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

[Rookie D]

Is it my imagination
that father of the victim suspects someone?



I mean
he alludes (in one of the reports in this thread) the murderer comes from some kind of criminal family in the neighborhood.
Does this mean the person he is alluding to has a perfect alibi provided by family?
Was there some feud going on?

The latest warning from Police also sounds as if they suspect who the perp is.
Why would they re-interview all who had provided alibi earlier?

Did the perp have contacts with the victim previously?
What kind of relationship was it?
Why would Police want to talk to victim's roommate she was sharing accommodation with?
Was the murderer a frequent guest there?

Police suggest some people are hiding important information connected to the case.

What exactly was the motive of this murder?

JMO

I also got the impression that Melanie's father is implying that he knows more about the identity of the killer than is known in the public domain.

A criminal family is a possibility.

But what other types of people/families could be possibly considered as difficult.
Well perhaps the killer was the son of a local farmer, landowner, or perhaps even a member of the travelling community.

Or the son of a clinical consultant connected to the Royal United Hospital in Bath at which Melanie worked?

Or perhaps, if the killer was from a family that consisted of some police personnel, then that could also be the reason for the case having remained unsolved for so long.


It's almost as though the police already know who the killer is, but are just trying to call the killer's bluff by trying to suggest in no uncertain terms that they will come in force and knock on the killer's door IF the killer chooses not to come forward and own up to the murder.

 

[tes1984]

Is it my imagination
that father of the victim suspects someone?

As you say, he has alluded to a criminal family. It depends if he's talking in general or specific terms.

Melanie's sister said she didn't have a clue what happened to Melanie.

The police obviously have their theories, JMO but I wouldn't completely rule out a stranger murder or a lone offender. The DCI said he has now identified 'all the suspects', but I'm not so confident and there have been a lot of false dawns in this case.

 

[Dotta]

I'm beginning to suspect some feud between families.
Was the perp a teen sweetheart of Melanie, but met with opposition of her family because he came from dodgy background?
Or was the relationship different?

Was this murder some kind of revenge?
I mean
a random sexual pervert rarely destroys face of the victim.

This seems personal to me,
very personal
with raging negative emotions.
Melanie was disposed like trash by this murderer.
And her face was destroyed


JMO

 

[rvlvr]

It depends if she knows he has left the club. Was there an argument or confrontation? Or did Philip storm off without her realising?

If she's had a row and dumped Philip, and didn't want to go back to her parent's, then wouldn't she have asked her friends if she could stay with them when they left the club?

Yeah, I’ve always been under the impression he saw her dancing with another guy and just left? And that she was none the wiser? I think her friends left some time after this and I don’t think they’d have left her there alone, so it seems no one knew he’d gone?

I suppose she hung around for a while waiting for him to return and when he didn’t she then struck up conversation with someone else. Of course it’s possible she separated from this guy and someone else preyed upon her afterwards, and perhaps silk shirt guy hasn’t come forwards for fear of being fingered for the crime?

But if the sighting of the ‘couple’ arguing on the street outside was Melanie and silk shirt guy he does seem the likeliest suspect. There’s perhaps an assumption from some who knew Melanie that she wouldn’t have left with someone she didn’t know and therefore her killer must’ve been known to her in some way but I’m not sure parents in particular are the best judges of what their kids would/wouldn’t do, imo.

 

[Dotta]

As you say, he has alluded to a criminal family. It depends if he's talking in general or specific terms.

Melanie's sister said she didn't have a clue what happened to Melanie.

The police obviously have their theories, JMO but I wouldn't completely rule out a stranger murder or a lone offender. The DCI said he has now identified 'all the suspects', but I'm not so confident and there have been a lot of false dawns in this case.

Re "stranger murder"

Then why would people be suspected by Police
of hiding information
if the murder was random and opportunistic?
(By somebody unknown to the victim)

There seems to me hidden agenda in this case,
a deadly secret involving others.

Or is my imagination running riot...again???

JMO

 

[Dotta]

Besides...
This evening in the club seems peculiar IMO

I mean
it started typical.
2 pairs decided to spend time in a club.

OK.

But then...
- A doc goes out (to the bathroom)
- M. starts to dance with another man.
- Doc rages with jealousy and storms out leaving her.
- The other pair vanishes as well,
leaving M. alone without transport home.
- M sits alone as if waiting.
- She meets another guy "smartly dressed"
(not the man she was dancing with)
and leaves with him.
She probably knows him.
- They are seen in the street talking and later arguing.
- A witness said she goes reluctantly to the parking lot with the man.

Who leaves a girl alone in the middle of the night in the club without transport home???
What company of friends do this?
Why didn't she ask for a lift home the other pair?

What exactly was going on there???

Curiouser & curiouser.

JMO
based on the info presented in this thread.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Melanie had a cheque book and bank card with her (listed by the police as not found since). The bank card in those dies would have acted as a guarantee for the cheque, so she potentially could have got a taxi back to her family if she wanted.

She also could have made a reverse charge phone call to a landline (eg parents) and begged for a lift back. She would have grown up knowing the landline number in the days before mobiles. Presumably there were plenty of telephone boxes around then.

I sometimes unintentionally got separated from the people I was with on a night out. Easily done, I think.

 

[Dotta]

Melanie had a cheque book and bank card with her (listed by the police as not found since). The bank card in those dies would have acted as a guarantee for the cheque, so she potentially could have got a taxi back to her family if she wanted.

She also could have made a reverse charge phone call to a landline (eg parents) and begged for a lift back. She would have grown up knowing the landline number in the days before mobiles. Presumably there were plenty of telephone boxes around then.

I sometimes unintentionally got separated from the people I was with on a night out. Easily done, I think.

I always stay glued to the company I arrive with hehehe
"Never separate from the group" is my motto

And we never leave a girl alone.

But, I guess,
this is not a policy supported by some.
People can decide by themselves.

JMO

 

[InVinoVeritas]

A killer might return to a body to check it hasn't been disturbed/discovered. Or because he thinks he's left something there. Or because he wants to relive the crime/spend time with the body.

Occasionally killers let the police know they've been back. Like in the Lyn Bryant murder, where the killer took her glasses, but then returned them to the crime scene a few months later.

Thanks - I guess the keys could somehow be symbolic, as in - absolving the perpetrator of any connection anymore, as the events of the evening are out of their hands.
Could also be a red herring. They may have expected the body to be found sooner, and chucked the keys in the hope police would follow that trail.

 

[tes1984]

Re "stranger murder"

Then why would people be suspected by Police
of hiding information
if the murder was random and opportunistic?
(By somebody unknown to the victim)

I think the police are focusing on people who knew Melanie, but I don't see why the DCI is discussing Halliwell on camera, if they have completely ruled out a stranger abduction.

 

[tes1984]

Thanks - I guess the keys could somehow be symbolic, as in - absolving the perpetrator of any connection anymore, as the events of the evening are out of their hands.
Could also be a red herring. They may have expected the body to be found sooner, and chucked the keys in the hope police would follow that trail.

I wonder how long the killer expected Melanie's body to remain undiscovered for.

Weeks? Months? Years? Decades? Permanently?

 

[dotr]

Thanks - I guess the keys could somehow be symbolic, as in - absolving the perpetrator of any connection anymore, as the events of the evening are out of their hands.
Could also be a red herring. They may have expected the body to be found sooner, and chucked the keys in the hope police would follow that trail.

rbbm.
She had been at the Cadillac club...

 

[Dotta]

rbbm.
She had been at the Cadillac club...

This case gives me real creeps

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Why couldn’t the keys have been dropped by accident as the body was being deposited?

 

[Konstantin]

Who leaves a girl alone in the middle of the night in the club without transport home???

I find this the strangest aspect of the night out. She had planned to spend the night with her bf after spending the day together with no indication - although we don't have her story - of anything wrong. The couple and friends go clubbing together. He gets angry about her dancing with another man in a nightclub where people dance with each other and storms out and goes home? What is he, 12? That is a sign of someone with jealousy issues, emotional dysregulation, anger issues perhaps, cruelty (it is cruel and reckless to leave a woman on her own late at night with no transport home and he must have known this).

I doubt all these issues suddenly popped up at the club out of the blue - this is his personality.

At least, this is the story we were told. It could be different e.g. he left after she's already decided he's a prat and she wants to stay at the club and enjoy herself. Or had she taken something? It's hard to believe that she didn't notice he had gone. If you're a couple, you would surely tend to stay together. Yet she's not bothered, apparently, and talks to other people including this "sun kissed" (what a weird term to use) man.

I assume by "sun kissed" they are implying he is a white man with a very obvious tan like he's come back from 2 weeks in Ibiza or something. I find it a bit jarring!

 

[Konstantin]

Why couldn’t the keys have been dropped by accident as the body was being deposited?

This is most likely to me. You'd drop the keys down a drain in another city if you wanted to dispose of them. Or dump them in the public trash again in another city.

 

[Dotta]

I find this the strangest aspect of the night out. She had planned to spend the night with her bf after spending the day together with no indication - although we don't have her story - of anything wrong. The couple and friends go clubbing together. He gets angry about her dancing with another man in a nightclub where people dance with each other and storms out and goes home? What is he, 12? That is a sign of someone with jealousy issues, emotional dysregulation, anger issues perhaps, cruelty (it is cruel and reckless to leave a woman on her own late at night with no transport home and he must have known this).

I doubt all these issues suddenly popped up at the club out of the blue - this is his personality.

At least, this is the story we were told. It could be different e.g. he left after she's already decided he's a prat and she wants to stay at the club and enjoy herself. Or had she taken something? It's hard to believe that she didn't notice he had gone. If you're a couple, you would surely tend to stay together. Yet she's not bothered, apparently, and talks to other people including this "sun kissed" (what a weird term to use) man.

I assume by "sun kissed" they are implying he is a white man with a very obvious tan like he's come back from 2 weeks in Ibiza or something. I find it a bit jarring!

Re Quote: "Or had she taken something?"

I'm beginning to suspect drugs might have been the issue here.
Was this "smartly dressed" & "sun-kissed" guy wearing a gold watch a dealer??
Why did he leave with her?
Did he promise her something?

There was a taxi rank nearby for her to take a drive home so there was no need to go with him.

Was he the guy from "criminal family" Melanie's father alluded to?
Maybe those who know him were scared of him and his contcts to inform Police and identify him?

Hmmm.....

JMO

 

[Professor Moriarty]

This is most likely to me. You'd drop the keys down a drain in another city if you wanted to dispose of them. Or dump them in the public trash again in another city.

The keys might have been dropped by someone else altogether.

 

[Konstantin]

I'm beginning to suspect drugs might have been the issue here.

Maybe but if it was club drugs like Ecstasy, it's more likely she would have taken one at the start of the evening, to get high and enjoy the club more or whatever people take that stuff for, not after a few hours. Which could have happened, and might explain why she was dancing with another guy if she was high on E. Maybe her boyfriend objected to that, rather than to her dancing with a man in a club. Who knows. There was a disagreement about something and it just seems off or out of proportion somehow.

Were she and her bf regular clubbers?

But I don't think Melanie's murder was about drugs - which are very common in clubs and not something to abduct and probably rape and then smash someone's face and head in over. Just par for the course. Melanie was an ordinary young woman, a graduate in her first job with a "nice" boyfriend. I think this was a sex killing - someone abducted Melanie when she was extremely vulnerable, someone who targeted her in the club - like the Bible John killer - or who targeted her just outside the club - because she was on her own, probably worse for wear, tired, maybe it had got chilly, her boyfriend had pushed off as had her mates and she had no way to get home. She was very vulnerable to anyone who said they were a taxi driver or maybe even were a real taxi driver or someone she'd got to know who said they'd help her get home.

Sadly it is depressingly common for women on their way home from nights out to be targeted by predators.

 

[tes1984]

I find this the strangest aspect of the night out. She had planned to spend the night with her bf after spending the day together with no indication - although we don't have her story - of anything wrong. The couple and friends go clubbing together. He gets angry about her dancing with another man in a nightclub where people dance with each other and storms out and goes home?

I assume by "sun kissed" they are implying he is a white man with a very obvious tan like he's come back from 2 weeks in Ibiza or something. I find it a bit jarring!

He didn't want to go clubbing, but she persuaded him. If it had already been a long day of partying for them, then perhaps fatigue or alcohol made them both act a bit out of character.

I wouldn't read too much into the sun kissed description. It was a rare UK heatwave so a lot of people were probably sporting reasonable tans.