- When schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman vanished in 2002, the case of the Soham Murders made headlines around the world.
- Suspicions were raised when people who had previously known school caretaker Ian Huntley came forward with allegations about him after seeing him appeal for information on TV.
- The Soham Murders led to a change in how those working with children are monitored.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were two peas in a pod.
The 10-year-old best friends did everything together. So when Holly’s parents, Kevin and Nicola, hosted a family barbecue in August 2002, the girls proudly dressed in matching football jerseys.
Seeing them in their outfits, Nicola snapped a photo of the girls.
After eating dinner with the family, they returned to Holly’s room to play. But, around 6.15pm, they sneaked out to buy lollies.
At 8pm, Nicola went to check on the girls, only to discover them missing.
Worried, Nicola and Kevin searched the house, then raced up and down the street. There was no sign of them.
Nicola called Jessica’s mum, Sharon, but the girls weren’t there either.
And when they tried to call Jessica’s mobile phone, it was switched off.
Frantic, Nicola reported the girls as missing to the police.
Immediately a massive search was launched, with 400 officers assigned to the job.
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CCTV showed them at the local sports centre buying lollies around 6.28pm. They’d then vanished.
As desperate searches continued, police had a breakthrough when they scoured the girls’ school.
The caretaker, Ian Huntley, 28, told police he’d seen them both hours earlier.
After buying lollies, they’d showed up at his house, asking to speak to his fiancée, Maxine Carr.
She was the girls’ teaching assistant and they were fond of her.
Ian told police Maxine hadn’t been feeling well, so she’d been upstairs in the bath when they’d turned up.
He’d chatted for a few minutes with the girls, saying they were ‘happy as Larry’, before they went on their way.
The photo of Holly and Jessica in their matching jerseys, taken just hours before they vanished, was beamed across the country as their distraught parents appealed for information.
But days passed without any sign of them.
When police held a press conference, Ian Huntley attended, helping to set up chairs.
It had become apparent that he was one of the last people to see the girls alive and he gave interviews to TV journalists, saying the girls had walked towards the library after they’d visited his home.
Maxine Carr was interviewed too, and showed a handwritten card Holly had made her.
‘This is something that I will keep for the rest of my life,’ she said.
‘It’s what Holly gave me on the last day of term and there’s a poem written inside saying, To a special teaching assistant.
‘That was the kind of girl she was. She was just really lovely.’
But police noted Maxine’s use of past tense.
While it appeared investigators were making little progress, behind the scenes they were closing in.
They discovered Jessica’s phone had been switched off close to Ian Huntley’s home.
And they also found the caretaker had a history of sexual violence, and members of the public called to alert them to Ian Huntley’s past.
Then Maxine Carr’s story began to unravel. Both she and Ian told police she’d been upstairs having a bath when Holly and Jessica called around, but witnesses said they’d seen Maxine 160 kilometres away, visiting her mother.
As searches continued, Holly and Jessica’s burnt clothing was found in a shed on the school grounds.
A plastic bag containing the charred jerseys had Ian Huntley’s fingerprints on it.
After 13 days, Huntley and Carr were arrested.
That day, the girls’ decomposed bodies were discovered in a grave 27 kilometres out of town.
Under questioning, Carr admitted she’d lied to protect her fiancé.
When she returned from visiting her mum, she suspected Huntley had had another woman there because he’d cleaned up.
Huntley was charged with two counts of murder, and Carr was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
During his trial at the Old Bailey, Huntley insisted the girls had died by accident.
He said Holly had suffered a nosebleed and he’d been trying to help her when he’d ‘accidentally knocked her into his bath where she drowned’.
He then claimed he had smothered Jessica in a panicked attempt to stop her from crying.
The prosecution believed Huntley had lured the girls into the house with the promise of seeing Maxine and that his motive had been a sexual one.
The jury saw through his lies, finding him guilty.
He was sentenced to two life sentences, with a minimum of 40 years behind bars.
‘I think he was a time bomb just ready to go off. And unfortunately our girls were in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Jessica’s dad, Leslie Chapman, said in a press conference.
Carr pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, but not guilty to assisting an offender.
She claimed Huntley assured her he was innocent, but was worried about being framed, so she’d lied to protect him.
The jury believed she’d been unaware of Huntley’s crimes, so she was found guilty of only the first charge. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years and after her release she was given a new identity.
Years after the murders, Holly’s dad, Kevin Wells, released a book, Goodbye, Dearest Holly, sharing the family’s painful journey.
‘She was our star, our daughter,’ he said. ‘Time doesn’t heal. Someone got that wrong. Grief does not diminish, but you can manage the intensity and learn to live with it.’
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The Soham Murders: The Tragic Case That Stunned Britain
On August 4, 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman attended a barbecue at Holly’s home.
Later that evening, the two friends went out together wearing matching Manchester United shirts with Beckham and the player’s number 7 on their backs.
When they failed to return home, their parents immediately raised the alarm. A massive search operation began, involving local police, volunteers, and national media appeals.
The Investigation
In the days following their disappearance, the police investigation was intensive.
Among those who appeared on television appealing for help was Ian Huntley, a school caretaker at Soham Village College, and his partner Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant who had taught the girls.
Huntley presented himself as a helpful local figure, but he soon became a prime suspect.
Thirteen days after the girls vanished, on August 17, their bodies were discovered near an airbase at Lakenheath in Suffolk.
The Arrest and Trial
Ian Huntley was arrested and charged with the murders.
Investigations revealed that he had lured the girls into his home before killing them.
Maxine Carr was charged with perverting the course of justice for providing Huntley with a false alibi.
In December 2003, Huntley was found guilty of both murders and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he never be released.
Carr was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and served 21 months in prison before being released under a new identity.
Where Is Ian Huntley Now?
As of 2025, Ian Huntley remains incarcerated at HMP Frankland, a high-security prison in Durham, England.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years, making him eligible for parole no earlier than 2042.
Huntley has been attacked multiple times by other inmates and has reportedly struggled with mental health issues during his incarceration.
He remains under strict supervision and is unlikely ever to be released.
Where Is Maxine Carr Now?
Maxine Carr was released from prison in 2004 and granted lifelong anonymity under a new identity to protect her from public backlash.
She has reportedlymarried, and had a child. The costs of protecting her identity have sparked public debate, but details about her current location remain confidential by law.
Carr’s story was dramatized in the 2022 TV series “Maxine,” which renewed interest in the case and prompted discussion about her role and ongoing protection.
Holly and Jessica’s Families
In the years since the tragedy, the families of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have worked to rebuild their lives away from the public eye.
Holly’s parents, Kevin and Nicola Wells, have occasionally spoken out to keep their daughter’s memory alive and to advocate for stronger child protection measures.
Jessica’s parents, Leslie and Sharon Chapman, have also maintained privacy, focusing on their family while quietly honouring Jessica’s memory.
Impact on the Nation
The Soham murders shocked the British public and led to widespread changes in safeguarding and vetting procedures.
The Bichard Inquiry examined how Huntley had been able to secure employment in a school despite prior allegations against him.
As a result, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) was introduced to improve background checks and protect children and vulnerable adults.
