True Crime Stories.

An Overview of the Soham Murders:

Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both 10-year-old, went missing on the 4th of August 2002. Their bodies were found near Lakenheath, Suffolk 13 days after on the 17th of August by a local farmer who noticed 'an unusual and unpleasant smell'. They were formally identified on 21 August. The police stated the corpses were ' severely and partially.'

Holly and Jessica attended a barbecue at Wells' residents. At around 6:15pm, they went out to the local shops. On their way back, they walked past the house of Ian Huntley, the caretaker of the local secondary school. Huntley asked the girls into his house. He said that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, their teaching assistant was in the house too. In fact, Carr had gone to visit family. Shortly after the girls entered the house, Huntley murdered them. His reasons for committing the murders may never be known. The police believe that Huntley killed the girls in a jealous rage as Huntley had allegedly suspected Carr of cheating on him.

The two girls were reported missing at 9.45 pm on 4 August by their parents. The police soon released a photograph of Holly and Jessica only taken a few hours before their disappearance, both wearing matching Manchester United football tshirts, along with a matching physical description of them both.

 Over the fortnight of their disappearance Huntley appeared in several television interviews, including on Sky News and the BBC's regional news programme Look East, speaking of the shock in the local community. One reporter suggested to Huntley that he might have been the last person to speak to the girls before they disappeared, to which Huntley replied: 'Yeah, that's what it seems like.' Huntley said their disappearance was 'absolutely.'

On 16 August, twelve days after the girls went missing, Huntley and Carr were first questioned by police and agreed to give witness statements during seven hours of questioning before being released. That night, with the couple under police watch at separate locations outside Soham, police searched their home, as well as the grounds of Soham Village College, and recovered items of "major importance" to their investigation. It was not made public at the time but the items found in the school grounds were clothes matching those the girls were last seen wearing, including their Manchester United shirts. Huntley and his girlfriend Carr were arrested in the early hours of 17 August, on suspicion of murder.

Huntley was charged with two counts of murder on 20 August, and detained under Section 48 of the Mental Health Act at Rampton Secure Hospital, Nottinghamshire, and a judge ruled that he was fit to stand trial. Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment and on 29 September 2005 his minimum term was decided.

Maxine Carr initially provided a false alibi to police for Huntley, claiming to have been with him at the time of the murders when she was in fact in Grimsby. She was charged with on 21 August 2002. On 16 January 2003 she was charged with two counts of assisting an offender and received a 42 months' imprisonment.