Biggest manhunt on for Ipswich killer

LONDON: Another 100 officers were drafted in to the biggest manhunt in UK police history to search out the serial-killer who has taken the lives of five women, all sex workers, in Ipswich in Suffolk in the last three weeks.

The fifth and final body discovered on Tuesday evening was left where it was found for another night so that the police could garner as many clues from the site as possible. The two bodies found on Tuesday have still not been formally identified but are believed to be those of the missing prostitutes Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.

Among the leads that the police are chasing is a ‘chubby man’ in a blue BMW who is a friend of the third victim, Anneli Alderton. Detectives have begun tracing men who regularly used the 40 odd sex workers in Ipswich.

One of the ‘striking similarities’ that leads the police to believe that all five girls have been killed by the same man is the fact that all the bodies were stripped of clothing, but the jewellery was left intact.

Serial killers are frequently known to leave a ‘trademark’ signature – a particular pattern of behaviour in the way they leave their victim, to taunt the police or as a mark of their perverseness.

The investigating officers believe that the killer could be a visitor to the area or working there temporarily. The killer also seems to have a good grasp of forensic science, feel the police – hence the dumping of two of the bodies in water, which can destroy DNA evidence, and stripping them of their clothes.