Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman - Fibres showed ‘significant’ contact
A meticulous approach by specialist scientists at The Forensic Science Service (FSS) helped provide Cambridgeshire police with key forensic evidence in the investigation into the deaths of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.
The two 10-year-olds went missing in August 2002 after spending the day at Holly’s home in Soham. The hunt ended with the girls’ bodies being found 13 days later.
The FSS was able to provide significant results after attending scenes at Soham and Mildenhall, where the bodies were found, examining hundreds of exhibits from Ian Huntley’s home, and from various scenes.
After thousands of hours of painstaking work over a 14-month period and working to very tight deadlines, scientists from the FSS were able to link hairs from Ian Huntley along with fibres from his clothing and his house to the Manchester United football shirts worn by both girls on the last day they were seen.
They were also able to link fibres from the football shirts to Ian Huntley’s house and items of his clothing. Of the 40,000 fibres examined, the FSS was able to provide the evidence of a two-way transfer of 154 fibres between Huntley’s clothing and carpets, and the Manchester United football shirts and tracksuit bottoms of the girls.
Bin recovered
On 17 August 2002, the FSS was asked to examine clothing including partially burnt Manchester United football shirts found in a bin at the hangar at Soham college. Two scientists went to examine the hangar and the bins.
The bin was packaged and brought back to the Huntingdon lab. As well as the Manchester United tops there were tracksuit bottoms, underwear and shoes belonging to both girls. Surface debris, including hairs and fibres, was recovered from inside and outside the bin including hairs and fibres. The clothing was screened for the presence of blood, saliva and semen. Many items had been fire damaged and some had melted into a mass.
Replica white sets of the football shirts were marked to indicate the positions of the cuts on the girls’ football shirts. These showed that the tops had been cut in a zig zag-like shape and were ‘typical medical intervention cuts’, i.e. cuts made in a hurry in medical emergency rooms to gain rapid access to a patient. It was the scientist’s opinion that the garments had been cut while the bodies were immobile.
“Bringing the bin in its entirety back to the lab meant I was able to recover vital evidence including pollen, leaves and insects for other experts to work on,” she said.
Another scientist examined the clothing and other items from the burial site for the presence of accelerants and he was able to confirm petrol had been used to burn the clothes.
Small bloodstains were found at Huntley’s home in a variety of places but analysis showed that none could have come from either Jessica or Holly.
Fibre analysis
The fibres from the Manchester United shirts were examined by a senior forensic scientist using specialist techniques (including comparison microscopy, microspectrophometry, fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and thin layer chromatography) which can identify the type of fibres present, their colours and their dye compositions.
Most of the fibres were invisible to the naked eye but advances in techniques and technology allowed the scientist to discriminate one fibre from another.
Tens of thousands of fibres were recovered from Ian Huntley’s car, carpets, curtains, bedding, sofa and bathroom mat. These were meticulously taped from each square inch of material, loaded on to an acetate sheet and analysed under a microscope. One by one, the scientist and his team, were able to match some of these recovered fibres with the Manchester United football shirts and the tracksuit bottoms.
To help define the exact composition of the fibres from the football shirts, the scientist compared fibres from shirts provided by Manchester United, other shirts bought from the same outlet where Holly and Jessica bought their shirts as well as shirts from other suppliers.
He said: “The Manchester United football shirts were made up of wool and four types of polyester fibres, which is unusual in sporting garments. They were not identical to the numerous other numerous shirts which were examined and it was possible to see clear differences between these shirts and those worn by Jessica and Holly.”
The carpet from Ian Huntley’s house and car was blue corded and made up of five different colours.
“All five colours can be identified from the carpet on the Manchester United shirts and from the Manchester United shirts on the carpet,” he said.
“This two-way transfer of 154 fibres was significant as it demonstrated there had been significant physical contact between Ian Huntley and Holly and Jessica.”
Teamwork
A large team worked on the case, and at one time there were almost 50 operational staff from one lab involved in the investigation, although work was also carried out by four other FSS labs.
Many senior forensic scientists and tens of assistants provided expertise in DNA and body fluid analysis, document examination, interpretation and analysis of fibres and drug analysis.
“This case was one of the largest investigations I have been part of at the lab and needed a team effort to meet tight deadlines. It was a challenging case especially being under the media spotlight with a huge amount of public interest which can add to the existing pressures of any case,” said one of the scientists involved.
Throughout the case the FSS worked with the Home Office pathologist Nat Carey, environmental profiler Pat Wiltshire and entomologist Ian Burgess to maximise evidence recovery and interpretation.
Ian Huntley was found guilty at the Old Bailey in December 2003 of the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and was sentenced to life imprisonment.