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UK murders: Interpol called in
17/12/2006 14:02 - (SA)
Ipswich - British police have enlisted Interpol in the search for a suspected prostitute serial killer, it was reported on Sunday, as officers hope that new closed circuit television pictures of one victim will help them close the net.
The international crime fighting body was called in amid suspicions that the killer may have fled abroad, the Observer reported.
The bodies of five prostitutes - Gemma Adams, 25; Tania Nicol, 19; Anneli Alderton, 24; Paula Clennell, 24; and Annette Nicholls, 29 - were found on the outskirts of Ipswich, east England, within ten days.
One theory is that the killer travelled through the nearby port of Felixstowe or is an itinerant who has now returned to mainland Europe, the paper said.
Police released on Saturday closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the last known movements of Alderton, who was three months pregnant.
The pictures, showing the pony-tailed blonde on a train a week before discovery of her strangled body, were released in a bid to jog the memories of witnesses who may have information about her last days.
"We now need to piece together Anneli's movements after this image was captured. At what station did she get off the train? And where did she go after that?" asked Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, leading the investigation, at a press conference.
Jacqui Cheer, Suffolk's assistant chief constable, told BBC television on Saturday night that police had received 26 calls about the footage.
All the women were found naked, but none showed signs of being subjected to significant trauma or serious sexual assault, fuelling speculation that the murderer or murderers might have drugged them.
Police are no longer looking for a murder weapon, the Observer reported, claiming that the killer is now thought to have used his bare hands.
As Britain's media continues its fevered coverage of the case, the News of the World tabloid reported on Sunday that an unnamed senior police officer was a client of two of the dead women, although it only named Clennell.
Suffolk Police said they could not comment on the report.
In one of Britain's biggest-ever murder hunts, 350 officers from 31 police forces around the country have been drafted in to help the local force solve the murders.
Cheer told BBC radio that police were now close to establishing the last time the women were seen, which was key to resolving the case.
"A good way to describe the progress we are making would be to compare the investigation to a jigsaw," she said.
"We have constructed the edges, now we have to fill in the middle."
She added that officers were "looking at 50 to 100 suspects".
- AFP
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