Sadly, I think there’s bugger all they can do to stop speculation, which is all we’re getting in the absence of anything else. The police are in a difficult situation - they need the cooperation of the media to keep the case in the public eye, but are obviously fed up having to counter the criticism of journalists, editors and tv/radio interviewers who feel they know how to carry out an investigation so much better . For all the sentiment of the tabloids, the coverage is more about circulation wars than what is best for the investigation, and there are always “experts” eager to get their name in print.
As for the intelligence of the abductor - at the very least he must be cunning, manipulative and capable of planning. I’d be surprised if he responds, unless he feels enough remorse.
Sadly it wouldn’t surprise me if the abductor had no cunning at all – just an opportunist who took a chance. This is one of the reasons why I have a horrible feeling that it’s far too late to hope for a good outcome to this. I hope I’m proved wrong.
jjimm, it’s you that’s giving the game away. Everybody knows that paedophiles spend at least 20 hours a day on the internet - he’s not going to switch that phone on now. Someone should take out an injunction against you;)
I think he would have been planning it for a while. Not necessarily these two girls, but he would have worked out how to get them into the car, where to take them etc. There are no clues at all thus far, which makes me think he was the organised sort. Rather like Roy Whiting (sp?), may he rot in hell. Or at least be regularly beaten up in prison.
A friend of mine was working for a very well known London-based daily at the time of the Roy Whiting thing. The cops knew it was him immediately, but could get no evidence. They took him in and questioned him, but had to release him. It took them weeks to get evidence together to prosecute. Fucker.
Just announced on BBC News 24: a 28 year old man and a 25 year old woman have been arrested in connection with the abduction and murder of the two missing girls.
The couple (caretaker at the girls’ school, and his girlfriend) are now at separate police stations in Cambridgeshire, after police searched their home and found items that suggest the two girls have been murdered. At the moment, the couple haven’t been formally charged; police have 72 hours in which to question them, after which they will have to release, charge or apply for an extension.
Details are still quite sketchy at the moment. Whether or not this means they have actually found bodies remains to be seen…
It’s not clear if the guy was caretake for their school, he’s described as caretaker for the local college. His girlfriend was a teaching assistant in the girls’ class at the local primary school, so he would be familiar enough to them, as well as being someone in a position of trust
It seems that the police were right all along - the girls most likely went with someone they knew, in the local area. Maybe now the press will stop criticising them and let them get on with the investigation.
Well, I certainly hope they’ve got the right people, now that they’ve named them. If it turns out they had nothing to do with it - and given the amount of pressure the police are under to get someone it wouldn’t be at all surprising - their lives are going to be ruined.
Of course, if it turns out they are guilty, I hope they rot in hell.
The police haven’t actually named them - they given the usual 28 year old man and 25 year old woman. However, since a couple of the same ages were questioned and named yesterday (voluntarily), it’s easy to put 2 and 2 together.
Yes you’re right, we should wait and see. At present there is no hard evidence (that we know of). On the other hand, I think there’s no reason to believe the police will put the investigation at risk and try and pin this on someone with purely circumstancial evidence. I think the British Police have learned a lot of lessons over the last few years as regards miscarriages of justice. They have already had progress reviewed by Scotland Yard, for example.
Did anyone see the interview with them on Sky? Of course, “it’s not necessarily them” (yeah, right), they’re innocent until proven guilty, and they’ve not been charged, but I have to say the woman came over very strangely, showing the camera a card that Holly had made for her on the last day of school.
Usually reading about murders has relatively little effect on me, just a ‘that’s sad’ thought and on to the sport pages.
But I keep thinking, two ten year old girls, it’s just fucking senseless.
If someone is convicted of this, I assume they’ll spend the rest of their life in solitary or something like that, because otherwise they’re unlikely to be able to count on their sentence lasting days, never mind years. The fuckers.
I think it’s really touching that David Beckham made an appeal for Holly and Jessica’s return. Actually, heartbreaking is more like it. Not many fans are known by name to their idols. They probably giggled and speculated about the possibility of meeting him, and now he knows who they are…but under such terrible circumstances.
I’d hoped there would be a happy outcome on this case, but after so many days, it seemed unlikely that any outcome could be happy.
I’m just wondering what this could possibly mean? If it was blood stained something, they’d say they were taking items in for forensic testing, or something like that. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they could have found that would suggest that the girls have been murdered?
I don’t think they’ve yet been charged. It’s being reported that they’ve been arrested on suspicion of the crimes. Not charged yet.
mrs jjimm pointed out that when Maxine Carr was interviewed, she said “that’s the sort of girl Holly was” - not “is”. Everyone else interviewed has said is. Of course that isn’t proof, but it might have been sufficient for the cops to start searching her house.
I’d imagine bloodstained stuff, or maybe even items of clothing. “Trophies”.
Holy shit, what the fuck did they (allegedly) do??!
The chronology of this scenario puzzles me however. Let’s assume that these two have indeed committed the acts they are under arrest for.
The girls were abducted on August 4th. The caretaker was recorded as being one of the last people to see them. If he in fact was the abductor, as someone else said he must have been following events in the media. If they had murdered the girls straight away, why would he put himself forward as a witness? No doubt some of the history of these two will surface in the media at some point. We haven’t had a moors murderer scenario for a long, long time.
If they hadn’t murdered the girls straight away but after a few days, they would have been fully aware of the media attention. The power trip that suggests and the sheer cruelty is quite astonishing.
If the girls weren’t murdered until the last few days then I’m not sure what to make of that at all.
Of course, although the police have been quite careful in their statements to the media, until they have bodies, it is not impossible to consider that the girls might still be alive…
My apologies if my pondering causes any upset, I am not trying to be ghoulish. It just seems odd is all.
If it was blood stained something, they’d say they were taking items in for forensic testing, or something like that. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they could have found that would suggest that the girls have been murdered?