her father in Texas has travelled more than 4,000 miles to demand that prosecutors reopen the investigation into her daughter’s death.
Jane Coates, 49, went to the Collin County District Attorney’s Office to seek answers over the death of Lucy Harrison, a 23-year-old fashion buyer from Warrington, Cheshire.
Lucy was shot in the chest at her father Kris Harrison’s home in Prosper, north of Dallas, on 10 January 2025. Mr Harrison, 52, said his gun went off accidentally as he showed it to his daughter shortly before she was due to leave for the UK.
Local police treated the shooting as an accident from the outset, according to records, and Mr Harrison was never arrested. A Texas grand jury later declined to indict him.
However, a UK coroner concluded at an inquest earlier this year that Lucy had been unlawfully killed. Her mother is now calling for the American investigation to be reopened, arguing that important lines of inquiry were not properly pursued.
“I’ve come all this way because I wanted to look these people in the eye and ask them some very simple questions about my daughter,” Ms Coates said.
“I’ve travelled thousands of miles to Texas because I’m not prepared to give up on Lucy. I never will.”
Questions over the Texas investigation
Ms Coates said investigators had failed to carry out toxicology tests, despite officers smelling alcohol on Mr Harrison at the time of the shooting. She also raised the absence of gunshot residue testing, alleged inconsistencies in his account and questions about the bullet’s trajectory and the entry wound.
“These are not minor errors or omissions. They are fundamental to any homicide investigation and they simply weren’t done,” she said.
Standing outside the district attorney’s office, Ms Coates said she had repeatedly sought a meeting with officials from the prosecutor’s office and Prosper Police.
“I just wish they cared enough to meet me… I have lost my daughter. I can never get her back,” she said.
“The very least I thought I could expect was for the people responsible for investigating her death to give me the courtesy of sitting down with me and hearing me out.”
Her concerns have been supported by Craig Miller, a former Dallas police chief who reviewed the case files. He said investigators appeared not to have followed several key lines of inquiry and identified departures from what he described as nationally accepted investigative best practice.
Ms Coates said Mr Miller’s review was significant because of his experience in senior law enforcement.
“We have been saying for a long time that Lucy’s death was not properly investigated,” she said. “Craig Miller’s review is so important… he is a former senior Dallas police officer who understands the standards expected of a major American police investigation.”
The Justice for Lucy Harrison campaign said Ms Coates had made the journey after repeated requests for meetings were declined. Spokesman Radd Seiger said the campaign planned a week of media appearances and public engagements in Dallas.
“Lucy deserved a proper investigation when she died. She must have one now,” Ms Coates said.
Prosper Police and the Collin County District Attorney’s Office have maintained that the investigation into Lucy’s death was “thorough and complete”.
