Cold Blooded Evil. Neil Root
For Tania’s father, Jim Duell, religion was a huge comfort. A born-again Christian, Mr Duell found solace in faith. In an interview with BBC Suffolk, he said: ‘When she went missing I had to go down to Wiltshire. As I drove down there they had the posters going up – that she’d gone missing – and that really sunk in what had happened. The reality of it hit me.’
Mr Duell then went on to describe a religious vision he had had regarding his daughter: ‘That night, about five in the morning, I got up and I actually was praying. What I got from that was God saying to me, “I’m going to give you a foundation to walk on”.’
Mr Duell would go on to have a vision which gave him hope that Tania was at peace, despite hinting that she was dead: ‘I had a vision of a really thick piece of rope being broken, and I could see the frayed ends of this rope. All I could see behind that was gold. And I had the same vision the next night.’
Jim Duell interpreted this vision as ‘Tania’s lifeline being snapped’, which of course meant the end of her life. When he went to church the following Sunday he told everyone about the vision he had had and the meaning he took from it, but then he had a further personal revelation: ‘When I sat down, I thought “Just a minute, it means something else”. It means that all the sin, all the horribleness [sic] that she got herself involved in, the Lord removed all that away from her and took her into his heart. That was a huge relief to me. I was worried about her soul.’
This vision gave Mr Duell great strength in the upcoming weeks, strength that would be greatly needed.
FRIDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2006
COPDOCK MILL, SUFFOLK
11.30am
The village of Copdock Mill is just south of Hintlesham, where Gemma Adams was found. The two villages are connected by Belstead Brook, and this waterway runs all the way east to the River Orwell, around 7 (11.3km) away to the south of Ipswich itself. The police were using divers to search Belstead Brook in the hope of finding some of Gemma’s clothing. They were also still looking for Tania Nicol at this time, but did not expect to find her there.
Yet at 11.30am on 8 December they did just that. Close to the business premises of HG Gladwell & Sons, about 1.5 miles (2.4km) downstream from where Gemma had been discovered six days earlier, they found the naked body of Tania Nicol. She was lying in what amounted to little more than a pond. She was formally identified the following day.
The way in which both Gemma and Tania had been left, both naked, and in such close proximity to each other, pointed to the possibility of a serial offender or offenders at work and though the police kept this to themselves, immediate appeals were made for information. Detective Chief Inspector John Quinton said that the two bodies may have been dumped together, but then added: ‘The brook is fast flowing and the most recent body could have been carried from elsewhere.’
Detective Superintendent Andy Henwood said: ‘Enquiries are continuing to try to ascertain where and when Tania’s and Gemma’s bodies were placed in the water and the circumstances of their deaths.’
Again the area was thoroughly searched and the forensic team went to work. The scenes-of-crime officers looked for any microscopic samples of blood, semen, hair and fibres left by the killer. Any such evidence could help to build a DNA profile. In addition, any shoe or tyre prints as well as fingerprints could have been crucial evidence.
The post-mortem on Tania again failed to pinpoint a definite cause of death, and there were no obvious injuries to her body. Nevertheless the forensic team hoped that the toxicology reports would provide some answers.
One factor that the police were very aware of was that the bodies being found in water would affect their chances of getting a solid DNA profile. The water could have destroyed any crucial evidence. The killer might have chosen Belstead Brook as a dumping ground for this very reason. Or perhaps it was just luck. Also, the length of time between the disappearances of the girls and the discovery of their bodies (six weeks in Tania’s case) meant that essential evidence could have been lost or contaminated.
With another stretch of earthy Suffolk countryside sealed off, the local and national reaction began to build. As Sarah Barber, a Copdock sub-postmistress, said: ‘It’s shocking. A lot of children play in the area.’
Though not as shocking as it was for those who knew and loved Tania Nicol.
Tania Nicol came from a far less financially privileged background than Gemma Adams. She grew up on a housing estate on the outskirts of Ipswich, and despite her parents splitting up, she was well loved and had a stable home life. On the night that she disappeared, Monday 30 October, she had left the home on the housing estate she shared with her mother Kerry and fifteen-year-old brother Aaron. Friends were to describe the family as inseparable.
At the age of nineteen, Tania was still little more than a girl when she died. Memories of her held by the people who knew and loved her are touching and reveal a young woman who was excited by music, fashion and hairdressing, a girl with normal interests whose young energy and sense of fun made an impression on all those around her.
Her mother Kerry told the Sun newspaper: ‘We were always together when Tania was growing up. She was a real “girlie” girl, not a tomboy at all. She loved playing in the sand, and we’d take trips to the beach at Felixstowe.’
Almost ten years of age when the all-female pop group the Spice Girls were launched on to the cultural scene in 1996, the young Tania idolised the five singers and dancers who represented ‘girl power’. Like millions of other little girls, Tania was inspired and electrified by their potent energy. One can imagine her singing into her hairbrush in front of the mirror, impersonating her role models, giving her the confidence to express her own identity, which of course was still forming.
While attending Chantry High School in Ipswich, Tania had heartfelt dreams of becoming a pop star like her idols. Her friend since childhood, Susie Coburn, remembered her: ‘A bunch of us used to hang out together, going to each other’s houses and staying over. Tania loved music and when the Spice Girls came out she just loved everything they did. She was obsessed by them and wore Spice Girls earrings. She was always very funny.’
Like many girls, Tania loved to dress up, have her face painted and try out new hairstyles. She began to show a real interest in becoming a hairdresser, a job that needs impeccable social skills as well as technical ability, and Tania definitely possessed the former. She was constantly trying out new hairstyles on her friends. She was a popular student at school, with a very caring personality evidenced by her love of cats.
Tania’s bright and sunny personality seemed set to serve her well in facing life’s ups and downs and her economically tough start had made her a resilient yet sensitive young woman. However, teenage years are times of great change for any child as the adult personality begins to emerge, and in her late teens Tania began to be rebellious.
It started by Tania’s staying out late and sometimes lying to her mother about where she was going and where she had been. After school, a series of poorly paid jobs followed, including one at an Ipswich hotel. The dreams of pop stardom were giving way to the realities of life.
It cannot be said for certain at what age Tania drifted into drug use and prostitution, but it was certainly around this time. It is known that she worked at several massage parlours in Ipswich. The owner of one of the parlours, a woman called Sandra, told the Ipswich Evening Star that Tania had worked for her. Sandra said that Tania’s mother Kerry had previously worked there as a cleaner, but not at the same time that her daughter was offering other services there. Sandra said that in the end she had to ask Tania to leave as she suspected that she was using drugs: ‘She was a placid and quiet girl and took the news that she had to leave very well.’
Holly, a former schoolfriend of Tania, who was working at another massage parlour when she spoke to the same newspaper, was very surprised to find out in April 2006 that Tania was working on the streets. This is of course far more dangerous and less hygienic than working in a parlour. But then perhaps