Soham Murders

On Sunday, 4 August 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, best friends both aged 10, had attended a barbecue at the Wells's family home. They went out to buy some sweets. On their way back they walked past the rented house of local school caretaker Ian Huntley. Huntley saw the girls and asked them to come into his house. He said that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, was in the house too who was their primary school assistant, but she had gone to visit her mum. Shortly after the girls entered his house, Huntley murdered them. Maxine Carr later provided a alibi for Ian Huntley.

The girls' bodies were found near RAF Lakenheath, on 17 August 2002. Later their clothing was discovered in the grounds of Soham Village College where Huntley worked and Huntley was arrested. The girls had been missing for 13 days when their bodies were found, Huntley had set them alight to destroy forensic evidence.

Key evidence

The Bin

Forensic experts were called in when a bin was found containing Holly and Jessica's red Manchester United tops and other clothes they were found cut and burned in the bin in an outbuilding of Soham Village College. Police discovered them after finding a set of keys in Ian Huntley's home. He had previously denied having keys to the place were the clothes were found.

The bin was packaged and brought back to the lab. As well as the Manchester United tops there were tracksuit bottoms, underwear and shoes belonging to both girls. Surface debris, including hairs and fibres, was recovered from inside and outside the bin including hairs and fibres. The clothing was screened for the presence of blood, saliva and semen.

After forensic analysis two of Huntley's hairs were found in with the clothes and his fingerprints were on a bin bag which had been placed on top. 49 tiny fibres matching the girls' shirts were found on Huntley's clothes and around his house and also fibres from Huntley's carpet and curtains were also found on the shirts, establishing a two-way link between the clothes and Huntley's home. Replica Manchester united T-shirts were marked out with the cuts found this showed that the t shirts had been cut in a zig-zag line and the expert said that it was most likely cut while the bodies were immobile. Another expert established the accelerant petrol was used to burn the clothes.

Specialist techniques were used such as comparison microscopy, microspectrophometry, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and thin layer chromatography to identify the type of fibres present, their colours and their dye compositions to distinguish between fibres from the Manchester United t-shirts. These techniques allow scientist to differentiate one fibre from another. Taping was done from Ian Huntley’s car, carpets, curtains, bedding, sofa and bathroom mat they were put on an acetate sheet and analysed under a microscope. The fibres collected form Ian Huntley’s home were matched with the Manchester United football shirts and the tracksuit bottoms.


Fibre Analysis
To define the exact composition of the fibres from the football shirts, comparison fibres from shirts provided by Manchester United and other shirts bought from the same outlet where Holly and Jessica bought their shirts as well as shirts from other suppliers were examined. The T-shirts that Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman wore were made up of wool and four types of polyester fibres not identical to the numerous other T-shirts clear differences were seen between the T-shirts that Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and the other T-shirts.
The carpet recovered from Ian Huntley’s house and car was blue which was made up of five different colours. All five colours were identified from the carpet on the Manchester United shirts and from the Manchester United shirts on the carpet. This two-way transfer of 154 fibres showed there was contact between Ian Huntley and Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Forensic Ecology

Patricia Wiltshire a forensic ecologist was called in by police as a forensic expert when the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were found. Patricia Wiltshire the forensic ecologist noticed that although the area around the ditch were the bodies were found had been untouched there where stinging nettles had sprouted new sideshoots and this only occurs when the nettle has been trampled on or damaged from this the point of entry into the ditch was established and from the rate of growth of the sideshoots present Patricia Wiltshire was also able to establish the nettles wee disturbed 13 to 14 days earlier. Patricia Wiltshire also carried out analysis of soil from the suspect Ian Huntley’s car and of items belonging to him. By comparing them to samples taken from the ditch she was able to prove that he had been to the site. 64 different types of pollen, some from rare plants, were taken from the site. Many matched pollen found on Huntley's shoes, the pedals and foot-well of his car and a red petrol can. Huntley also knew the area well. He used to go plane-spotting there; his grandmother lived in Lakenheath and his father used to have a house half a mile from where the bodies were found.

The information gained by forensic ecology is very important and valuable especially in this case as with this evidence a timeline of events can be made and evidence linking the suspect and victims together.

The mobile phone

Soham is served by mobile phone network and there are a few hotspots where mobile phone links up to the mobile phone network. Mobile phone records show that Jessica Chapman’s phone sent a final disengage signal at 1846 BST when it disconnected from the network. This was received from a hotspot where Ian Huntley’s house was further incriminating him.

The car
Huntley had red Ford Fiesta and he thoroughly washed and vacuumed it, the day after he murdered the girls. He ripped out the floor mat of the boot and replaced it with carpet and he threw away a throw that had been covering the back seat. He had a mechanic replace all four of Huntley's tyres, despite them having 4mm-5mm of tread left.

A forensic examination from the underside of the car found traces of chalk, brick dust and concrete. The combination found matched the surface of the track where the girls' bodies were found. Pollen samples also linked the car to the site.

The Outcome

Ian Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment and must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years. Maxine Carr was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for lying to the police to protect Ian Huntley. The evidence found was very good and proved beyond doubt that he had in fact murdered the girls. Although The SIO who headed the Soham inquiry Chris Stevenson said “If we could have used the golden hour more effectively then we could have solved the murders in a shorter time,” but what more could of been done i am a forensic science student studying at university and believe that what was done by the detectives was good what wasnt good the sentence that Maxine Carr was not even close to a punishment for her involvement because if she had not lied Ian Huntley would of been caught earlier. What do you think?