IN ANY murder inquiry the body of the victim is effectively treated as a crime scene.

A UK Home Office pathologist was today preparing to examine the body of the fifth woman found near Ipswich in England during the past two weeks.

Detectives hunting a serial killer are investigating tonight whether clothing thought to have been found in an Ipswich river is linked to the deaths of two more women.

THE Soham murder trial jury was sent home last night after failing to reach verdicts on Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.

The Soham murder trial jury was sent home tonight after failing to reach verdicts on Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr.

Ian Huntley “lured” schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman into his home, the Old Bailey heard today.

The jury trying Ian Huntley for the murder of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman today heard a pathologist cast doubt on the school caretaker’s account of how they died.

The bodies of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells were found in a ‘‘severely decomposed and partially skeletonised’’ state and were almost certainly not killed at the spot where they were found, an inquest was told today.

Postmortem results on the two bodies, believed to be those of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, have proved inconclusive, police in England said tonight.

THE search for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman came to a tragic end last night when detectives confirmed that two bodies found in remote fenland were those of the missing girls.