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Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were two 10-year old classmates who had been friends since they were only four years old. Even at four years old, the two girls instantly became best friends, practically joined at the hip, and looked more like sisters than merely best friends.
Photo source: BBC News
On August 4, 2002, Holly and Jessica were hanging out at Holly’s family home in the small town of Soham, England. At approximately 6:15 p.m. that evening, Holly and Jessica decided they wanted to leave Holly’s house and to get some candy from a local vending machine. The girls didn’t tell anyone at the barbecue they were planning on leaving. Or anything about where they were going.
At 8:00 p.m. that same day, Holly’s mother decided to look for the girls around the house, but couldn’t find them anywhere. Holly and Jessica’s parents report both girls missing to the police at 9:55 p.m. that same night.
Photo Source: Murderpedia
Police in England immediately begin an all hands-on desk search for Holly and Jessica. Over 400 officers were assigned full-time to search for the two missing 10-year old’s. Jessica and Holly had taken a photograph together, the night they went missing at the family barbeque. The picture depicted the two girls, both wearing red Manchester United replica football jerseys with black shorts. The photo was used on local news media to get the word out about the missing girls.
Photo source: Cosmopolitan (website)
Police decided to go back to the person who was the last person to see Holly and Jessica alive, Ian Huntley, the caretaker at a local secondary school. Ian told the police that the two girls asked him if his girlfriend, and the girl’s assistant teacher, got the permanent teaching position that she applied for, and Ian told the girls that, unfortunately, she didn’t get the job. After their brief conversation, Holly and Jessica left, according to Ian.
Photo source: iNews (website)
But police were pretty suspicious about Ian Huntley. Something about his story just didn’t sit right with them. During the first week after Holly and Jessica went missing, Ian Huntley, the man police suspected may be involved in their disappearance, began making media appearances.
Ian Huntley involved himself in the search for the girls. He told police and the media that he last saw the girls walking in the direction of a local library, and he was continually contacting police to see what the status of the investigation was.
On August 16th, 12 days after Jessica and Holly were last seen, police interviewed both Ian Huntley and his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, for over 7 hours.
Photo Source: iNews (website)
At approximately 12:30 p.m., on August 17, a man by the name of Keith Pryer discovered the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, lying side-by-side in a five-foot-deep ditch, in a location about 10 miles from where the girls went missing in Soham.
Photo Source: Cosmopolitan (website)
Investigators called in Forensic Botanist Patricia Wiltshire was brought in to work on the case. Patricia Wiltshire found stinging nettles that were growing new side shoots at the spot Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman’s bodies were found. Using this information, Patricia Wiltshire was able to determine, without a doubt, that the nettles had been stepped on exactly 13 days prior, the same day Holly and Jessica were murdered.
Besides the nettles, pollen found in a soil sample further led police to believe that Ian Huntley was responsible for murdering Holly and Jessica. Fiber evidence and the soil found inside of Ian Huntley’s car were an exact match to the soil and fiber evidence found where the girls’ bodies were dumped.
On August 17, police arrested Ian Huntley and his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
The funeral services for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were held on consecutive days in September 2002. On June 16, 2003, Ian Huntly pleaded not guilty to the formal charges accusing him of murdering Holly and Jessica. His girlfriend, Maxine Carr, also pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and assisting an offender.
Police and prosecutors weren’t able to establish a motive for Huntley murdering Holly and Jessica, but the case was solid enough without it. The work of the forensic botanist, in this case, established a solid case. Ian Huntly was convicted of 2 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison, in which he is required to serve a minimum of 40 years. He will be eligible for parole in the year 2042 when he will be 68 years old.
Maxine Carr was sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison for perverting the course of justice in the case.
Episode Sources:
Penguin Random House website
iNews UK website
Cosmopolitan magazine website
BBC news website
Soham murders Wikipedia
Murderpedia
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