00:00:05
-During the winter of 2006,
Ipswich in Suffolk was paralyzed with fear. The bodies of five
missing prostitutes
00:00:14
had been found by police, sparking the biggest-ever
manhunt in the east of England.
00:00:21
-And he's targeting these women
because they are vulnerable, because they are easy for him
00:00:26
to access and easy
for him to control. -As the horror began
to unravel, it became a race against time
to catch the killer.
00:00:36
The police questioned over 2,000
motorists with no success. -He had to be caught because
he wouldn't stop until he was.
00:00:45
-Steve Wright, through
this whole period, was sitting at home watching
this whole drama played out
00:00:52
on 24-hour news channels,
thinking to himself, "I'm doing this.
I'm controlling this.
00:00:59
I'm gonna try
and get away with this." Steve Wright, the man
dubbed the Suffolk Strangler,
00:01:05
had earned his place as one of
the world's most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Steve Wright is one of Britain's
most prolific serial killers.
00:01:37
In the space of just six weeks
during the winter of 2006, he murdered five young women
00:01:44
who were working as prostitutes
on the streets of Ipswich. As the girls disappeared
one by one,
00:01:52
the world's media
descended upon Suffolk. There was an inevitability
with each breaking news report
00:01:58
that another body
would be found. -Two bodies have been
found near Ipswich. This is breaking news, and we're
giving it to you as we get it.
00:02:09
-But Steve Wright's story
begins over 40 years before. ♪♪ Wright was born in
the Norfolk village of Erpingham
00:02:23
in 1958,
one of four children. He grew up in a military family, living on RAF bases
around the world
00:02:32
with his father, Conrad,
a retired corporal. -He's a normal child,
I mean, no aggression.
00:02:39
He's your typical boy --
just wanted to play. -But family life
was far from happy,
00:02:46
and Wright's mother left
when he was just 8 years old. Wright and his siblings
stayed with their father,
00:02:53
who went on to remarry. -While Steve was living
with me, there was never a problem.
Never -- You know?
00:03:00
Never see one, even.
He's happy. He'd had little bounties,
I suppose, with his stepmother
00:03:08
at times when he went
a bit mischievous, if you like, but it was nothing
that you'd sort of think
00:03:14
about an hour later. -Steve was not a particularly
bright young man but cheery enough
in his own way.
00:03:25
Left school at 16 without
any qualifications to speak of and got a job working
as a chef on the ferries,
00:03:33
which sailed from Felixstowe
to the continent. -By the early 1980s,
Wright had become a steward
00:03:40
on the cruise ship the QE-2,
and it was during this time, he reported he spent money
on sex workers
00:03:48
during trips to Thailand,
which some experts believe may have altered his perception
towards the opposite sex.
00:03:56
-I think he's got
an expectation of women. Women are that who perform
a service for him,
00:04:01
to play a particular role. They serve a function for him,
and that's something that
00:04:07
we continually see
throughout the rest of his life. -He would often return home
from sea penniless.
00:04:15
-He was a bit of loner-like,
in a way. He didn't learn
to mix that much, but he did come over to me on
the weekends when he lived here,
00:04:24
especially 'cause
he looked after the dogs, and I had two then, couple of beers down
at the end of the road, normal.
00:04:33
-So Steve Wright
was a performer. He was performing a role as a guy who was interested
in playing golf
00:04:39
and going to the pub
and going on holiday. He appeared to be somebody
who was normal,
00:04:44
somebody who fitted in,
but behind that, there was something
altogether different going on.
00:04:48
-Wright's married twice,
but both ended in divorce with rumors
of domestic violence.
00:04:55
He struggled to hold down a job
and ran up large gambling debts. -Well, I knew he put money
on the horses
00:05:02
because when he got his wage
from the Langham Hall, I used to take his wages
off him,
00:05:07
believe it or not, and I said, "I'll give you enough to see you
through the week,"
00:05:11
'cause I wanted him to build up
a kitty to escort himself out. -Wright continued to gamble
00:05:16
and was eventually
declared bankrupt. Unable to see a way
out of his debts, he tried, unsuccessfully,
to take his own life.
00:05:25
-For him to want to gas himself
in the car, it must've been something
I wasn't aware of,
00:05:33
for him to get pushed
to that limit, you know? Whether he was trying
to befriend young females,
00:05:40
I think the girls
that he was getting were younger than him,
and whether they...
00:05:46
in the end,
they turned him down, and he couldn't face it
or something, and he felt rejected
or whatever.
00:05:53
I don't know. When he was here,
it wasn't a problem. Where did he get it, then?
00:06:00
Did he get so much into debt
that it pressurized him so much that he just broke?
00:06:05
-I think Steve Wright's
alleged suicide attempts are quite significant. So, what does suicide represent?
00:06:11
It represents somebody trying
to get control back, somebody whose life has kind of
gone beyond their grip,
00:06:19
and they're desperately trying
to reel that power back in. And I think for Steve Wright,
00:06:25
if we look at some
of his earlier experiences, this is somebody
who came to crave control.
00:06:30
He wasn't in control of his life
as a child. The family were moving around,
it was quite transient,
00:06:36
it was quite chaotic,
and as an adult, I think he felt an intense need
to be in control,
00:06:41
and that was what he was
essentially doing here. He was internalizing, so he was
being violent towards himself.
00:06:50
-In 2002,
while working as a barman, Wright, now age 44, was arrested for stealing
80 pounds from the pub till
00:06:59
to pay off his escalating debt. This petty theft would later
contribute to his downfall.
00:07:06
-He'd been to court because
he'd taken money from the till, but he kept that from me,
anyway.
00:07:13
So, again, if he can keep
one thing from you, can he keep others? -By October 2006,
48-year-old Wright
00:07:23
was living with
a new girlfriend on London Road, in the heart of Ipswich's
red-light district.
00:07:29
In the same month,
19-year-old Tania Nicol went missing from her home. -She came out around maybe
about 8:00 at night --
00:07:39
It was something like that --
and she wanted a lift home, so I gave her a lift. Well, I didn't want to tatter
off about anything, you know,
00:07:49
but we knew...
Far as I was concerned, she was taking cannabis
and whatever, and I didn't know that
she was into drugs so heavily.
00:07:59
You see, you don't know. We just talked like friends. When we got there,
she just got out of the car.
00:08:07
One of the things I noticed was she just walked
straight into the house, whereas, you know...
00:08:14
you might turn around
and give a little wave, but she just walked straight in, so I suppose that's the sort of,
like...
00:08:21
This drug stuff, it dulls
your senses to a lot of things, so it robs you of your life,
really,
00:08:29
and that was the last time
I saw her. -The family was unaware
that Tania was living
00:08:35
a double life as a prostitute
to fund her addiction to heroin. -I didn't know
that until afterwards.
00:08:42
Obviously, she was doing that
to feed her habit. Isn't it?
That's what they --
00:08:46
That's what I've been told,
you know? -Before 2006, Ipswich, like many market towns
of this size in the U.K.,
00:08:53
experienced problems with drugs,
and we had a quite vivid and lively street
prostitution scene.
00:09:01
It was around... In summer of 2006,
we'd done some research and identified
around 70-odd women
00:09:09
that were working on the streets
of Ipswich as prostitutes. The main issue, obviously,
why they're out in the streets
00:09:13
in the first instance,
all these women were out there to feed their drug habit. They were all Class A addicts.
00:09:19
-Another young woman working on
the streets of Ipswich in 2006 was Jade Reynolds.
00:09:26
-And every morning,
I'd wake up, you know, and I have a heroin addiction
to fund, you know?
00:09:31
So, unless you've probably
saved money from working on the streets the night before,
you worked out late,
00:09:36
and you're not very well
for the morning and for the day, and then I'd get up
at the nighttime,
00:09:41
put on makeup and clothes
and pretty much go and sell myself down
on the street, you know?
00:09:47
It was cold, dark, you know,
very dangerous, but you don't think
about the danger.
00:09:53
All you really just -- go out
there and do what you got to do, but it wasn't a good lifestyle.
00:09:57
It wasn't an easy lifestyle,
really. There was a lot of emotion
that goes with it,
00:10:03
and you'd have to learn
to switch off or let it overrun you, you know? And heroin is an easy way
to switch off all your emotions.
00:10:11
-After Tania Nicol's family
haven't heard from her for 48 hours,
they reported her as missing.
00:10:18
Police began to investigate,
but it appeared she'd just vanished off
the face of the Earth.
00:10:24
-We possibly thought she went
with a load of people down to London somewhere and just stayed in a house
or something like that.
00:10:30
-Prostitutes go missing
all the time, change cities. That's not unusual. Very seldom do they have
many relatives
00:10:37
who will identify
their disappearance. Sometimes, they do.
Sometimes, they don't.
00:10:43
-As time passed, Jim became increasingly concerned
about his daughter. -You're terribly --
You're worried beyond --
00:10:51
You just go out your head,
you know? You just can't think straight,
you know, you're so worried,
00:10:59
and it really hits
your mistakes. And I think after
about 2 or 3 weeks, it was sheer hell
not knowing where she was,
00:11:07
and by then,
you know that something's up. -While Jim waited desperately
for any news
00:11:14
about his daughter, Tania, on November the 15th, another young woman
was reported missing --
00:11:21
25-year-old Gemma Adams. -For Gemma to go missing,
that's when you worry 'cause Gemma would never
go missing, you know?
00:11:30
She's not like that, you know. She's always certain time,
certain place,
00:11:34
this, that, that, you know? Yeah, so, that was --
When Gemma went, that's when you knew
something was wrong.
00:11:40
-The police stop nearly 2,000
people and over 500 cars traveling through Ipswich's
red-light district
00:11:47
to see if anyone recognized
photos of Tania and Gemma, but they drew a blank,
and it was a similar story
00:11:56
when they spoke
to the local sex workers. -You don't report every attack,
but there's loads of times
00:12:02
where we get people
trying to steal our handbags or, like, trying to accost us,
you know,
00:12:07
because we're saying,
"No," to them, you know? You are worried,
and you are scared thinking,
00:12:11
"Hang on. Gemma's gone now. I didn't know Tania,
but she's gone.
00:12:14
Where are they?" And you think,
"Yeah. It could me. I could be next,
but I've got to go
00:12:20
and get my money for my drugs,"
you know? And you have to go out there. You have to learn
to put emotions
00:12:25
to the back of your mind
while you're out on the street. I can then go home
and be really scared,
00:12:29
but if I was gonna be scared
that the girls had gone missing, I'm not gonna be able to earn
the money for my drug addiction.
00:12:36
-Then on December the 2nd,
2006, the police got the call
they'd be dreading.
00:12:43
A body had been found in a brook
on the outskirts of town. -Right on the bend,
right on the corner was a head,
00:12:51
this end, facing upstream,
her legs downstream, arms beside her body. I saw the hair flowing
and a golden earring,
00:13:02
and the head was on its side,
and my immediate thought was, "One of the missing girls."
00:13:08
-Tania's father, Jim Duell,
feared the worst. -By this time, I concluded
that she'd gone, quite honestly.
00:13:18
I concluded this,
that she was dead. That's what I concluded
'cause by this time,
00:13:24
she would've phoned her mother 'cause she always
phones her mother if she's gonna be
back late or anything.
00:13:29
She was good. -But it wasn't Tania. Police identified the body as
that of 25-year-old Gemma Adams.
00:13:40
There was no sign
of a sexual assault, but her naked body had been
dumped in flowing water,
00:13:47
so finding any DNA evidence
was going to be difficult. -When someone dies, then there will be all sorts
of evidence on the body,
00:13:58
in the body, that tells you
all sorts of information. If you leave a body
in running water,
00:14:03
then the water will quite
literally wash away evidence. Equally, the water will bring
other things onto the body
00:14:11
that can contaminate it, so you've got a double problem,
really, of things being lost and things
being brought to the body,
00:14:20
which make interpretation
more difficult. -Unsurprisingly, the media
was starting to take notice,
00:14:27
including Paul Harrison
of Sky News. -My boss said to me that I should go to Ipswich
at the weekend.
00:14:36
One body had been discovered. To him, something didn't seem
quite right. He wanted me to get
under the surface
00:14:43
of what was happening
in the red-light district because we knew that two
prostitutes had gone missing,
00:14:49
so what was this all about? Was this going to be
something bigger? -For a week, forensic teams
00:14:56
scoured nearby woodlands
for clues, and divers explored the brook. Then just when they were about
to call off the search,
00:15:05
divers found another body. This time, it<i> was</i> Tania Nicol. -Well, when I got
the actual news,
00:15:14
I can't remember my reaction
'cause it was something like, "Well, that's..." you know...
00:15:19
I knew in me heart.
I knew already. -Just like Gemma Adams, there was no sign
of sexual assault,
00:15:27
and the rushing water
had stripped Tania's body of any DNA evidence. Suffolk Police called
on Commander David Johnston
00:15:36
from Scotland Yard,
a homicide expert. -So I joined the investigation
around the time
00:15:43
the second victim's body
had been discovered, and that initially meant
I went to Suffolk
00:15:49
to speak
to the Chief Officer team to assess the situation. I'm not sure I would say
they were overwhelmed,
00:15:55
and I think they recognized
the need to bring additional resources
in to avoid that situation,
00:16:01
and that's what they did,
and Suffolk, I know, had probably 100 to 200 people
00:16:07
initially engaged
in this inquiry, but that number quickly grew, and Suffolk suddenly
found themself, of course,
00:16:14
at the center of a huge incident with significant media interest,
globally. -So by the time they discovered
the body of Tania Nicol,
00:16:27
we had already begun
to spend a bit of time in the red-light district
late in the evening
00:16:34
and early in the morning, just to see how prevalent
prostitution was in Ipswich,
00:16:41
and it wasn't difficult
to find girls on the streets
very late at night. We spoke to a number of them.
00:16:50
They were aware that two girls
had gone missing. We were almost delivering them
the news
00:16:56
that a second body
had been found. We were almost telling many
of these girls, for the very first time,
00:17:03
that the body of a second woman,
almost certainly a prostitute and almost certainly
Tania Nicol,
00:17:10
had been discovered in Copdock. Their reaction -- They weren't
fazed by it, it seemed.
00:17:17
-It's scary every night,
going out on the streets. It's scary every night.
00:17:20
You could get attacked
every night, you know? To be honest, it doesn't matter
how scary anything is, really.
00:17:25
You've still got to go out there
and do it. That tears at your heart,
and you think,
00:17:28
"Oh, God," you know,
"what's happening? Who's next?" You know?
00:17:32
But even though you're
discussing, "What if it could be me," you're still out there
on the the streets,
00:17:36
and you're still
selling yourself because you still have
a drug addiction to feed.
00:17:40
You've got to put all
them worries to the
back of your mind. -Police were at a dead end.
00:17:45
They had no clues and nothing
to link the two murders. They watched hours
of CCTV footage
00:17:51
from Ipswich's
red-light district and finally found
something of significance.
00:17:57
Tania had been caught
getting into a dark car on the night
of her disappearance.
00:18:02
Could the driver of the car
be the killer? -Handford Road, Burlington Road,
that was her place.
00:18:10
She would stand there when she went out at night,
on that corner, and they found footage of her --
just a brief glimpse.
00:18:20
-The CCTV was captured outside
of a supermarket on London Road, the same street
where Steve Wright was living.
00:18:29
Unfortunately, the footage
wasn't clear enough to reveal the number plate
or identify the driver.
00:18:37
-From my point of view, it's
professionally very frustrating. The whole emphasis of our role
is to protect the public,
00:18:44
and we take that very seriously. And so, each day, when we're
carrying out the investigation
00:18:50
and trying to identify
this offender, it's very concerning to us when we still don't have
an identification made.
00:18:58
-It had been eight days since Gemma Adams
had been found murdered. As the police continued
with their investigation,
00:19:06
they receive
some more shocking news. On December the 10th, just two days after
the discovery of Tania Nicol,
00:19:14
the body of a third woman
was found in a woodland in nearby Nacton. -The 10th was a huge day,
really.
00:19:24
I had literally driven out
of Ipswich for about 10 miles when I got a phone call
from the news desk,
00:19:32
and the blood really felt
like it drained from my face, from my body because... Shivers down the spine.
00:19:40
We were now into
serial-killer territory. -I think it'd be fair to say
yes, there was extreme concern
being expressed in Ipswich
00:19:48
and not just amongst sex workers or the women involved
in that line of work but across the whole
of the community.
00:19:57
This was a significant event,
completely unparalleled, as far as I know,
in the history of Ipswich
00:20:03
and that area, which is normally
a very quiet, rural town. -We were now dealing with
a serial killer almost certainly
00:20:10
and also
was the national media -- the U.K. media
were all over it by now. This was when you began to see
the beginnings
00:20:18
of the international interest
in it, as well. -Distinctive tattoos
on the third body
00:20:24
led the police to identify her
as Anneli Alderton, who'd not been reported missing.
00:20:30
She'd also been working
as a prostitute in Ipswich. She was a 24-year-old
mother of one.
00:20:37
-She was a mad, kind of happy-go-lucky, crazy
chick, you know? I lived in my first squat
with Anneli, really nice girl.
00:20:46
I would say she's like
a free spirit, you know? She's like, mm, you know,
"Great," like,
00:20:50
"I'm Annie," you know?
"This is me," you know? So, she's kind of cool and liked
to hang around with, you know?
00:20:56
-The media's focus on Ipswich
intensified even further. -I'd raced back to the scene
in Nacton
00:21:05
where the body of
Anneli Alderton was discovered. We knew very little
at that stage about
00:21:11
in what position it lay, but what we did know
was that it was on dry land, and this was a twist
in the story
00:21:19
because the two previous victims
had been deposited in water. So the police, for them,
it was very exciting
00:21:26
that, in terms of DNA, this could be something
that they could work with. -The autopsy showed that Anneli
had been strangled
00:21:35
and tragically revealed
she'd been 3 months pregnant. -So, the evidence that you'd see
in a strangulation,
00:21:44
you'd see bruising
on and in the neck, you'd often see fine pinpoint
hemorrhages in the eyes.
00:21:49
These things really point you
very directly towards that cause of death. -She'd been left in
the crucifix position
00:21:56
with her arms outstretched. -There is a tendency to want to attach
a lot of meaning to that.
00:22:02
Many people were looking
at this, as it unfolded, saying, "Well, there's some
religious motivation here,"
00:22:08
but I don't think
it was about that at all. It was about, essentially,
getting attention.
00:22:15
Even serial killers get bored. They want to mix
things up a bit. They want to try something new.
00:22:20
-The police still have no DNA,
no clues, and no leads. The pressure to catch
the killer was mounting.
00:22:29
-There's always pressure
because you have the media who are consistency
requiring information
00:22:35
because it's 24-hour media, and they want to know
what's happening. There's anxiety being expressed
in the community,
00:22:42
and, of course, the police
themself want to catch this man as quickly as possible.
00:22:45
-"I'm losing my friends.
Well, I don't want to keep losing my
friends. I don't want
to lose my own life."
00:22:49
You do think about stuff
like that. It's not something
that you don't think about.
00:22:53
-The world's media descended
on Ipswich, and the cameras were
all pointed at the police.
00:22:59
-I think this case was one
that attracted so much attention because it was unfolding
in front of our eyes.
00:23:05
This was the era
of reality television, when that started
to become very popular.
00:23:10
We were seeing it as it unfolded
on 24-hour rolling news, and you never knew
what was gonna happen
00:23:16
from one day to the next. -Detectives told prostitutes
to stay off the streets, but their warnings
were largely ignored.
00:23:24
A local news crew interviewed
one of the girls anonymously. -Why -- Why have you decided
to come out tonight?
00:23:31
-Well, 'cause I need the money. I need the money, you know? -Despite the dangers?
00:23:37
-Well, that has made me a bit wary about
getting into cars, you know? It has.
-But you will do that tonight.
00:23:46
-Well, probably. -The woman interviewed
was Paula Clennell. -Paula Clennell,
she had children,
00:23:55
and she was always
trying quite hard to change her life, you know? -She was happy when you
saw her, you know, a nice girl,
00:24:02
but, yeah, she tried quite hard,
you know, to get out of it, you know, 'cause it's a very
hard thing to get out of--
00:24:07
the addiction --
if you still live, generally, in the same town. But, yeah, she was trying,
00:24:13
you know, to get away from it
and change her life, bless her. -Just six days after
that news report aired,
00:24:20
Paula Clennell was missing. In December 2006,
the police in Ipswich were under mounting pressure to
catch a prolific serial killer.
00:24:33
The bodies of three dead
prostitutes had been found in just 10 days. They had no clues
or potential suspects,
00:24:42
and the killing
wasn't about to stop. Two more young women
had gone missing --
00:24:48
24-year-old Paula Clennell, who'd been interviewed
on the news just days before.
00:24:54
And now, police receive reports
of a fifth missing woman -- 29-year-old Annette Nicholls,
00:25:01
the best friend of fellow
prostitute Jade Reynolds. -Annette was a girl, for me,
00:25:09
that I was so humbled
to know, you know? She always took time for me. She'd want to know
if I was all right,
00:25:14
if there was anything
she could do, she'd do anything
for anybody else, she was always well-kept,
00:25:19
she'd greet you with a smile
and a happiness, you know? You felt all right
when you was with Annette.
00:25:23
I did. I could think,
"Aw, yeah, wicked. There she is," you know? It was a relief 'cause I know
that I could talk to her,
00:25:30
she'd understand my problems. So when she went missing, that's kind of like tearing out
a piece of my heart.
00:25:36
-As the police search
for Paula and Annette, there was a macabre
inevitability in the air
00:25:42
amongst the massive
international journalists who'd gathered in Ipswich. -There was almost certainly
going to be another discovery.
00:25:51
Where was it gonna be? Who was it going to be? It was nail-biting, and it can't be described
as fear.
00:26:00
It was really palpable. You sensed that from
the people in the town. You sensed it
from your colleagues
00:26:07
but also from other colleagues,
from other media organizations, and the police, as well.
00:26:12
-On December the 12th, another body was found
in Levington, just a mile away from Nacton,
in the same woods
00:26:20
where Anneli Alderton
had been discovered days before. -While somebody was out
walking their dog,
00:26:27
they stumbled upon the body
of a fourth victim just a few meters away
from the main road in Levington,
00:26:37
in the undergrowth,
also, this time, not in water. Again, the DNA was important
in this case.
00:26:46
But what seemed quite strange
about this one is that it almost had an
appearance of a rushed approach,
00:26:54
that this body was deposited
by the ride of the road, albeit, a few meters
off the main road.
00:27:02
It had the appearance, or it seemed as it
had been done quickly. -The police sent a helicopter
00:27:08
up to survey
the woodland for evidence. As it circled the area, they made a further
gruesome discovery.
00:27:15
Another body was lying in
the woods only 100 yards away. The naked bodies were those
of the missing women --
00:27:24
24-year-old Paula Clennell and
29-year-old Annette Nicholls. -I don't think I'll ever
get back
00:27:31
what I had with Annette
with another girl, you know? This is the most beautiful woman
that I'd ever known
00:27:36
that had quite important to me
that I could trust, you know? And now, it's not there?
I didn't go out after that.
00:27:44
I was quite sensible because,
like, I couldn't -- I emotionally couldn't go out
and work on the streets
00:27:50
after Annette was found. -Five women had been murdered
in Ipswich in just 6 weeks.
00:27:57
The press had named the killer
the Suffolk Strangler. -Alderton and Clennell,
they were both asphyxiated.
00:28:06
That was the cause
of their death. In the other cases,
the changes after death really prevented pathology
giving a definitive answer,
00:28:15
although I think it's reasonable
to assume that someone who's killing five
people in a short space of time
00:28:22
probably used similar methods. -Interestingly, none of the
five victims showed any sign
00:28:27
of sexual assault,
so it isn't a rape-murder. It's not, "Oh,
I've satisfied myself.
00:28:35
Now I'm gonna kill you,"
murder. It is a targeted murder
without a sexual element.
00:28:43
-He is very much feeding off
the media frenzy that's being created
around his crimes,
00:28:50
and he's increasingly feeling
even more in control of what's going on, so he's changing the way
that he's doing things,
00:28:57
and he's looking at the reaction
from the media when he does that,
and he's absolutely loving it.
00:29:02
-He believes he's fulfilling
something. Maybe he's convinced himself that he's clearing
the world of prostitutes.
00:29:12
They were all dumped very -- really,
quite close to each other. It demonstrates that he thinks
he's doing something
00:29:18
in his own fantasy world that is cleansing
the world of evil or cleansing the world of dirt
00:29:25
or cleansing the world of
inappropriate sexual appetite. We'll never know. I don't think Wright
probably knows, now.
00:29:34
All I do know is that he had
to be caught because he wouldn't stop
until he was.
00:29:39
-On December the 15th,
Tania Nicol's dad, Jim Duell, made an emotional plea for
he killer to turn himself in.
00:29:50
-Tania has been taken by
someone who needs to be found. We ask for anyone who knows
this person or persons
00:30:01
to come forward
and contact the police. -With increasing pressure
to make an arrest,
00:30:08
police decided to question
a local 37-year-old man. -Well, he was identified
because he had spent
00:30:15
considerable time on a radio car talking to a radio journalist
and other TV journalists.
00:30:22
-I spent a bit of time with him to try and get to know
his relationship with the girls.
00:30:28
There was kind of an
understanding between them that, "You scratch my back,
and I'll scratch yours."
00:30:34
-So he was loosely associated
as a friend of one or more of the girls who were murdered,
and at that stage,
00:30:41
he became of significant
interest to the inquiry. There was a very strong feeling
00:30:46
from some of the media
people present that this man was the right man and should be looked
at more seriously.
00:30:52
-With a suspect in custody, detectives received a lead
from the forensics lab. The three bodies that were found
on dry land
00:31:01
did have DNA evidence on them. In a one-in-a-billion chance, the DNA found on all three women
was the same, but whose was it?
00:31:11
The DNA was run through
the National Database, and police got a match, but to their surprise, it wasn't
the man they had in custody.
00:31:20
-At that time,
and as it still stands today, if a person is arrested or convicted of an indictable
offense or a serious offense,
00:31:27
they can have their DNA taken
and held on the database. -The DNA matched that of a
local man
00:31:33
who'd been convicted of stealing
80 pounds from a pub till in 2002 --
48-year-old Steve Wright.
00:31:42
-And it was that match which led
to significant additional work, including, then,
the CCTV evidence,
00:31:49
which showed a vehicle
being used by Wright moving between some of the locations
around the relevant times,
00:31:54
so he became a major suspect
in the inquiry. -Over just six weeks, five prostitutes
had been murdered in Ipswich.
00:32:05
The police finally believe
they'd found the killer, 48-year-old Steve Wright,
00:32:10
whose DNA had been found
on three of the bodies. Wright had not been a suspect
at any point
00:32:17
during the police investigation,
even though he had been stopped during routine checks
of the red-light district.
00:32:25
Whilst the world's media
was focusing on a local man who police currently
had in custody,
00:32:31
Wright was put
under surveillance. -Once the police had discovered
the DNA, it matched Steve Wright.
00:32:41
Immediately,
although from a distance, making quite a brave move,
actually, not by arresting him
straightaway
00:32:49
but watching him,
seeing his movements... "What was he doing?
Where was he going?"
00:32:53
...just for a 24-hour period,
and ultimately, as we were all elsewhere
looking at somebody else,
00:33:01
another suspect, bang,
they had made an arrest. They'd arrested Steve Wright.
00:33:07
-It was a huge shock
to Wright's father, Conrad. -Well, I didn't believe it,
as simple as that.
00:33:14
Two people come to my door
to say, "Your son has been arrested,"
and I didn't believe it.
00:33:20
-I think the only emotion
that Steve Wright would've felt upon getting arrested
was annoyance.
00:33:27
"This has stopped
the media circus that I've been
at the center of,"
00:33:30
and I think also self-pity. Yeah, "Oh, terrible.
I'm now gonna be in prison,"
00:33:37
or, "I'm gonna be
in a police station. I'm gonna be able
to do the things I want."
00:33:41
He would never have had
any kind of expressed empathy for his victims
or their families
00:33:46
'cause they just
didn't matter to him. -At the time, I split up
with my partner,
00:33:50
moved into my mom's house, and I woke up one morning with
the world media on my doorstep,
00:33:56
to put it bluntly,
and they said, "Did you know Steve Wright was,
like, a client to your door?"
00:34:01
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
and I didn't even know. My mom didn't even know,
you know?
00:34:06
But then it all came out,
you know, that it turned out he's
actually my first partner,
00:34:11
which was shocking, you know? And I thought, "Oh, my God.
I was right with him
00:34:14
right there, right then,"
you know? And, yeah, I was kind of
shocked, really --
00:34:20
really shocked, to be honest, thinking that I was
that close to him. Made me feel sick.
00:34:25
-During eight hours
of interrogation, Wright made no comment. The no-comment police interviews
is indicative
00:34:34
of that power
and that control, "So, I have
all of this knowledge and all of this information.
00:34:38
I know everything
about these crimes, and you want that knowledge, so I'm gonna use this
to my advantage."
00:34:44
He knows everything that
the police want to know, and is he gonna tell them?
Is he not gonna tell them?
00:34:49
That gives him a massive
sense of control. -Although Wright didn't confess
to the killings,
00:34:54
on the 21st of December, 2006, the police charged him
with all five murders based on the forensic evidence
they'd so far found.
00:35:04
The other suspect was released
from custody without charge. Prosecutors now began
the arduous task
00:35:11
of building a solid case
against Wright for the upcoming trial. Michael Crimp was
part of the legal team.
00:35:19
-Of the five bodies
that were recovered, two of them had been immersed
for some time in water,
00:35:26
and if there had been any DNA
on their bodies, it had long since gone,
and so in terms of DNA evidence,
00:35:32
there was nothing to link
Steve Wright with them. -Detectives impounded
Wright's car.
00:35:38
In it, they found fibers
from a fake-fur jacket owned by Annette Nicholls and, more significantly, traces
of Paula Clennell's blood.
00:35:47
-Wright really didn't do very
much to conceal his movements. He drove his own car.
00:35:54
He dumped the bodies
from his own car. He wasn't very
forensically aware as so many determined killers
are these days.
00:36:03
He didn't know about DNA
and fiber analysis, trace, and all the other things we've
all become so familiar with
00:36:10
as the result of
television series and the rest. Wright pretty much did
as he pleased
00:36:16
and thought
he could get away with it, and he thought he could get away
with it because he thought
00:36:20
that no one
was gonna miss a prostitute. -Forensic experts also examine
Wright's home.
00:36:26
They found the blood
of Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls
on a Hi Vis jacket, more conclusive proof that
his encounter with the women
00:36:35
had taken a sinister turn, but there was no link
between Wright and the deaths of Tania Nicol
and Gemma Adams,
00:36:42
the two women whose bodies
had been found immersed in running water. Investigators rewatch the CCTV
00:36:51
from the night
Tania Nicol went missing, and they were now certain the
car that she got into
00:36:56
was Wright's blue Ford Mondeo. Forensic teams
painstakingly analyzed microscopic debris found
in the women's hair.
00:37:09
Remarkably, they found fibers
from Wright's tracksuit bottoms, sofa, and carpet fiber
from his Mondeo.
00:37:17
-Both fibers in their hair
and fibers on gloves and other items that belonged
to Steve Wright
00:37:26
clearly linked him
to those two, as well. -The game was up. -This was a case that involved
00:37:33
a lot of experts
and a lot of expertise. And what it came down to
was that they were able to place
00:37:41
fibers from the bodies
at Wright's property. They were able to trace,
place blood
00:37:49
on the articles of clothing
and in his car. We call it Locard's
exchange principle.
00:37:54
You go and interact
with somebody, you leave of yourself there, and you take
something away from it,
00:38:01
and as clever as you
may try and be, you're always going to leave
evidence of that interaction.
00:38:07
-Steve Wright was now linked
to all five women. His trial began
at Ipswich Grand Court
00:38:14
on the 16th of January, 2008. Wright pleaded not guilty. -To me, he looked pretty cool
about it all.
00:38:22
He didn't seem
particularly emotive about the evidence
as it was being put to him.
00:38:28
Well, he had to explain the scientific evidence
in this case, which linked him very closely
with all five of the victims,
00:38:37
and so his explanation was that
he'd been in close association with all five of them
00:38:43
and, obviously, not long before
they disappeared off the street. -Wright argued he'd picked up
the women for sex,
00:38:50
and that was why there was
evidence of them in his car. -The defense were arguing
00:38:55
that it might've been
a coincidence, but no more. -But his case began to fall
apart under intense questioning.
00:39:02
-It was an odd picture
that he portrayed because there was just too
much coincidence in this case
00:39:10
that the evidence provided
more than just coincidences, that it provided
the evidence that damned him.
00:39:16
-We put to him various bits
of evidence and said, "Well, was that just
a coincidence?"
00:39:22
And to each question like that, all that Steve Wright said
was something like, "Well, so it would seem,"
or, "It appears so,"
00:39:29
and he just couldn't deal
with the questions that he was being asked about --
00:39:33
how all of these
apparent coincidences existed. -On February the 21st, 2008, after only six hours
of deliberation,
00:39:42
the jury found Wright guilty
of all five murders, and he was sentenced
to a whole life term.
00:39:48
He was immediately sent
to Belmarsh Prison. He will never be released. -I think the thing that's
striking about this case
00:39:57
is the speed with which
Wright moved from being a relatively
unknown and minor offender
00:40:01
involved in a minor theft to killing five women
in a very short period of time. And I am strongly of the belief
that had he not been arrested,
00:40:12
he would've continued to kill. -This was a man
who was desperate to be known,
00:40:16
desperate to be someone, and by killing those five women, the notoriety that he achieved
00:40:24
effectively made him
into someone. We talked about
the Suffolk Strangler, this man who nobody really knew.
00:40:32
Suddenly, everyone knew him. He was world-famous for being
the Suffolk Strangler.
00:40:38
-I found it very difficult to
call Wright a truly evil man -- deeply wicked, deeply,
00:40:44
with no sense of remorse. -To this day, he has maintained
his innocence. He says he did not kill
those five women.
00:40:56
He goes even further to write
to his father who, in his father's eyes,
he did what he did,
00:41:04
and it hurts
Steve Wright, actually, that his father
doesn't believe him when Steve Wright says,
"I didn't do it."
00:41:12
His father looked in his eyes, turned, and walked out of prison
when he said, "Look into my eyes.
Do you think I did it?"
00:41:22
-And it wouldn't make me feel
any different whether I forgive him or not. I mean, the deed is done,
and I'm, in a way,
00:41:29
responsible for him
being out there, you know? I brought him into the world. -Life will never be the same
for the friends and families
00:41:38
of those who were killed. -You know,
I got to her resting place and stand and have
a little conversation,
00:41:48
like you would, you know, and say, "I've come up
to see you, dear," you know,
00:41:54
and have a little bit of emotion
going there, you know? But there you are.
It's love, isn't it?
00:41:59
'Cause she's always
in our memory. Of course she is. -Even now, 10 years later,
I can still...
00:42:05
I'm sitting here,
and I'm trying to be clean, and I'm trying not to
let my emotions get
the better of me,
00:42:09
but there's so many things
that I've seen, I think, "Oh, yeah.
Annette would love that."
00:42:14
I still --
I'll find it hard now, and I'll find it hard,
like, 20 years' time, you know,
00:42:18
that she's not here anymore. It tore a piece of me out
that I won't get back.
00:42:24
-Some positive has happened
in Ipswich when we have such a tragic
turn of events,
00:42:29
and that is, for me,
is that there's no longer any street prostitution
occurring in Ipswich.
00:42:35
If I wanted a legacy
for the five women, that would be it --
that no other women
00:42:38
are putting themselves
in such perilous and stark
and dangerous situations. -I think Ipswich
will never forget
00:42:48
those terrible times,
those few weeks in December 2006 where the world's eyes were on
them for all the wrong reasons,
00:42:56
and they will take
the vital lessons learned during that period forward. They won't forget the woman,
00:43:03
they won't forget the girls
who were killed, but they will move forward
and try to not allow that period
00:43:11
to effectively
dictate their future. -We may never know why Wright
carried out these frenzied attacks
or if there are other victims
00:43:21
that have perished
at this hands. He remains one of the U.K.'s
most prolific serial killers.
00:43:28
For six weeks, the whole world
watched in shock as the body count in Ipswich
continued to grow,
00:43:36
but eventually, the forensic
evidence brought justice for the families
of all five victims
00:43:42
and put pay to the killing spree
of Steve Wright, the Suffolk Strangler.