warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
In 2006, Steve Wright murdered 5 women in 10 days, being dubbed ‘The Suffolk Strangler’. Garnering huge media attention and baffling police, this episode recounts the harrowing tale of how one man became a serial killer.
In 2006 a campaigne of murder was carried out on the streets of suffolk, something was happening every 24 hours…
The discovery of five bodies in 10 days would leave the community stunned and the authorities overwhelmed.
As the clock ticked, the body count rose.made wonder ,how many more are they going to find.
And with it the question,what have driven Steve Wright, this quite middle-aged men to commit his killing spree.
Sunday the 10 of December 2006 the tranqul market of Ipswitch was gearing up for the holiday season.
there was late night shopping and christmas parties and very much the leadup of the festival period,however despite festive cheer ,there was an undecurrent of uneases.
In early November ,two girls had been reported missing from the streets of the red light district,by the 8th of December both their bodies had been found in a nearby brook,the distrubing dicsoveries separated by just 6 days.
Senior investigating officer Roy Lambert would receive a phone call that would thrust him to the center of the newly unfolding drama.
On the arriving at the location on the edge of the nearby Village of Nacton he would encounter a haunting scene.
When he arrived just after 4:00 ,it was then dark it was really really windy and the rain was absolutely lashing it down.
Allthough the scene of this sinister crime gave no immediate clues of the identity of the killer,that of the victim was soon established.
there were some tattoos which gave them an indication who this person might be,it wasn’t a formal identification ,they sent som family layers and offcers to the mother of this young women who turned out to be Anneli Alderton.
The video ,which had been taken by the crime scene investigator of the position and how the body was actually shocked to see the image of Anneli lying naked and posed in the middle of the these woods.
The killer’s public dispaly would give investigators an insight into the distrubed mind of the man responsible for this sadistic spree.
She ‘d clearly been laid out by the offenders, she was in a cruciform position, her arms were out, she had long peroxide blond hair that had been pulled back in a conical form and she was pristine, she was very clean and she was naked,clearly the offender had spent some time laying her out.
This is the third girl taken off the streets of Ipswitch,found on land now in Woodland,so detectives didn’t know what was happening really.
The uncovering of the a third body in only 8 days would prove unnerving,it was almost the public display by the killer because her body was left so close to the road,it was clear that she’d be found pretty soon…
It seemed at that time almost as if the killer was perhaps taunting the police,it was difficult to sort of comprehend and get a handle on what in fact was happening in suffolk,the genuine shock and fear .
Pretty early on police found that Anneli was living in Colchester with a boyfriend, initially detectivs sort of said to him ” well why haven”t you reported a missing and he did say”well Annali sometimes would go missing for two or three days at a time”
He wasn’t oncerned about it,the last time he saw her they were on good terms and in fact he said” she said she was going to go and see her mother”
that afternoon and take some christmas presents to her son.when detectives relay that to her mtoher her mother did confirm that.
When detectives found out from Anneli’s boyfriend they she was going to see her mother on the train, obviously a lot of trains have CCTV these days and so they did obtain some footage of her actually on the train.
while the inquest into Anneli’s death cointinued the results of the autopsy would provide police with a new piece of the puzzle.
The pathologist was able to give a cause of death and he described it as an interference with the airway, either asfixiation or strangulation.
The news of the discovery of Anneli’s body would travel fast.
The media,interest just went into the stratosphere,suddenly resources right around the country were coming to its switch to really try and nail down who was dowing this.
Yet the killer was closer than anyone could have dared imagined.
In 2006 Ipswitch will be struck by a killing spree,in only 6 weeks,five girls disappeared from the streets of the red light district, there bodies found over just 10 days.
1st october 2006
London Road, Ipswitch, 48 year old forklift truck driver Steve Wright moved into a flat in the heart of Ipswich, Suffolk, England red light area.
Wright’s younger brother keith ,recalls a quiet life in their early years.
Steve’s natural mother had left the family home in 1965,his parents divorced when he was quite young and he didn’t see his mother particularly was brought up by his father Conrad ,who was in the services.
His father would have lived by strict rules and he would expected his son to do so, so if he ever stepped out of line, then he would have been very quicly and strongly put back into line.
Steve’s childhooud was spent moving around in different parts of the country as his dad was dispatched to different parts of the UK to work.
What he did become quite adapt at was putting on a persona an easygoing affable almost everyman so that person so that people could get along with him easily,that may not have necessarily been the real Steve brigh so his early were ones where he clearly learned to talk the talk and those were skills that he used to lethal effect later on.
On the 1st of November 19 year old Tania Nikol had disappeared without trace,Tania was first reported missing ,the 1st of November ,2006,when she’s reported missing by her mom,she caught the bus into town at just after 11 :00 p.m. clearly wit the intention of operating as a street prostitute.
Roy Lambert will be called upon to review the facts of the case,but this was very uncharacteristic and Tania’s mom subsequently reported her as missing,and the alarm bells began to ring at that early stage and Tania literally disappeared of the face of the earth.
November 2006
Just two weeks later,on november the 15th,concerns were raised for the safety of a second missing girl.
25 year old Gemma Adams,she too had been last seen in the area surrounding London Road.
Initially i t was only one girl gone missing so there’s nothing to really as a force to get too concern about,it was when the second one was reported missing the 15th of November, police thought this was a bit unusually.
Gemma Adams was reported as missing during the early hours of that morning,her boyfriend had taken her down into the red light area to do some work and he was anticipating seeing her after a period of time.
Friends of Gemma were becoming worried for her safety,as the authorities gathered more evidence,their concern would grow also.
Because of her lifestyle and the fact that she might have gone off with a client, initally there was not great concern for that first couple of days,but then when the phone went off completely off the networkt , that was a big indication ,that something serious might have happened to her.
the 2nd of December,2006
11:40 a.m. Hintlesham,the developing story would open a haunting new chapter….
upon closer inspection Trevor woud find himself horrified at the true nature of his discovery…
Police would descend on the scene and begin their efforts to determine the identity of the unfortunate victim.
The body was that of Gemma Adams, who had last been seen some 2 weeks earlier on the 15 th of November.
Friends had long suspected the worst.
With detectives now on the trail of a killer,they began looking closely at the emerging passent,people say if you find out about the victim,you might find out,how they died.
The clues and list of likely suspects however were few and far between.
When you get into this area of the sex industry dealing with men who travel from a long way away ,there’s also some really interesting individuals were starting to look at clients, friends, and victimology of Gemma to find out how she lived,who she associated with , there was no indications at this stage of who was responsible for her death.
Since moving to London Road,only a matter of months before, Steve Wright was already known as a reguar client of the girls who worked the streets surrounding his home,his history of indulging in the world of the sex industry was long established.
Steve Wright wasn’t somebody who just suddenly woke up one morning and wanted to explore the sex trade or go to a massage parlor to see what it was like,this was a man who’ been dipping in his toe in and out of that life ,his whole life.
Wright would join the crew of the famouse Cruise liner in 1980.
Working as a steward and traveling the world.
The strains of a life at sea would eventually take their toll on Wright,having divorced his wife, he would return to England in 1987.
Some 19 years later,as the news of the grim discovery of Gemma Adams ‘body broke ,the story began to gather momentum.
Initially, when the two girls were missing,the interest locally certainly with the media was mixed,they were two girls from the sex industry got missing but of course when one was found murdered now the interest with the media particularly was heightened.
Shocking however few could have prepared themselves for the next turn in this twisted tail…
On the 8th of December the police dive team had worked their way from Hintlesham towards Copdock which is downstream towards the river Orwell
they unfortunately came across the body of another white naked female and this later turned out to be Tania.
Tania had been missing for nearly 6 weeks, the discover of the body leading detectives tobelieve that they were now looking for one man on a killing spree.
So, police now move from what was two missing vulnerable young women to a double murder inquiry .
Just 6 days on from the discovery of Gemma Adams, the revelation of a second body being found would make waves across the country.
As christmas approached in 2006,Ipswich would be plagued by a killer on a ruthless spree.
Beginning with the Disappearance of 19 year old Tania Nicol in early November by the 8th of December Tania’s body and that of Gemma Adams had been found in a brook on the outskirts of Ipswich.while the town came to terms with the grave situation an ominous atmosphere began to envelop the area.
Then on the 10th of December just two days on from finding the body of Tania, a third horrifying discovery was made.
A motorist had driven through the street at Nacton,and this motorist reported finding what appeared to be the naked body of a femal,as we now knoq that was the body of Anneli Alderton.
found laid out and posed in a cruciform position, the disturbing ritual demonstrated that the killer was becoming ever boulder.
Unlike Tania and Gemma before her, 24 year old Anneli has not been reported missing, making the revelation of her untimely end all the more shocking.
Suddenly attention raised ,several notches.
Are we now talking about a serial killer, are we talking about somebody picking off young women right under the police’s noses…
Living in the heart of the area from where the girls were disappearaing.
Steve Wright had a history of violent behavior towards women, he had a track record for being brutal ,for being violent, against his two previous wives.
We’ve got an individual who would batter his partners and we know that’s a whole mark symptom of men who feel inadequate ,who feel inadequate who feel they can’t cope who feel they’re not in control of the relationship and they don’t feel terribly manly,that they lack something in their machismo.
Steve Wright was all about trying to be something he wasn’t,trying to live out or find excitement in his life and itt was pretty tough,it’s tough for a lot of people to find excitement-he found it in prostitution ,he also found it in gambling , it meant that he built up debts.
By the year 2000, Steve Wright’s life was in steady decline with drinking and gambling taking their toll,Wright had £ 40,000 of debt, yet he continued his habit of paying for sex.
Gratuating from the massage parlors he would formally frequent , Wright began to take his fantasies out into the open.
Money gets tight, you have responsiblities ,bills to pay suddenly it makes more sense to be out on the street where you can turn a trick for 20 quid,rather than 50,60 ,70 pounds in a massage parlor.
And so that’s how we find eventually Steve Wright coming out onto the streets rather than doing what he did to get his kicks behinds closed door.
Later that same year Wright would hit the bottom of his spiraling depression.
This was a man either crying out hoping he’ get caught or being an attention seeker on the one hand, or this was a man who genuinely felt that his life was that tragic that he just needed to be here no longer.
After working in a succession of smalltime jobs,Wright eventually took employment at the Felix Toow docks,he was now involved in another long -term relationship and she has a normal job where the evenings are spent together,but then there’s change in job.
Suddenly his partner is now working night shifts so Steve Wright find himself sitting in London Road in the middle of the Red light district with an opportunity to fulfill his fantasies.
While struggled with his personal life,the pace of the unfolding story playing out on the streets of Suffolk continued to accelerate .
by this stage three women have been found in the space of little over a week, that speed at which things were developing,just meant there was shock upon shock upon shock.
12 December 2006
Levington,6 weeks on from the disappearance of Tania Nicol, the first girl to go missing.
Just 24 hours after uncovering the body of third victim Anneli Alderton, detectives would be struck by a sickening double discovery.
Another sex worker Paula Clennell had been reported missing by her boyfriend.
And what happened again,there was another sex worker reported missing Annette Nicholls was reported missing by her mother.
Eager to locate the newly missing girls, the police would appeal for information.
Their appeals however would prove futile.
The 12th of December a member of the public is walking along the old A1156,at Levington which isn’t far from Nacton and sees in the foliage about seven or eight yards in from the road what he believes is the body of a white naked female.
The helicopter was put up detective’s were quickly able to see a video down link on screen and detectives remember seeing the crumpled body of a naked female…
and as it turned out that was the body of Paula Clennell.
The helicopter goes up and sees where the member of the public is and sees that first first body and then they naturally they then start to slowly work their way out from there and what happened then is unbelievable…
second image caught the detectives eye and they could see that it was the image of a naked female but it was in a different form to that to Paula,this female was in a cruciform position much like Anneli had been found.
And it quickly dawns on the detectives that this is a second body,and as we now know that was the body of Annette Nicholls.
Paula was the first one to be found on the 12th .
on Tuesdday the 12th and this was the one that the member of the public and Paula was found just seven or eight yard.
Detectives were faced with the reality of chasing down an increasingly reckless killer,one believed to be responsible for the murder of five young women.
It was almost seem audacious,it was almost a killer mocking the police in a way and saying” i can get away with this right under your noses”
were the offenders enjoying this or were they being panicked into some sort of activity,was it all come into a crescendo?
Whoever this was, he was losing control,pressure on the police was enormous no one knew what was going to happen next.
With the stakes of this savage spree escalating ever higher, the killer’s deadly designs would be undone by his previous sins.
Only way they were able to track him down was through DNA evidence of a crime that he committed, dozens of years prior.
In December 200y6an elusive killer stalker the streets of Ipswich’s red light district preying on the girls who pled their trade.
Disappearing over 4 weeks, the bodies of five vulnerable young women had been found in only 10 days,with detectives under increasing pressure to close their net around this violent preditor ,DNA evidence would prove the key that would crack the murderous code.
They managed to obtain some DNA from the Anneli Alderton scene and when the forensic scientists had processed this through and looked on the national DNA database,this same DNA profile came up as being Steven Wright.
He’d been dealt with for theft whilst employed as a barman in 2001,five years later,all the indications are that he’s a serial murderer.
That DNA sample was his big downfall,had he never taken that money ,had he never got into debt ,then the police quite possibly would never ever have found him.
With Steve Wright now firmly in the police’s sights they would move to get their man.
With regard to the arrest of Steve Wright, he was arrested in the early hours of the 19th of December it was about, 5:00 a.m.
He was arrested at his home adress, he was up,he was getting prepared to go to work so he was arrested and taken into custody.
It was interesting, his reaction , he didn’t say much at all , was quite shocked and in fact he needed to be given some time to recover.
the prime suspect would maintain a steadfast silence in the face of questioning, certaunly never said “you’ve got it all wrong i’m innocent”
He was didn’t hardly say anything at all .
He was taken to a police station in Suffolk, he was interviewed with a solicor by trained officers ,but he made no comment all the way through.
He was a guy who had been arrested on suspicion of five murders,who was refusing to comment which didn’t feit with the kind of profile of an innocent man wrongly arrested.
As news spread of the arrest Steve Wright ‘s family would be astounded by the accusations.
A the face of the so -called suffolk strangler made the front pages.
People was suprised by the vision of a man who appeared to be the very image of ordinary,pictures began to emerge and he didn’t look perhaps the killer that we’d imagined he would look like.
A middle – aged man,slightly overweight,slightly boarding, fairly regular looking guy,one of the reasons why Wright was able to operate efficiently in the way he did is that he didn’t look act or seem to be a serial murderer.
He had a job ,he had a partner , he had a domestic life ,that ordinariness is what allows him to literally get right up close and next to the girl and persuade them to get into the car,it’s the banality of evil.
The police would begin to gather evidence and build a case the man they believe responsible for the slayings of five young women and of course you know for the police, the arrest was almost the easy bit.
It was the work that would come after that was the real challenge for them, to prove that they had got the right man beyond all reasonable doubt.
There was no smoking gun and the prosecution admitted that.
but there was a real picture that was painted by the prosecution, there was DNA evidence.
There was fiber evidence taken from his car.
He had a dark blue Ford Mondeo Zetec Which the police took possession of and conducted forensic examination of that .
This vehicle did in fact become relevant was seen on CCTV in different parts of the Red Light area during sort of November,december 2006.
He was confident enough and believed he was clever enough that some risks such just using his own car were acceptable risks,but it was CCTV that got him
That is error 101 in your serial murderer handbook- is CCTV.
So when you put all this together,detectives had al lthis evidence which linked all the girls and Steve Wright and it like closed the circle.
The trial would be keenly awaited,yet Wright offer little defense in answer to the prosecutor’s probing questions.
Under the corss -examination there were dozens of questions the evidence was put to him is just a coincidence, all his answer was ” it appears so yes”
he said it 20 or 30 times and it just continued to kind of paint this image of somebody who is was guilty.
After more than 5 weeks of trial ,the jury would deliver a unanimous verdict.
Finding Steve Wright guilty of the murders of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton,Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.
He would receive a sentence of life imprisonment,with the recommendation that he spend the rest of his days behind bars.
When the five guilty verdicts came back there was clearly a huge relief on the part of the police,definitely the members of the public,probably most of all family members would just so relieved that justice had been done.
Allthough the man responsible had been sentenced questions about the motivations of this most complex of characters remained.
The five murders that Wright was convicted of were all committed in his late 40 s which is statistically speaking a very late age for a serial killer .
There is a possibility that he could have a very long offending history going back many years.
It could be that living out these sexual fantasies he’d had for a long time could be the one last role of the dice he might have of achieving something of doing something interesting that most men couldn’t possibly imagine doing.
Despite his conviction ,the mystery of why Steve Wright chose to take the lives of five innocent women in judy 6 weeks remains a riddle only he can answer.
Because he’s never made any comment the police don’t actually still know to this day how this all happened, how did he get control of these girls? .
How did he manage to isolate them and murder them and get away with it?until he decides to tell his side of the story and tell us what happened i don’t think we’re ever going to know….