A BBQ, a walk, and an ominous disappearance | Forensic Files

[Music] on the 4th of August 2002 best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared from the small town of Seoul
in England one of England's biggest Sevigny enhance followed after two weeks the media was critical of police and a
perceived lack of progress on the case [Music] but the police did have a suspect
[Music] [Music] best friends Jessica Chapman and Holly wills both grew up in the small town of
song in the county of Cambridge she England the population of Psalm was around eight and a half thousand people
it is a small charming beautiful town Jessica and Holly met when they were just four years old they struck up an
instant bond they were always playing together and we're described as being more like sisters Jessica was the
youngest of three girls she was well-behaved and a lively child the healthy outdoors taught a bit of a
tomboy she liked to play sports she had a bubbly personality and was very friendly and chatty holly was more of a
feminine type she enjoyed dressing up dancing and playing with maker although she did likes Porter's role she wasn't
as into it as Jessica she was also brought bubbly and very intelligent always smiling and happy both girls were
10 years old and were considered sensible and mature for their age both were only allowed to visit homes of
friends who their parents knew Jessica had a mobile phone and would keep in regular contact with their mother
whenever she was away from the house on Sunday the fourth of August 2002 Jessica
was at Holly's house where Holly's parents were hosting a barbecue for some close friends about 5:00 p.m. the girls
decided to dress up in identical clothing so they both could on read Manchester United jerseys and matching
black shorts Ali's mother Nicola saw them dressed up the same and took a photo of them in their matching outfit
both girls were committed Manchester United fans mainly due to the fact their favourite player David Beckham was in
the side about 5:30 p.m. their girls decided they were bored of the barbecue and went for a walk they left Holly's
yes and walked towards the center of town they stopped in at a shop to buy some lollies then walked down towards
the vacant so on Village College which is a high school kids aged 12 and a police are able to reconstruct this
particular part of the girls walk from CCTV cameras and witnesses they'll both still dressed in their identical
Manchester United outfits so people remembered seeing them when they got to Salem village college they made their
way to their caretakers house where their favorite teacher Maxine Carr lived with her fiance named
Huntley the girls weren't students at her college that was still in primary school at st. Andrews which was next to
the college and st. Andrews is where Maxine Carr age 25 worked she was a teacher's assistant not an actual
teacher but the girls loved her she was popular with all the students Maxine's fiance in Huntley aged 28 was the
caretaker at Salem College so that's why they lived together in the caretakers house the girls got there around 6:30
p.m. in Huntley was at the front washing his dog the girls chatted to Anne and he says
that they asked if Maxine or Miss Carr as they referred to her was around and told them she was up taking a bath as
she wasn't feeling well the girls asked him if Maxine got the permanent teaching
position as any injuries that she had applied for and they were disappointed to learn that she hadn't and she
wouldn't be returning to see any injuries after the summer break the girls told him to say hello to Miss Carr
for them and then he says he saw them skip off happily down the road at 8 p.m. the girls still hadn't arrived
home Nicola tried to call them so they could come home and say goodbye to the guests of the barbecue as it was
finishing up but she didn't get any answer Nicholas started to become concerned she searched every room of the
house been raining outside and looked up and down the street then ran back inside
and social every room of the house again there was no sign of them by 8:45 p.m. Nicola and Holly's father Kevin thought
something was seriously wrong Holly and Jessica knew they had to be home by 8:30
no matter what Nicola called Jessica's mother Sharon and got the bad news the girls weren't there either Sharon became
immediately alarmed she called Jessica's phone but the phone was switched off she
tried again and again many more times but the phone remained off Sharon became panicked she frantically started to call
friends and family members but no one had seen the girls both her and Jessica's father Leslie immediately when
you are searching for them they checked everywhere they could think of in town but there was no sign of them anywhere
after about an hour they made their way to the welders house to see if the girls
gave any possible clues as to where they were going but they gave it none the disappearance was completely out of
character for the two well-behaved girls they'd never done anything like this before
at M p.m. the police were called they got there pretty quickly and started to arrange search teams to try and
following the girls police checked in with all their other friends not only the safe they were there but also to
safe their friends could think of some where they would go that their parents wouldn't be aware of but they got no
information to help you quickly spread around the small town and a lot of the other team members came
out to help in the search they made their way to the grounds of the song village college to see if they will may
be hiding in the school grounds there somewhere the caretaker aim Huntly immediately offered his help to assist
with the search and unlock the college when he learned what was going on he realized the missing girls were Holly
and Jessica who had spoken to only hours before he immediately told the police they'd walk voice yes at this point in
time he was the last known person to seek the girls alive the search went all throughout the night
and went all over town but there was no trace of Jessica or Holly the next day in the 5th of August the huge police
operation started to get into full swing it was called Operation Fincham which is
a random operation named generated by computer and has nothing to do with the actual case there were great fears for
the girls giving it was completely out of their character to simply wander off there weren't too many people around
town who felt the girls had gone missing of their own volition the area of Psalm
was relatively flat terrain however there were a lot of ditches streams and rivers that had to be searched police
divers were called in but there was a lot of water to be covered and underwater searching was slow work at
the best of times some also had extensive parkland areas and given it was summer a lot of the
areas where overgrown and contained long grass so the search wasn't straightforward over 500 townspeople
volunteered to help search they were tasked by police and new sticks to poke into the various ditches highly holes
and long grass areas to make sure they didn't miss anything some searched as long as 16 hours a day
many held under the firm belief that Jessica and Holly would be found alive in the meantime Solon became a ghost
town parents were too frightened to allow their kids out of the house police say Jessica and Holly were just on an
adventure gone wrong and they were okay maybe too scared to come home they even organized a message from the girls hero
David Beckham encouraging them to return home than that they weren't in any trouble and appealing for anyone with
information to come forward by Wednesday police had searched the entire area of Seoul and the surrounding areas they had
received 2,500 phone calls made 400 daughter dog interviews and it stops 700 cars in their effort to find the girls
over 700 police officers were involved the search included the use of a helicopter with thermal imaging
equipment and the use of a plane from the nearby Air Force Base but they had found nothing four days into the search
police held a press conference and gave what little info they knew it was here that they mentioned the girls were last
seen by some college caretaker and country as the girls look walked past his house naturally the media were
pretty keen to hear what he had to say the guilt but I don't know the girls I'll stood on the front doorstep
grooming my dog down she'd run away and come back a bit of a mess and that just came across an ask Thomas car was as she
used to teach them the st. Andrews my just said she weren't very good a shared and got the job and they're just as
please tell her that were very sorry and off the waltz in the direction of the the library over there boy now police in
the media had based themselves in the grounds of Solan College and held daily meetings and press conferences there
ain't only a Maxine Carr had both been a big help as the caretaker the Kali Jane
helps set up the chairs for press conferences and was on hand in case anything was needed he also helped
coordinate further searches throughout the school grounds and once the media went the reason Jessica and Holly had
gone by the college was to see Maxine car they were eager to talk to her as well this is something like why to keep
for the rest of my life I think it's what Holly gave me on the last day of term she was very very upset but I
didn't get my job and that's kind of girl she was she was just lovely on Saturday the 10th of August police
organized the reconstruction of Holly and Jessica's on a walk two young actresses were dressed up in Manchester
United jerseys and black shorts and retraced the girls steps in the hopes that might spark something in somebody's
memory the next day some sections of the media started to criticize the police and their lack of progress on the case
despite their mammoth effort unfortunately as with a lot of cases of this magnitude a lot of the calls
received from the public were false leads and dead ends including a lot of false sightings of the girls this
actually led the police making a public appeal for young children not to wear red Manchester United shirts in public
fearing it would create many more false sightings a profile was made up of the abductor but it was pretty broad he was
thought to be a local man probably with previous sex offenses aged between 25 and 40 there were around 700 men with
prior sex offenses the living within a reasonable distance of Salim but the police and Holly and Jessica's parents
made direct appeals to the abductor through the media to return the girls home this included an appeal by police
urging the abductor they're getting touched by midnight and that instructions have been left on Jessica's
phone vile way of text message this was an attempt to try and get the abductor to turn on Jessica's phone which was
still off so they could get a signal on it and try and trace the location but it
didn't work the phone remained off despite the perceived lack of progress from the eyes of the media the police
had a suspect and they'd been working hard on him behind the scenes the police say that the answer is here and so on
do you agree with that that line of enquiry as they say yeah absolutely I mean for two girls to go missing
basically for my front doorstep and you know somebody would have seen or heard something if somebody had tried to get
those girls into a car if it just means somebody passing through and it's very strange boy you know in huntly had been
identified as a suspect and police had pored over every word both he and Maxine Carr had
added to the media and there was a lot to pour through both were very willing to speak to the media throughout the
investigation the media regularly attended their house looking for interviews being the last person to see
the girls and being the reason the girls were there was a big deal the police turned up at their house regularly
presenting for what they made look like friendly chats but each time they would go over his story again and again in the
hope he would slip up and it wasn't missed by anybody just how sparkling cleaned the inside of their house was
but all I had was suspicion neither had a criminal record there was no physical evidence as the days went on analysts
were able to narrow down to a much more precise location where Jessica's phone was switched off and they were able to
determine it was switched off somewhere very close to Ian and Maxine's results this led police to scrutinize them more
closely and they dug up that in 1998 only a few years prior Ian had been charged with the rape of an
18 year old girl but the charge had later been dropped that's why it wasn't showing up on a criminal record
also calls had started to come in Maxine had given a version that she was home then like the girls disappeared
having a bath upstairs that she wasn't feeling well so she didn't see them but there were several witnesses from the
Grimsby area that said otherwise they contacted police to say Maxine was in Grimsby visiting her mother than either
girls disappeared she was spotted by many people out on the town she was drunk there was no way she was having a bath
at home when the girls came around to visit on the 15th of August police organized the town meeting designed to
rattle Huntley the meeting was held at the College Hall so Huntley helps set it up police made it clear that the key to
the case lay within the salm community they asked the question was anyone doing anything differently they encouraged
people to look suspiciously at their neighbors and to ask them Souls how well did they really know certain people the
next day the police made their move they knocked on Huntley's door and asked both
he and Maxine if they'd like to go down to the station to answer some questions they both went willingly not under
arrest at this stage they were taken to two separate police stations to be interviewed but no cracks emerged they
stuck solid to their stories police told Maxine they had witnesses placing her in
groups be on the evening of the 4th but she didn't crack at 9:30 p.m. they were reunited in a nearby Holiday Inn room
police arranged them to meet there they still weren't under arrest police had bugged the room in the hopes they went
to sleep up in the meantime other police searched Dean and Maxine's home they also searched the college again and
found a shed within the grounds that hadn't yet been searched as a entire police he didn't have a key for it the
shed contained the burnt clothing of Jessica and Holly the clothing wasn't totally destroyed so you could make you
at the Manchester United jerseys police beyond the key to the shed in Ian's house had lied about not having one the
clothes were found in a plastic bag Ian's fingerprints were found on the bag it was all but over
both Maxine and M were arrested soon after in the early hours of the 70s police were pretty certain Jessica and
Hollywood dead and later that day their worst fears were confirmed when the girls bodies were found in a ditch next
to the Air Force Base at Lakenheath they are 70 miles away from Seoul the girls bodies with disfigured blackened and
burned Maxine and a.m. was subjected to extensive questioning and police had to apply for warrants to hold them without
charge although they had a lot of circumstantial evidence they still wanted to crack their stories they were
eventually able to wear Maxine din a little and get her to admit she wasn't on the night the girls disappeared and
she was in Grimsby visiting her mother this destroyed Ian's alibi car says she lied to protect the hen when she found
out he was the last known person they say the girl's alive she knew he would be a suspect
especially when police found out he'd been charged with the rape if he years earlier she said she gave the alibi not
because he was guilty but to avoid him being suspected unfairly as far as she was concerned aim was not responsible
for the girl's deaths but her actions suggested otherwise if you remember back to that earlier media clip she referred
to the girls in the past tense as she did in several other media interviews when at that stage no one knew if the
girls were still alive or not she also helped they inscribe the house clean repeatedly when she returned from
Grimsby so who were in Huntley in Maxine car Ian was bullied at school described
as a class loner he couldn't make friends and not even the teachers really liked him
he made one suicide attempt in high school he left school at 16 and went from one low-paying job to another he
moved around a lot to different addresses and whenever he arrived at a new address he always lied and talked
him so far he was always making himself out to be better than he actually was and once people started to catch on to
his laws he would move on to the next address ex-girlfriends reported that he was a control freak and locked to
dominate and abuse them after his arrest many women came forward to detail their
horrific experiences with him there were several claims of rape many claims of underage sex and claims of sexual
harassment there were even claims that he kept girls locked in his flat when they refused to have sex with him many
were too frightened to report him as he threatened them but some did and he was investigated for
rape on four occasions and investigated for sleeping with underage girls on three occasions
none of the allegations stuck there was never enough evidence to charge him so he never got a criminal record out of it
but there was a clear pattern being established of a serial sex offender the system failed by not catching on to it
Ian got married just before he turned 21 and subjected his first wife Claire to horrendous domestic abuse he would erupt
into fits of rages for no apparent reason and beat her up leaving her battered and
bruised Claire didn't hang around and left a few weeks later and she ended up marrying Ian's brother Wayne needless to
say a.m. wasn't impressed it actually caused him to have a breakdown and suffer depression Claire said he wasn't
upset about losing her but he was upset about losing control of her that's the type of person he was
Hundley soon went back to his old ways of seducing young schoolgirls and he did eventually get charged with rape he
allegedly followed a drunk eighteen-year-old girl out of a nightclub one night after she'd refused
his advances he raped her and he was arrested and charged a few days later but after a week of being held in
custody police elected to drop the charges they believe there was insufficient evidence
leaving the victim furious and leaving and still without a criminal record there was a patent near horrible
violence against women that he kept getting away with no wonder his behavior continued to escalate he met Maxine Carr
in a pub in 1998 and started chatting her up and there was an instant attraction the relationship progressed
quickly and they were soon living together and it wasn't long before the mental and physical abuse started but
unlike previous partners Maxine adored the ground and walked on and saw his violent controlling behavior as a sign
of his affection and devotion towards her in textbook domestic violence fashion a.m. would assault Maxine and then
professes love say you was sorry and he would never do it again only for the vicious cycle to start again and it
didn't take long before he started cheating on Maxine with a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl Maxine found
out an attempted suicide she didn't succeed but Ian became more attracted to her
thinking she was willing to die for him little did he know Maxine was also cheating on him they decided their
relationship needed a fresh start they got engaged and moved between several other towns before settling in so on and
secured a job as the caretaker at the village college in September 2001 the school was found to around 1,300
students ie Maxine moved into the caretakers house a police check was conducted but as he had never been
convicted of anything no criminal history came up in February 2002 Maxine landed a job as a teaching assistant at
st. Andrew's primary school she was an instant success with the kids they loved her but she didn't get on as well with
the teachers despite his ball in history and feeling well with his new job other
staff didn't have any doubts about his suitability at all he developed a good relationship with
many of the students mainly the females he tended to pick on the male students all in all
Ian and Maxine settled into the town quite well they didn't make any close friends as they hadn't no laws but they
got on chatting terms with their neighbors parents of children and local shopkeepers the attack on Jessica and
Holly wasn't planned Pam was a pedophile and his thought he couldn't resist the opportunity that
presented itself when the girls turned up to his house Maxine was away for the weekend in
Grimsby and he had just had a heated argument with their on the phone he was worried she was cheating on him and
that's when Holly and Jessica showed up [Music] the only person who will ever know the
exact story is a Ian but it's thought that when you saw the girls he would have put on his charms and lured them
inside on the pretense that Maxine was home and she would be happy to see them it's thought that were killed soon after
the door shut behind them although the crime was a plan to once Huntley realized the seriousness of what
he had done he became very well planned and organized he wasn't sorry but he was
terrified of being caught he thoroughly cleaned the house top to bottom being shorter movie up furniture so nothing
was missed when thinking of where to dispose of the bodies he knew he couldn't put them anywhere and so on he
also knew he couldn't travel any great distance he knew about the year basing like and he only 70 miles away as you
went plane spotting there and that's where he decided would be a good spot plus his grandmother lived in that
direction so if he was spotted out that way there was a reason for him to be there
he put the girls in his car and covered their bodies and made his way to Lakenheath when he got there he'd take
plastic bags to his feet careful not to leave footprints he cut off their clothing as he knew the
clothing would be means to easily identify the bodies and he didn't want that to happen
he put the bodies in a ditch and then left with their clothing when you're on time you put the clothes into a plastic
bag and made his way to the shed on the college grounds he put the clothes in a bin and then set them on fire but the
shed seemed filled up with thick smoke so he put it out the clothes were burnt but they was still largely intact he
didn't like them again scared somebody would see the smoke he locked the shed up leaving the clothes inside deciding
to deal with them later but he never got a chance due to the constant heavy police
presence on the college grounds it became the makeshift base for the police and media
he throw out Jessica's mobile phone it was never found after scrubbing himself clean he was
able to make his way outside and pretend he had no idea what was going on and he started to help with the search
he knew admitting that he had spoken with the girls would cast suspicion on him but he couldn't take the risk of
lying that he hadn't seen them there was a public place somebody could easily have spotted him chatting to them if he
got caught lying it would have been all over the next day he got to work cleaning their car he got the tires
changed and removed the carpet from the car boot he called Maxine and begged her to come
home early from her trip saying he needed her to lie for him as the girls had come by the house and he
would be the prime suspect if she didn't give him an alibi he then started asking
questions of police officers about DNA evidence in how long it lasted which put him straight under suspicion he became
paranoid when he learned the DNA evidence could last a very long time so he went back to Lakenheath and set Holly
and Jessica on fire he then embraced his role as searcher he played a keen part in the search and was
often seen as being the unofficial leader of a lot of the search parties that were organized and Maxine was only
too happy to help lying for him and giving him his alibi the families the community the entire country
even parts of the world were stricken with grief er the news Holly and Jessica had been found dead that grave sin
turned to anger police had to keep the location of Ian and Maxine secret as vigilante attacks were a legitimate fear
at Maxine's first court appearance a prison fan was pelted with objects there was a large crowd yelling abuse and
threats and I'll banging on the side of the van as I went past and whilst Maxine
was at her first court appearance amy was in a mental health ward pretending to be crazy his every move was watched
and recorded for 50 days in the hospital extensive notes were kept and doctors concluded his mental illness was all
ashamed Ian was putting on an act and she'll be treated like every other suspect they recommended he be sent back
to normal custody he was taken to prison and was met by a huge amount of abuse and threats from the other inmates he
was placed in a specially made isolated cell where he was kept under close watch
but he still managed a near successful suicide attempt he had to have an urgent stomach pump but he survived Maxine was
also segregated from other prisoners she tried to starve us off and at one point
she had to be forced fed through a tube to stay alive by the time the trial came
around more forensic evidence had come to life police had found fibers from the Manchester United jerseys in Langley's
home they found evidence in his car plus lady's prints on the bag the girls jerseys were finding
Maxine and Anne were tried together in the same courtroom faced with their overwhelming physical evidence
Anne was forced to come up with a story he admitted the girls were in his house he said Hollies nose started to bleed so
they walked upstairs to the bath which was full of water as he had been washing their dogs Polly sat on the side on the
tub and he accidentally bumped into her causing her to fall and hit her head Jessica started screaming you pushed her
so he rushed over to try and quieten her down by grabbing her around the mouth accidentally killing her in the process
he then turned around to find Holly had drowned by accident Huntley took the stand to give this ridiculous account
and the many gaping holes in his story were easily exposed Ian also testified Maxine didn't know that he was
responsible for the girl's death and when Maxine testified the next day she said Owens testimony was the first time
he said he was responsible for their death until that point she believed he was innocent
but many remain unconvinced her explanation for doing several extremely detailed house claims was that she was a
clean freak and I'm not sure what the reason was that she gave for repeatedly referring to the girls in the past tense
she said a.m. begged her to lie for him and provide an alibi as police would think it was him even though he didn't
do it she said she knew it wasn't right morally but she thought it was right for
Anne as she didn't want him to be accused of something he hadn't done there was evidence Ian had been
frantically trying to clean the house when Maxine arrived home from Grimsby but she said she believed this was done
to try and cover up the fact that he had been cheating on her she made her Sophia to be a victim of a
mazwell an unwilling pawn you can forget the very dramatic scenes in courtroom number one as Maxine Carr giving her
evidence from the witness box broke down as she was questioned and said pointing
is he in Huntley across the courtroom I will not be blamed for what that thing in that box has done to me all those
children in huntly was found guilty of murder he was given a life sentence for each can
and was given a minimum term of 40 years meaning he would be eligible for a lease
in 2042 at 68 years of age interestingly the jury wasn't unanimous it wasn't 11 the one can't maxeen car
was found guilty of providing a false alibi but not guilty of helping conceal the murder the jury was satisfied she
didn't know Anne had killed Jessica and Holly Maxine was sentenced to three and a half years jail but she only served
one year in nine months when release from prison Maxine was given a new identity her appearance was changed with
the help of experts and she was placed in a secret location to live her lawyers successfully got a high
court injunction banning the press from revealing the new identity or the location she lived it basically forbade
journals from even trying to find out this information let alone publish it she was even given police guards to
protect against revenge attacks and of course all this was done at the expense of the taxpayer
[Music] you [Music]

Case 08: Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman

On the 4th of August 2002, best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared from the small town of Sohom in England.

One of England’s biggest ever manhunts followed. The media became critical of the lack of progress police were making on the case….but they did have a suspect...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Anonymous Host Production, scoring – Mike Migas

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://www.casefilepodcast.com/case-08-holly-wells-and-jessica-chapman

Brief Summary

The episode recounts the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the investigation, and the eventual trial of Ian Huntley.

Key points

The Disappearance of Jessica and Holly. On August 4, 2002, best friends Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells vanished from their small town, sparking a massive search effort.
Community Search Efforts. Over 500 townspeople volunteered to assist in the search for the missing girls, showcasing the community's determination.
Police Investigation Intensifies. As the search continued, police identified a suspect and began scrutinizing him closely.
Maxine's Alibi Under Scrutiny. Maxine Carr's alibi began to unravel as witnesses placed her elsewhere when the girls disappeared.
Ian Huntley's Conviction. Ian Huntley was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Maxine Carr's Sentencing. Maxine Carr was found guilty of providing a false alibi but not guilty of murder concealment.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

They were always playing together and were described as being more like sisters.

Describing the bond between Jessica and Holly.

1:14WatchNov 19, 2018

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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