Ian Huntley brutally murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in the Soham murders of 2002 - and persuaded his girlfriend Maxine Carr to cover for him. Summary information is updated to reflect amendments since the report was initially filed. She had shunned the company of boys as a child, but as a teenager cravedbut seldom receivedthe attention of boys her age, occasionally leading to bouts of binge eating[190] in addition to her developing the habit of self-harming. [174], In April 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old woman. The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on 4 August 2002. The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England on 4 August 2002. Even at four years old, the two girls instantly became best friends, practically joined at the hip, and . Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, working for the . While townsfolk are determined to remember Holly and Jessica, acts of remembrance in Soham are expected to be low-profile. Huntley's mother's maiden name had been Nixon. Christopher Clark, consultant forensic psychiatrist, reciting the conclusions of his assessment of Ian Huntley's mental state (2002)[121], Having been declared mentally fit to stand trial, Huntley was faced with a sentence of life imprisonment if a jury could be convinced of his guilt. Browse the directory of real estate professionals at realtor.com. [92] Carr also displayed a thank-you card to this reporter which had recently been given to her by Wells on the last day of the school year. Performed by Frankie Goes to . Police officers and members of the local . They went missing on Sunday 4 August 2002, when they were both 10 years old. [14] In any event, the cause of death of both girls was later ruled to be asphyxiation. [102][n 10], Having discovered the children's clothes at Soham Village College,[82] police decided to arrest Huntley and Carr. "[211], By mid-2002, the physical relationship between Huntley and Carr had begun to deteriorate. [14], Huntley's motive for killing the children is unknown; minutes prior to encountering Wells and Chapman, he is known to have had an argument with Carr, ending in his slamming the phone down. [37] Other family members and friends of both girls also appealed via the media for the safe return of the children. [207][n 16] No background check was conducted before or after this job interview,[108] and although Huntley lacked extensive experience in this form of employment, his application for this position was successful. Had they done so, they would have discovered an outstanding burglary charge on file relating to his November 1995 arrest for this crime. [140] He further claimed Chapman had witnessed this accident and began repeatedly screaming, "You pushed her! Others said that, contrary to her televised claims, Carr had been socialising in Grimsby town centre on the night of the girls' disappearance, and was not at home in Soham as she had claimed to the media. A scenes of crime officer also testified that, despite Huntley's exhaustive efforts to remove physical evidence of his crime from his home, a forensic examination had revealed several traces of blood spattering about the hallway and main entrance to the master bedroom. Three of them were aged 15, and one 13. ", "Police Reveal Horrors of Bodies in Ditch", "Last Farewell: Holly Buried in Private Service with Flowers from The Beckhams; Jessica is Laid to Rest 24 Hours Earlier as The Two Families Grieve Alone", "Police Identify Holly and Jessica's Bodies", "Soham Murders: Why Did Ian Huntley Kill Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman? Their daughters best friends who were just 10 years old were murdered by Ian Huntley after he lured them back to his house in August 2002. Immediately on seeing the corpses, Lawrence turned to his girlfriend, Helen Sawyer, and shouted: "Don't come any closer, Helen! The reason for this decision had been that both bodies were too extensively decomposed and damaged by fire to enable a conclusive determination of either the actual cause of death or if either girl had been subjected to a sexual assault. We do chat about her quite regularly, which I think is a very nice thing. It was one, almost two years before we found each other again, but grief gives you a different sense of the passage of time and it slipped by unnoticed.. A physical description of each girl was also released to the media, describing them as being white, about 4ft 6in (137cm) tall, and slim. After the kidnapping, both girls were killed. Investigators would later determine Wells and Chapman had most likely been attackedand possibly murderedin the dining room of College Close. [160], Huntley was a timid child, and something of a mother's boy. [142] When questioned about why she had then helped Huntley in extensively cleaning their home in the days after the children's murder, Carr claimed she had done so as she had always been "obsessive about tidiness. Locals would rally around the families of the girls and dedicate hours of their time searching for them . Today, August 4, marks 20 years since schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing after they left a family barbecue to buy sweets. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a local resident and school caretaker, Ian Kevin Huntley,[1] who subsequently murdered the childrenlikely via asphyxiationbefore disposing of their bodies in an irrigation ditch close to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. e-mail; 18. shares. [103][n 9] Fibres recovered from these garments were a precise match to samples retrieved from Huntley's body and clothing, as well as from 5 College Close. [224] Following Huntley's admission of guilt, this victim issued a press statement in which she confessed to feeling "a massive sense of relief", but concluded this statement with the sentence: "Yet, I still feel upset that Huntley was left at large, resulting in the deaths of two innocent children. This is also where Maxine Carr worked in Holly and Jessicas class. Therefore, in this ruthless man's mind, both girls had to die in his own selfish self-interest." [25][n 1], To help their public appeals for information, Cambridgeshire Police released the photograph Nicola Wells had taken of the children less than two hours before their disappearance depicting both girls wearing their Manchester United replica football shirts. [139] In the bathroom, he had slipped and accidentally knocked Wells into his bath while helping her stanch her nosebleed, and this unintentional act had caused her to drown as he "panicked and froze". Luv Holly. The harrowing story documenting the murder of childhood friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. [212], At 9:53a.m. on 4 August, Huntley attempted to phone Carr, but she did not answer her mobile phone. It was startling to see the previous fiance of Ian Huntley grinning in an outdated interview movie as she mentioned the victims, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, with a BBC reporter. On August 17 2002, residents flocked to St Andrew's church to await . Ian Huntley accuses ex-girlfriend Maxine Carr of being a liar but hopes that she will move on after the murders of Jessica and Holly Source: Cambridgeshire Police Who is Maxine Carr? [204][205], By 2001, Huntley had re-established contact with his father,[n 15] who worked as a school caretaker in Littleport, near Ely. Holly Wells Parents & Ethnicity:- Holly Wells was a 10 years old school girl who was kidnapped alongside her friend Jessica Chapman by a school caretaker Ian Huntley. Pro Tools Operator JOHN PRESTAGE. The two photogenic 10-year-olds were the very model of typical children growing up in a "safe", quiet, English town. [173] Rumours of Huntley's sexual interest in underage girls soon became community gossip, and he was regularly insulted by neighbours and colleagues. When Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing in Soham in 2002, Dennis was called in by Holly's family to help. The couple relocated to East Anglia in early 2001. G+. That involved at all costs protecting Ian Huntley. [171], Between August 1995 and May 1996, Huntley established numerous sexual relationships with teenage girls, all of whom were under the legal age of consent. Half burned remains of clothes were found in a garbage bin The Way out Evidence found the girls' partially burned bodies in a six-foot-deep ditch found a type of weed that only grows after a plants have been disturbed Pollen samples were taken from where the girls bodies were [21] Over 400 officers were assigned full-time to search for the girls. Huntley was given two life sentences by the judge. [216], Huntley was transferred from Wakefield prison to Frankland prison on 23 January 2008. [24], Huntley's car was also forensically examined on 16 August. The parents of murdered Soham girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have been visited by police investigating phone-hacking by journalists. "[69][n 8], By the second week of the children's disappearance, Huntley had begun to lose weight and was displaying visible symptoms of insomnia. THE shocking hidden truth about the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is revealed by the News of the World in a sensational taped dossier. On 4th August 2002, 10-year-old school friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were enjoying a . [192], In February 1999, Huntley met 22-year-old Maxine Carr in a Grimsby nightclub. Shortly thereafter, she briefly worked as a junior care assistant at a care home for the elderly in Grimsby, then returned to work alongside her mother as a labourer at Bluecrest fish processing plant. His girlfriend, Maxine Ann Carrthe girls' teaching assistanthad knowingly provided Huntley with a false alibi. Chaired by Sir Michael Bichard, the Bichard inquiry opened on 13 January 2004. He was reportedly awarded 2,500 in legal aid to pursue this claim. [82] As such, she was found not guilty of assisting an offender. Chris Young - PA Images/PA Images/Getty Images, schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were murdered. A new Channel 5 documentary Soham: The Murder of Holly & Jessica dives into what happened immediately after their parents declared them missing, and how they achieved justice when Huntley was sentenced to two life sentences. Following their separation, Huntley had distanced himself from his father for several years. Jessica Wells took birth on 1 September 1991. A taxi driver stated he had seen him "thrashing his arms" as he struggled with two young girls inside his vehicle as he drove on the A142 south of Soham towards Newmarket around the time that the girls were last seen. More than 400 officers worked around the clock to find the girls, along with hundreds of locals who volunteered to help and appealed to . Capp and her older sister, Hayley (born 1967), were largely raised by their mother and grandparents. He would only resume using his father's surname following the 2002 reconciliation of his parents. [105] Investigators had stated on 7 August they strongly believed the children had been abducted,[39] and announced their strong suspicions that both girls had been murdered on this date. For the first five months after Holly died we broke down together, but after that we processed our grief at different speeds. His erratic behaviour and apparent distress led to him being prescribed anti-depressants on 13 August. Today's service is a small milestone in our shared journey of grief and sorrow it is our hope that we may perhaps draw a line under one phase of our grieving and begin to look forward. We had a flood. [59], On 16 August, twelve days after the children's disappearance, Huntley and Carr were first questioned by police. [5][6], At 11:45a.m. on Sunday, 4 August 2002, Jessica Chapman left her home in Brook Street, Soham, to attend a barbecue at the home of her best friend, Holly Wells, in nearby Redhouse Gardens. Holly and Jessica remembered. Within a month, Huntley had begun to regularly sexually assault his wife, also subjecting her to indignities such as locking her in their house and cutting off her hair. Holly Wells, left, and Jessica Chapman were just 10 years old when they were murdered in 2002. Credit: Photo: BRIAN SMITH. Each room of Huntley's home had evidently been recently and meticulously cleaned[101] with what was later described as being a "lemony" cleaning fluid,[102] but the search of the home revealed many items of "major importance" to the investigation. The girls had been playing together at . Holly Marie Wells and her Best Friend Jessica Aimee Chapman went Missing on 4th August 2002 as they were walking along a Street in Soham, England. [80] He was charged with these offences while detained for observation at Rampton Secure Hospital in Nottinghamshire, and all preliminary hearings against him were postponed until the conclusion of his mental health assessment. Sharon worked at St Andrews primary school in Soham. The Bichard Inquiry Report of 2004 was commissioned by the government following the conviction of Ian Huntley for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2003. [222] It is believed Huntley had agreed to make this recording for a fellow prisoner (who had hoped to later sell the confession to the media after his release), in return for being provided with the antidepressants he had used to attempt suicide.