The Soham Murders- Part 1

In August of 2002, two 10 year olds, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, went to a nearby store for some candy after a family barbecue. Later that day, Holly’s parent’s discovered that they were missing, and they called the police. Days and days of searching, lead to the grisly discovery of two burnt remains, identified as the young girls. Who did this, and where are they now???

An Overview

On August 4th, 2002, in Soham in Cambridgeshire, 10 year olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were at a barbecue with Holly’s family. The girls decided to take a walk to a nearby store to buy some candy but didn’t tell Holly’s parents. Around 8:30pm, Holly’s parents went upstairs to check on the girls, but they weren’t in the house. Holly’s parents immediately called the police.

Holly and Jessica were sweet and well-behaved girls who loved their families. They would have never run off. By the next morning a full-fledged search party was assembled with police from 3 forces as well as hundreds of people from the community. Soham at this time was a small village where everyone knew everyone else, so the community came out in support of the Wells and Chapman families.

People searched for days and never gave up hope that the girls would be found alive. Were they lost in the nearby countryside? Or, worst case scenario (at this time), had they been abducted and were being held? No one was assuming they were dead.

On August 17th, 2002, the burnt remains of 2 young girls were found near Lakenheath Airbase about 10 miles from the last place the girls had been seen; which was near the home of their classroom assistant teacher, Maxine Carr. This is known as their last location because the media, in their search to find the girls and answers, had interviewed the caretaker for Soham Village College who was also the boyfriend of the girls’ teacher assistant. 28-year-old, Ian Huntley. Huntley and Carr had only moved to Soham in 2001 as a way to outrun Ian’s past.

Ian Huntley And Maxine Carr

Ian Huntley was born on January 31st, 1974 in Grimsby in Lincolnshire. He had a terrible time in school and was bullied frequently. Dr. Elizabeth Yardley from the Britain’s Most Evils Killers episode said that Ian was the odd man out and he had a lot of shame about this bullying and isolation.

In December of 1984, Huntley met 18-year-old Claire Evans and they proceeded to have a Disney-Princess-length courtship where they got married within weeks of knowing each other. Unfortunately, this was not a Disney Princess type marriage because it quickly became obvious to Claire that Huntley was a nightmare. He got angry very easily, and she told others that she feared for her life. Dr. Yardley said that Ian Huntley was incapable of maintaining a relationship which is why he moved so quickly. He “wine, dine, 69’s” them and locks them in so he can stay in control.

So, Claire began an affair with Huntley’s little brother, Wayne, that wasn’t exactly a secret and attempted to divorce Ian. Huntley being the upstanding guy he is, refused to grant the divorce in order to keep Claire and Wayne from being able to make their relationship official. Despite refusing to grant the divorce to Claire, 24-year-old Huntley fathered a daughter with a 15-year-old girl in 1998. Also in 1998, Huntley was charged with burglary and rape of an 18-year-old girl, but both cases had to be dropped due to lack of evidence.

In 1999, Huntley finally granted Claire the divorce she wanted, and he continued to creep on underage girls. They were easy targets who were naive and easily snared. He became known in Lincolnshire for his pediphilic, criminal ways, but Geoffery Wansell, an author and journalist called him, “an insignificant little man, who on the surface wouldn’t say, ‘boo’ to a goose.” Wansell said that Ian had no conscience and just did whatever he wanted to do.

In February of 1999, Huntley met 22-year-old, Maxine Carr. In true Ian Huntley style, they dated for 4 weeks and then moved in together. Huntley is a narcissist and Maxine was young and easily persuaded. She found him “interesting” (according to Wansell), and she didn’t seem to catch on to or acknowledge his violent ways and the history he had with his ex-wife. Dr. Yardley said that Ian Huntley had a “well rehearsed script,” and he “says what women want to hear.” So, poor Maxine Carr was an easy target as well.

In February 2001, in an attempt to get away from the accusations Huntley kept bringing into their lives, Maxine and Huntley packed up and moved to Scunthorpe. In the Britain’s Most Evil documentary, Maxine and Huntley’s neighbor Morisa Gibb spoke about interactions she’d had with the couple. She said they were lovely, and that Maxine was bubbly and wanted kids and to work at a nursery.

Morisa shared that one day after she got home, she saw police at the neighbors’ house. The next day she asked Maxine about it. Maxine was very honest and said that Huntley had been accused of rape in Grimsby, but the dates the police were asking about were dates when they were already in Scunthorpe. Maxine also shared that Huntley was always being accused of these types of things in Grimsby.

Morisa also told the story of a time she went over to their house for coffee with Maxine. Huntley was away at work and the two women were sitting at the table drinking coffee. Morisa put her coffee cup down on the table and an instant later Maxine had already picked it up, bleached the table, washed the cup and was putting it away. Morisa said that she thought Maxine just had OCD until Maxine told her that Huntley didn’t want people in the house and Morisa was not allowed to tell him she’d been there.

Morisa even said she knew Huntley could get violent because she had seen the two have altercations in the kitchen through her windows. She said that she had seen him back her into a corner and he screamed at her.

Later that year, Maxine moved with Huntley to Soham. She was going to be working at St. Andrews Primary School as a teacher’s assistant, and he got a job at Soham Village College as a caretaker. His job came with a cottage for them to live in. When they moved, Morisa spoke with Maxine and let her know that if she ever needed to leave, Morisa would bring her brother and they would come get her. And then…Sunday, August 4th, 2002, Holly and Jessica disappeared.

The Search, Investigation, and Arrest

On August 5th, Holly’s parents spoke at a press conference. They tell the public that these girls didn’t take anything with them and this was not like them. Police tried to use Jessica’s cellphone to find the girls, but they couldn’t pinpoint a location. They also set up a headquarters at the girls’ school, and they talked to everyone who has had contact with the girls. They are searching for Holly and Jessica around the clock and the community is just as vigilant.

The search continues for a week…and then almost 2 weeks…

On August 15th, 11 days after the girls disappeared, Sky News decided to retrace the girls’ last movements. They interviewed the last person to see them, Ian Huntley. Huntley was, as we said, the boyfriend of the classroom assistant in Holly and Jessica’s classroom, Maxine Carr.

Huntley tells reporter Jeremy Thompson that he doesn’t really know the girls, but he saw them on August 4th at around 6:15pm when they stopped by his house and asked how their teacher’s assistant was doing. Huntley reported that he told the girls that she wasn’t great because she didn’t get the job. Huntley said the girls asked him to tell Ms. Carr they were very sorry, and they walked off toward the library. In the interview, Huntley said:

“It doesn’t help the fact that I was one of the last people to speak to them, I keep reliving that conversation and thinking perhaps something different could have been said, perhaps I could have kept them here a little bit longer and maybe changed events.”

At the time, Huntley was seen as a credible eye witness.

Maxine also wound up on camera when she was interviewed about the girls. She commented that Holly and Jessica were good girls who wouldn’t run away. She said they loved their families, and then she showed off a card that Holly had made for her on the last day of term. After the interview was over Jeremy Thompson and his boss thought back and realized that Maxine had spoken of Holly and Jessica in past tense saying things like, “That was the kind of girl she was.” The police also became suspicious of Huntley’s excessive interest in the case so 12 days after the disappearance, on August 16th, police brought Huntley and Carr in for questioning. While the couple was at the police station being questioned, a forensic team was at their home and at Huntley’s job.

It was noted in the Britain’s Most Evil episode that perpetrators can often insert themselves into an investigation and participate in searches, because they want to “admire their own handywork.” After being questioned and held for 7 hours, the police released both of them, because Carr provided an alibi for Huntley saying he was home with her.

Jeremy Thompson decided that he was going to just see if the phone number Carr had given him after her interview would actually lead to her so after the couple left the police station, Thompson called the number. Carr answered the phone. Thompson asked how she was and while she was telling him that they were ok, Huntley grabbed the phone from her and shut down the conversation quickly. Huntley told Thompson that nothing was happening and everything was fine.

More searches were conducted on the Carr/Huntley house and Huntley’s place of work. Forensic teams were able to find evidence of an abduction.

In fact, the same day they were questioned, burnt remains of shoes, tracksuit pants/shorts, 2 football (soccer) shirts, and underwear were found in a trash can (“bin”) at the school where Huntley worked. Forensic expert, Peter Lamb was able to positively identify these items as belonging to Holly and Jessica. These were their clothes and the tops they were wearing were “unusual” or distinctive and the fibers were easy to match because of this. This is great, because Peter Lamb still has to link this to Ian Huntley.

Fortunately, Huntley is not great at being sneaky and Lamb found 5 human head hairs with the burned items. They were checked against Holly and Jessica’s hair. No match. They were compared to Ian Huntley’s hair, and it was a match. Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr were arrested that same day.

For part two, click here!