Cold Blooded Evil. Neil Root
did confuse the inquiry a little. Nevertheless the fact that they were found naked did point to a sexual motive of some sort. Any other linked attacks documented by other police forces also had to be looked into, in case of any connections with the current cases.
The fact that the murders of Tania and Gemma had occurred so quickly in succession (it appeared that Tania was probably killed first, but found second) was also unusual. Most serial killers leave a long space of time between their first and second murders. This is often largely due to them coming to terms with what they have done and trying to control themselves to stop it happening again. The ones who cannot suppress the murderous urge become serial offenders. But the gap between the virgin kill and the second murder is often many months or years. With the Ipswich murders, it was weeks, with a definite ‘spree’ element, which only heightened police concerns.
This consequently led to informed speculation that these were not the first and second murders committed by the killer. Therefore, earlier unsolved cases were looked into, especially those within a geographical radius or catchment area of Ipswich. Several such unsolved cases were reinvestigated, stretching back as far as 1992.
In 2002, the body of twenty-two-year-old Michelle Bettles was found in Dereham after she vanished from Norwich’s red light district. She had been strangled. In 2000, Kellie Pratt, twenty-nine, disappeared from the same area. She was never found. A year earlier in 1999, seventeen-year-old Vicky Hall, a student, vanished on her way home in Trimley St Mary near Ipswich. Her body was discovered in Stowmarket in Suffolk. A man accused of her murder was acquitted in 2001. In 1993, the body of Mandy Duncan, twenty-six, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, was never found. She had disappeared from the Ipswich red light district. Finally, there was sixteen-year-old Natalie Pearman, whose body was found at a beauty spot outside Norwich in 1992. She had been strangled and had last been seen in the Norwich red light area.
The police stated that they had not managed to find any conclusive evidence to link these earlier crimes with the Ipswich murders yet. However, there are some obvious similarities. The city of Norwich is 43 miles (69km) north of Ipswich and the connection between the two places would later have some significance as the Ipswich nightmare progressed. Had the Ipswich killer struck before? If so, how many times, when and where?
Geographical clues can also provide many leads in profiling such a killer or killers. The world renowned criminal psychologist and profiler Professor David Canter says in his book Mapping Murder: ‘Criminals reveal who they are and where they live not just from how they commit their crimes but also from the locations they choose.’
As both Gemma and Tania were left close to the A14 and A12 roads, this probably had some significance. For this reason, the police were also looking at possible suspects in the towns of Colchester and Felixstowe, which lie at opposite ends of the A14. On the other hand, it could just as well have been a person or persons local to Ipswich who knew the area very well. The bodies were only dumped in Belstead Brook: the actual murders and possibly storage took place somewhere else.
It has to be remembered that much of the police work in such a large investigation is still old-fashioned detective work, and often a sheer grind. In any murder inquiry, the police will primarily look at the victims and the people who surrounded them in life, from family and friends to slight acquaintances. It is a sad fact that the majority of murder victims are killed by people they know. In a serial case, the police have to establish any ‘commonalities’ between the victims also; in other words, all of the links between them. Any common ties between Gemma and Tania, whether it be friends, clients or a drug dealer, were an essential starting point.
The same amount of thorough detective work, appeals and interviews had to be carried out with regard to witnesses. As shown, door-to-door interviews and requests for information, as well as television and other media appeals, are important in such a case. Fellow prostitutes and clients who came forward or were traced were all interviewed. The police needed as coherent and detailed a picture as possible of the two women: their lives, contacts and last movements. This was painstaking work but absolutely crucial, as a tiny fact can lead to an arrest.
In overall command of the Ipswich murders inquiry was the Chief Constable of Suffolk, Alistair McWhirter, now retired from the force. Deputy Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer dealt with operational aspects. But the officer in charge of the inquiry on the ground was Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, a very experienced police officer. He can have had little doubt about the nature of the daunting task he faced, especially as local fears and media interest increased. The spotlight was focusing on Ipswich.
The fact that Tania Nicol had been missing for five weeks had made little impact on the local community despite police appeals throughout November. But the discovery of the body of Gemma Adams on 2 December had increased local concerns about Tania, and the subsequent finding of her body on 8 December changed local perceptions a great deal. In the space of six days, two local women had been found dead, in similar circumstances and in close proximity to each other.
As the Christmas advent calendar windows began to be opened daily and the festive holiday dominated minds, this sudden and unusual darkness began to descend on Ipswich, and a town that was usually only mentioned on a national level in relation to the football scores was thrust into the limelight. No place wants to be famous for the murders that occur there. Infamy of that kind is never welcomed. In a large city, such a case would have made an impact, but perhaps the size of the place and the impersonal hustle and bustle of city life could have absorbed the shock better. There was to be no escape for the people of Ipswich – this fear would seep into the skin of every local person over the next two weeks.
The local media, both television and newspaper, had been following developments since Gemma was discovered on 2 December. But the national media had shown only passing interest until Tania was found on 8 December. Any scent of a serial killer on the loose had woken up the national press and television news networks. Since the highly publicised hunt for the Yorkshire ripper in the late 1970s and early 1980s, serial murder cases have been avidly followed by the British media. The element of suspense and the looming of a dark shadow over ordinary society obviously appeal to both viewers and readers.
The Hollywood film of the early 1990s, ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, about a fictional serial killer, helped to cement the concept of the serial murderer in the public consciousness, and since then many other films about real and imaginary serial killers have appeared. In terms of the British media, cases such as the Soham murders, the Fred and Rosemary West murders and the frighteningly prolific killing spree of ‘Dr Death’, Harold Shipman, all attracted huge media interest. And it was now becoming clear that the Ipswich murders would be no different.
The first sign came on the day after Tania’s body was found, when the Sun, Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, put the story on the front page. The headline was ‘New Vice Girl Victim of Ripper’. Continuing inside the paper the story was headed with ‘Prostitutes in Ipswich Fear a Ripper-Style Killer is on the Prowl’. Included in this report on 9 December was an interview with an Ipswich prostitute who did not want to be named. She was quoted as saying: ‘We’re all afraid there’s a maniac on the loose. People feared the worst when Gemma and Tania went missing. Now another body’s been found, that fear has turned to panic.’
At this stage there were still prostitutes working on the streets of the Ipswich red light district, but the tension and fear were obviously growing amongst them. Two of their number going missing was one thing – and frightening enough. But the discovery of the bodies of the two women was something else and it confirmed that the killer was targeting prostitutes.
It could be said that the high profile beginning to be given to the murders by the media was feeding this fear, but on the other hand the public have a right to be kept informed if there is a dangerous killer or killers at large. The target group of prostitutes was of course under the biggest threat, but there was no reason to think that the killer would not choose a non-prostitute victim at some point, just as the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe had done. As a local resident told this author: ‘The worry was that the guy doing this was going to move sideways, from prostitutes – not, I hasten to add that that makes any difference. But if he’s moved away from that focused target to women in general,