UK UK - Melanie Hall, 25, Bath, Somerset, 9 June 1996

[wfgodot]

Suddenly dawned on me, whilst following the several UK threads (Claudia Lawrence, Joanna Yeates, Sian O'Callaghan) that Melanie Hall, while on occasion mentioned on those threads, did not have a thread here on WS.

Background:
FRESH TORMENT FOR PARENTS OF TRAGIC MELANIE HALL

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Melanie, 25, vanished after leaving a nightclub in Bath nearly 15 years ago in circumstances starkly similar to Sian’s disappearance.

The psychology graduate had gone to the Cadillacs club with her partner and a group of friends.

The couple had a row when he spotted her dancing with another man and she was last seen sitting on a stool near the dance floor at 1am on June 9, 1996.

Avon and Somerset Police questioned thousands of clubbers and taxi drivers but her fate remained a mystery for 13 years until her remains were found hidden under five plastic bags at the side of the M5 in Gloucestershire in October 2009. A ring which had been in her family for generations was also found.
---
more at Daily Express link above

more:
Melanie Hall: a mystery which has baffled police (This Is Bristol)

Melanie's remains were discovered in 2009:
Bones found by M5 motorway are those of Melanie Hall, missing since 1996 (Sunday Times)

A man handed himself in to authorities and was arrested:
Arrested man ruled out of Melanie Hall inquiry (Guardian)

Other arrests have been made:
Melanie Hall murder: man arrested (Daily Telegraph)

Second man arrested over Melanie Hall murder (Daily Telegraph)

Clues have been supposed:
Car break-in could be key in Melanie Hall murder probe (This Is Gloucestershire)

But, so far, no charges have been brought; the case remains, interesting and unsolved.

 

[badhorsie]

What a puzzle, and I wonder how long her body had been there. Someone has got away with murder
I would be curious to know why the two men were arrested and the field searched and what the Dr is doing now

 

[badhorsie]

Ah, I see the Dr has given an interview
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...-as-missing-womans-bones-are-found-by-M5.html

 

[wfgodot]

I'd be interested to know how seriously they took the doctor as a possible suspect at the time of her disappearance.

 

[Cherwell]

I would bet that he was their prime suspect, for a number of reasons.

 

[wfgodot]

I would bet that he was their prime suspect, for a number of reasons.

Yes, agreed, he would have needed to have been. I'm not familiar enough with the case to know what at last caused them to look elsewhere.

 

[badhorsie]

I feel terrible saying this but, could he not be seen as a suspect because he is a respectable doctors, the set of circumstances are troubling to me

 

[whiterum]

By the time they married at Holy Rood Roman Catholic Church in 1991 Mr Halliwell was working with his father-in-law as a builder. Neighbours still remember his large transit van parked outside their house

Halliwell had access to a Transit in the Nineties.

A set of three Ford keys has been recovered from the site by the side of the M5, around a metre from where Melanie's remains were found.
They would have fitted a Ford Transit Van, Escort, or Fiesta, manufactured in 1995 or 1996 - the year Melanie disappeared.

Had posted this before on SO site but it might be more relevant here. Also the blue rope that bound Melanie is very common among builders, it's purchased in big spools in the trade.

 

[Cherwell]

I feel terrible saying this but, could he not be seen as a suspect because he is a respectable doctors, the set of circumstances are troubling to me

By that logic Harold Shipman would still be busy among us ....

No, I don't think the police are at all swayed by status in any form. Respectable, educated, well-qualified, professional: - if they are in the frame for any reason (motive, means, opportunity), they will be looked at for sure.

 

[badhorsie]

By that logic Harold Shipman would still be busy among us ....

No, I don't think the police are at all swayed by status in any form. Respectable, educated, well-qualified, professional: - if they are in the frame for any reason (motive, means, opportunity), they will be looked at for sure.

But they were obliged to investigate Shipman as he had been reported by a pharmacist if I remember correctly.
Personally I don't get a hinky feeling about the doctor in this case, just throwing it out there.

I am a RN and years ago many doctors would increase the morphine dose of a moribund patient and they would die, it was seen as a kindness.
However no doctor that I knew ever benefited in any way by their actions as HS did

 

[Cherwell]

I just used Shipman as an example because he was a doctor, so let's not go off on his tangent or into mercy-killing.

It was really the second part of my post that carried my point:

No, I don't think the police are at all swayed by status in any form. Respectable, educated, well-qualified, professional: - if they are in the frame for any reason (motive, means, opportunity), they will be looked at for sure.

 

[wfgodot]

No, I don't think the police are at all swayed by status in any form. Respectable, educated, well-qualified, professional: - if they are in the frame for any reason (motive, means, opportunity), they will be looked at for sure.

Hm. An interesting point of contention here. While they may be "in the frame," one wonders just how closely they are looked at, those of high achievement or elevated social status, how closely they are grilled, those who have the means to afford top legal counsel.

All things being unequal, I would assume they might enjoy an easier time of it than one who has not, and cannot.

 

[Cherwell]

Well, we could consider the two people arrested in the Joanna Yeates murder case. Both intelligent, respectable, well-qualified, one a 'pillar of the community' etc. Didn't deter the police from pulling them in, did it?

As for "elevated social status", I believe they're still anxious to interview Lord Lucan

 

[wfgodot]

Making use of selected cases may obscure that which prevails in a majority of others.

Lord Lucan is missing! lol. I love that song, especially the Black Box Recorder version (Dodgems original good too).

We need a Lord Lucan thread.

 

[wfgodot]

Here's a Daily Telegraph timeline covering the period 09 June 1996 - 07 October 2009.

:: March 2003: Two men from the Bath area, both aged in their 30s, are arrested over Miss Hall's death and later bailed.

I can't find much about these arrests other than they were bailed after "farmland at Inglesbatch, near Bath is searched, as is a charity shop’s cellars in Chatham Row" (Wiltshire Times) and were later released from charges.

In October 2009 a man was arrested after apparently confessing to the crime shortly after the bones were identified:

The man, aged 37, believed to be from the Hazel Grove area of Stockport, was arrested on suspicion of murder by Greater Manchester Police.

After undergoing a mental health assessment, detectives from Avon and Somerset Constabulary said he had been "eliminated as a suspect in the Melanie Hall murder inquiry".
The Independent

Here's another timeline, from BBC, extending the time period to 01 July 2010, when....

Avon and Somerset Police arrest a 38-year-old man from Bath over Melanie's disappearance and murder after he went voluntarily to Manvers Street police station.

This man had been questioned in the case before, in its immediate aftermath:

Police investigating the murder of Melanie Hall have revealed a man arrested last week was questioned by officers when she disappeared in 1996.
BBC News

He also was released from charges.

Finally, a fifth man was arrested in late August 2010:

Avon and Somerset Police said a 39-year-old was held on suspicion of the murder of Miss Hall, who disappeared in Bath in 1996.

The man, from Wiltshire, was arrested at 4pm after he went voluntarily to a police station, a spokesman said.
Wiltshire Times

He, too, was later released.

Who were these guys? Why were they suspected? Aside from the man arrested after admitting his guilt (the third arrest) and soon after released from charges, it would still seem they all must be considered as persons of interest, although charges have never been brought.

 

[wfgodot]

Christopher Halliwell - who led police to the bodies of Sian O'Callaghan and Rebecca Godden-Edwards - is being kept in mind in Melanie's case:

Detectives at Wiltshire Police have also liased with colleagues at Avon and Somerset Constabulary over the unsolved Melanie Hall murder.

Sources close to the investigation say it is still too early to connect the two cases but Halliwell may be interviewed at a later stage.

http://swns.com/sian-and-becky-murders-wiltshire-police-examine-five-other-cases-061631.html

 

[whiterum]

I wonder what was the source of the information that prompted the police in March 2003 to search underground vaults at a charity shop in Bath and a field at Beaufort Farm, five miles south of Bath. After weeks of painstaking work they came up with nothing, the information was a false alarm.

The charity shop site was a former taxi rank in 1996, which was only a short walk from the Cadillac Club where MH was last seen sitting alone at 1:10am. Since she had been left on her own, you would expect that she would have walked a few yards to get a taxi to get safely home. I wonder if MH was abducted at that taxi rank.

The other place also searched in March 2003 was Beaufort Farm, where a field was being extensively searched for MH’s body. It is early 2003 that police have indicated CH murdered RHE and buried her body in Farmland at Baxters Farm.

Although this proved to be a false alarm you would think the information contained cryptic clues regarding the two murders.

 

[Cherwell]

Making use of selected cases may obscure that which prevails in a majority of others.

In that case there's not much point pursuing the discussion, if any example I give is going be written off as a 'selected case'. I believe every case is dealt with on its own merits.

 

[Redgoblin]

Halliwell had access to a Transit in the Nineties.



Had posted this before on SO site but it might be more relevant here. Also the blue rope that bound Melanie is very common among builders, it's purchased in big spools in the trade.

In relation to the keys this maybe of help:

A detailed search of the scene revealed the set of three Ford car keys with an identification tag bearing the number T144213.

Detective Superintendent Mike Courtiour, who is leading the investigation, said it was important that they established whether the keys were linked to the case or that there was an innocent explanation for them being there.

The keys are to a Ford made in either 1995 or 1996 and are connected together with a black plastic tag.

The number on the tag is known as a T Code and relates to technical data specific to the keys. The code is unique to a set of keys, but may not necessarily relate to one specific vehicle.

Det Supt Courtiour said: "It is considered unusual for the red master key to be kept with the other two black vehicle keys as it would be red key that would be used as a template from which others would be cut, in the event of the loss of the other two keys. The red key would also be the one used to reprogramme the immobiliser for the vehicle."

Police believe the keys could have belonged to a car dealership or a commercial company and because of their appearance think they have been buried in the ground for a considerable period of time.

Officers have said they want to hear from anyone who has lost a pair of similar keys, had a vehicle stolen together with similar keys, knows someone who has lost such keys, perhaps around the time Melanie went missing, or has information which may connect someone to them.

Taken from - http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/news/Keys-clue-Melanie-Hall-s-murder/article-1459599-detail/article.html

 

[wfgodot]

The Sun has a go at the "quiz the cabbie" story:

‘Murder’ cabbie’s quiz on Melanie

Police probing Sian's murder are also investigating the death of Becky Gooden-Edwards. Det Supt Steve Fulcher said: "There are a lot of similarities with Melanie Hall. It does seem strange that there is this apparent seven or eight year gap between the cases of Sian and Becky and we certainly believe there could be more."
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Professor Adrian West, one of the UK's leading criminal psychologists, will help police interview Halliwell.

A source said: "We are looking at who else could have been a victim like Becky without being reported missing because of estrangement from their family and so on."

much more at link above