Ian Huntley brutally murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in the Soham murders of 2002 – and persuaded his girlfriend Maxine Carr to cover for him.
It remains one of the most senseless and devastating crimes the UK has ever seen.
The 10-year-old schoolgirls went missing in Cambridgeshire in August 2002.
Now we know it was school caretaker Ian Huntley who killed the girls.
But how did he kill them, and why?
And what part did his girlfriend Maxine Carr play in the disgusting crime?
Here’s an in-depth look at the Soham Murders, and where Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr are now.
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The Soham Murders: When did Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing?
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared on Sunday August 4, 2002.
That morning, Jessica left her home in Brook Street, Soham, to attend a barbecue at the home of her best friend, Holly Wells.
Holly lived at 4 Redhouse Gardens nearby.
The two girls and a friend named Natalie Parr played computer games and listened to music until Natalie returned home.
Holly and Jessica changed into matching Manchester United football kits in the afternoon.
That’s when Holly’s mum took the last ever photo of them.
Early evening on the same day, at around 6.15pm, the best friends left the house without telling anyone.
They wanted to buy sweets from a vending machine at the local sports centre.
Their parents didn’t see them alive again.
At around 8pm, Holly’s mum Nicola realised the girls were missing.
After desperate searches around the local area, the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman reported them missing at 9.55pm.
Where did Holly and Jessica go missing from?
The girls went missing from Soham, Cambridgeshire.
They were walking back from the local sports centre to Holly Wells’ house on 4 Redhouse Gardens.
The walked past the home of school caretaker Ian Huntley.
Several members of the public reported seeing the children in the early days of the investigation.
Eyewitness Mark Tuck told investigators he had driven past the girls on Sand Street in Soham town centre at approximately 6:30pm.
Noticing Holly and Jessica’s matching Manchester United shirts, he told his wife they looked like “two little Beckhams”.
Karen Greenwood also reported seeing the girls walking “arm in arm” along College Road approximately two minutes later.
Read more: Documentary reveals Maxine Carr error that caught out murderer Ian Huntley
Soham murders – what happened in the investigation?
Police immediately launched an intensive search to locate the missing children.
More than 400 officers searched full-time for the girls in Operation Fincham.
These officers conducted extensive house-to-house enquiries across Soham.
Hundreds of local volunteers joined the search to find the missing schoolgirls.
Later, United States Air Force personnel stationed at nearby airbases also helped.
The parents of both girls insisted their daughters had been wary of talking with strangers.
This led police to suspect Holly and Jessica knew their kidnappers.
Investigators questioned every registered sex offender in Cambridgeshire and neighbouring Lincolnshire.
Police officers released CCTV footage of the girls, recorded minutes before their disappearance, to the public on 8 August.
The film showed them arriving at the local sports centre at 6:28pm.
Who was Ian Huntley and why did he talk to the media?
Ian Huntley was the 28-year-old caretaker at Soham Village College Secondary School in Cambridgeshire.
He told journalists he was one of the last people to see Jessica Chapman and friend Holly Wells alive.
Ian spoke to the girls shortly before they went missing, he said.
The school caretaker even spoke out to the media, calling for the girls’ safe return.
He granted several TV interviews and, in one interview granted to Sky News correspondent Jeremy Thompson during the second week of the search, he claimed to be holding on to a “glimmer of hope”.
By the second week of the children’s disappearance, Huntley had begun to lose weight and was displaying visible symptoms of insomnia.
To one officer, he said: “You think I’ve done it? I was the last person to see them!” before beginning to weep.
A doctor prescribed Ian anti-depressants on August 13 2002 as a result of his erratic behaviour and apparent distress.
Ian made the mistake of speaking to the media on TV, using the surname of Nixon.
Someone recognised Ian as a man who had been linked to previous sex attacks on women (see below).
Ian also caused suspicion when he asked police officer, Special Constable Sharon Gilbert, how long DNA lasts for.
Interview video footage recorded at the time also showed how Huntley’s body language betrayed him and gave away his guilt.
Soham Ian Huntley Maxine Carr: When and where were Jessica and Holly’s bodies found?
Keith Pryer discovered the girls’ bodies on August 17 2002 – almost two weeks after they disappeared.
At around noon, the 48-year-old gamekeeper noticed an “unusual and unpleasant smell”.
He subsequently discovered the bodies of both girls lying side by side in a five feet deep irrigation ditch close to a pheasant pen.
They were near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk – about 10 miles east of Soham.
The girls had been missing for 13 days when their bodies were found.
Both corpses were in an advanced state of decomposition.
In an apparent effort to destroy forensic evidence, Ian Huntley had attempted to burn both bodies.
The following day, Cambridgeshire Deputy Chief Constable Keith Hodder released a press statement to the media confirming the discovery of the children’s bodies.
The efforts to find Holly and Jessica remains one of the most intense and extensive in British criminal history.
On August 21 2002, the bodies of both girls were identified via DNA testing.
Holly and Jessica were eventually buried at Soham Cemetery, Cambridgeshire.
Why did the police suspect Ian Huntley in the Soham murders?
Ian Huntley, 28 at the time, told police he’d spoken to both girls on his doorstep the day they disappeared.
He described them as being “happy as Larry”.
The caretaker went on to say that the girls had asked whether Ian’s girlfriend Maxine Carr had been given a full-time teaching assistant position at their school.
When Ian told the girls she’d been unsuccessful, one of the girls had said: “Tell her we’re sorry.”
Ian then said they’d walked along College Street in the direction of a bridge leading towards Clay Street.
However, police were suspicious of his account of the children’s disappearance.
His house was searched by a single police officer on August 05.
No incriminating evidence was discovered at the time, but the investigating officer noticed several items of clothing on the washing line even though it had been raining.
The police officer also noticed that the house had been thoroughly cleaned inside – something Ian explained by saying the house had been flooded.
One day later, on August 06 2022, Ian Huntley drove from Soham to Grimsby to pick up Maxine Carr.
A neighbour saw the couple looking into the boot of Ian’s car.
The eyewitness Marion Clift said Ian was “pale” and “shaking”, while Maxine had her head bowed, weeping.
What evidence was there against Ian Huntley?
Police suspected Ian when he regularly asked police officers questions about their investigation.
He asked how long DNA lasted.
One officer noticed scratches on Ian Huntley’s face – something he blamed on his dog.
On August 16 2002, 12 days after the children’s disappearance, Ian Huntley and girlfriend Maxine Carr were first questioned by police.
Police questioned them both separately for approximately seven hours.
By this time, several Grimsby residents had recognised Ian Huntley from the television interviews.
They recalled that he had been accused of rape several years earlier.
In fact, police arrested Ian Huntley on suspicion of raping an 18-year-old woman in 1998.
He admitted engaging in sex with the claimant, but claimed the act had been consensual.
He was not formally charged with this offence.
Other eyewitnesses testified that Maxine Carr had been in Grimsby town centre on the night that the girls had disappeared, and not at home in Soham as she’d claimed.
The police searched Soham Village College where Ian worked, as well as his home 5 College Close – which had been meticulously cleaned.
Soham murders – evidence against Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr
Holly and Jessica’s clothing was found partially burnt and discarded in a bin inside the secondary school where Ian worked.
Ian’s fingerprints were all over the bin.
Huntley’s car also showed signs of being extensively cleaned – although tests linked residue in the car to the area where Holly and Jessica’s bodies had been buried.
The murderer also got new tyres on his car after the crime but chalk found on the vehicle matched chalk in the woodland area where the girls’ bodies were found.
A phone signal from Jessica’s mobile phone after it had been switched off also lead to a mast near to Ian’s home.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes claims Huntley had been planning his attack “for some time”.
She explained: “He’s already assaulted young girls, so he’s rehearsed it behaviourally.
“So, this isn’t something that comes out of the blue.
“This is something that’s been in the back of his mind, maybe in the forefront of his mind, for some time.”
How were Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr caught?
Alarm bells rang when Maxine Carr spoke about Holly in the past tense during a Sky News interview about the missing school girls in August 2002.
Before their bodies were discovered, teaching assistant Maxine made a crucial error whilst trying to cover up that Ian had killed the two young girls at his home.
When asked about Holly and Jessica, Maxine reflected on a card Holly had made her in school.
She said: “This is something I’ll probably keep for the rest of my life, I think.
“It’s what Holly gave me on the last day of term.
“She gave me this with a poem on the inside saying ‘to a special teaching assistant’ really, and we’ll miss her a lot and we’ll see her in the future.
“And that’s the kind of girl she was. She was just lovely, really lovely.”
Sky News presenter Jeremy Thompson thought it was odd that Maxine was speaking in the past tense.
So they mentioned it to the police.
Maxine also lied about when she was with Ian, to give him an alibi.
When she claimed to be with her boyfriend, police discovered Maxine was around 100 miles away in Grimsby.
What did Ian Huntley do to his victims Holly and Jessica?
Caretaker Ian Huntley lured schoolgirls Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman into his house on August 04 2002.
He approached them on their return walk home to 4 Redhouse Gardens after going to buy sweets.
The girls walked past the home of Ian Huntley at 5 College Close.
Holly and Jessica knew Ian as the senior caretaker at the local secondary school.
He evidently lured the girls into his house, stating that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr – the girls’ teaching assistant at St Andrew’s Primary School – was also present in the house.
This turned out to be a lie.
Maxine Carr was in fact visiting her mother in Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Jessica Chapman’s Nokia mobile phone was switched off at 6.46pm that evening.
Ian claimed that Holly had suffered a nosebleed and he had offered to help staunch the blood loss.
Ian later admitted to murdering Holly, before killing Jessica as she tried to phone her mum for help.
At his initial trial in the Old Bailey in 2003, Huntley said he smothered Jessica by mistake as he tried to stop her crying after Holly died.
However, the story soon changed.
Forensics show that Ian murdered the children via asphyxiation.
The coroner was unable to determine the precise cause of death of either child.
Nor could he be sure if they had been sexually assaulted before or after death.
When was Ian Huntley arrested?
Police arrested Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr on suspicion of abduction and murder at 4:30am on August 17 2002.
As a result of Ian’s behaviour during questioning, police initially referred him to a mental hospital to undergo an extensive psychological evaluation.
However, Maxine Carr quickly confessed that she’d lied about her whereabouts
But she did protest his innocence.
By August 20 2002, investigators had enough physical evidence from Ian Huntley’s home, vehicle and Soham Village College to charge him with two counts of murder.
At the same time, police charged Maxine Carr with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Was Ian Huntley a psychopath?
On October 08 2002, a consultant forensic psychiatrist declared that Ian Huntley was fit to stand trial.
Ian had been detained under Section 48 of the Mental Health Act for almost two months at Rampton Secure Hospital.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Christopher Clark concluded that Ian Huntley was a psychopath, but did not suffer from any major mental or psychotic illness.
He said: “Although Mr Huntley made clear attempts to appear insane, I have no doubt that the man currently, and at the time of the murders, was both physically and mentally sound.
“Therefore, if he is found guilty, carried out the murders totally aware of his actions.”
Ian Huntley suicide attempt
Ian Huntley was subsequently transferred to a segregation unit at Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
On June 09 2003, he attempted suicide.
He swallowed 29 antidepressants which he had stored in his cell.
Ian survived and was later transferred to London’s Belmarsh prison.
What happened during the trial?
Ian Huntley pleaded not guilty at a preliminary hearing held at the Old Bailey on June 16 2003.
He denied guilt to the formal charges of two counts of murder.
However, he chose to plead guilty to the charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Maxine Carr pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and two counts of assisting an offender.
Prosecutor Richard Latham QC described Ian Huntley’s efforts to destroy all physical and circumstantial evidence linking him to the crime.
However, despite his efforts, there was enough evidence to link Ian to the deaths.
These included ample fibre evidence retrieved from Huntley’s vehicle, clothes and carpets which had been a “precise match” to the Manchester United shirts the girls had been wearing at the time of their disappearance.
A scenes of crime officer also revealed that several traces of blood spattering were found in Ian’s home.
The defence, meanwhile, claimed that both deaths were “accidental”.
Ian Huntley’s testimony
On December 01 2003, Ian Huntley testified before the court in his own defence.
He admitted both girls had died in his house, but denied that either death had been intentional.
Ian claimed that Wells and Chapman had entered his bathroom to stem a mild nosebleed Wells had been suffering.
In the bathroom, Ian had slipped and accidentally knocked Holly Wells into his full bath, he claimed.
He told the jury she had drowned.
In reaction to Jessica’s cries, Ian then said he had accidentally suffocated her while attempting to stifle her screaming.
He further claimed that the trauma of the children’s deaths had temporarily erased his memory.
Prosecutor Richard Latham QC delivered his closing argument on behalf of the prosecution.
He described both Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr as “accomplished liars”.
What was Ian Huntley charged with?
The jury deliberated for four days before reaching their verdicts against both defendants.
On December 17 2003, they returned a majority verdict of guilty on two counts of murder against Huntley.
Mr Justice Alan Moses sentenced Ian Huntley to two terms of life imprisonment.
The High Court later imposed a minimum term of 40 years.
Huntley’s face displayed no emotion as the verdict was announced.
The mothers of both Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman burst into tears.
Where is Ian Huntley now? Is he in jail?
Ian Huntley must remain in prison until he has served a minimum of 40 years’ imprisonment.
The double murderer is not eligible for parole until 2042.
By which time Huntley would be 68 years old.
Ian Huntley is currently 48 years of age.
He is serving his sentence in HMP Frankland, Co Durham.
Serial killer Levi Bellfield and Sarah Everard‘s killer Wayne Couzens are also at the same prison.
In 2007, Ian finally confessed that he is a paedophile.
He admitted sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl called Hailey Giblin.
Hailey was abused five years before the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
She took out a civil claim for damages against Huntley after police refused to charge him.
Does Ian Huntley have a daughter?
Ian Huntley has a daughter called Samantha Bryan.
Soham murderer Ian groomed and raped Katie Bryan as a teenager.
She subsequently became pregnant with his child, and had his baby.
Katie’s daughter Samantha discovered the child killer was her dad when she Googled him for a school project when she was 14.
The brave teenager waived her anonymity to speak publicly about the monster’s impact on her family’s life.
In 2017, she appeared on Loose Women.
Where was Ian Huntley born, where did he live and where did he work?
Ian Kevin Huntley was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on January 31 1974.
Huntley attended school in Immingham, and later went to Healing Comprehensive School.
As a result of bullying, he joined Immingham Comprehensive at age 13.
In January 1995, Ian Huntley married teenager Claire Evans, although the marriage lasted scarcely one week due to his volatile temper.
On one occasion, he is known to have beaten his wife so extensively she suffered a miscarriage.
When he killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, he was living in Soham.
He lived at 5 College Close and worked at Soham Village College.
Ian Huntley worked as a senior caretaker at the school.
Who was Ian Huntley’s girlfriend?
Ian Huntley was dating Maxine Ann Carr at the time of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman’s murders.
Maxine was the girls’ teaching assistant at St Andrew’s Primary School, the school Holly and Jessica attended.
She lied about her qualifications to get the work.
They began dating in February 1999 after meeting in a Grimsby nightclub.
Within four weeks of meeting, Maxine moved into Huntley’s Barton-upon-Humber flat.
They later moved to a ground-floor flat in Scunthorpe, where Huntley formally proposed to Carr in June 1999.
Maxine overlooked his controlling and abusive behaviour, because she was besotted with him.
What happened to her and did she go to jail?
Maxine Carr willingly pleaded guilty to the charge of perverting the course of justice.
However, she pleaded not guilty to the charge of assisting an offender.
The jury accepted Carr’s pleas that she had only lied to the police because she had actually believed his claims of innocence.
They found her not guilty of assisting an offender.
The judge sentenced Maxine Carr to three-and-a-half years in prison for perverting the course of justice.
While held on remand at Holloway Prison, Maxine regularly enquired as to Huntley’s welfare, and continued to write to him.
She severed all contact with Huntley in December 2002.
Where is Maxine Carr now?
Maxine Carr served just 21 months of her sentence for perverting the course of justice.
The judicial system released her from jail in 2004.
The courts granted her lifelong anonymity.
Why was she given a new identity?
Maxine Carr, now 45, was given a new identity after her release from jail.
The courts handed her a new secret identity amid concerns she would be attacked.
Courts decided she played no part in the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and granted her a fresh start.
She is one of only four former UK prisoners protected by a lifelong anonymity order.
These include child killer Mary Bell, and James Bulger’s murderers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.
What is Maxine Carr’s new name? Where does she live and is she married?
Maxine Carr reportedly married in 2004.
Her new husband’s family spoke to the press and said they were stunned that he could forgive her past.
Of course, her new name, identity and location are top secret.
In 2020, Maxine went into hiding when her identity was exposed online.
A vigilante posted what was apparently a recent photo, along with her alleged alias, location in the country and details of her work.
Police swiftly moved Maxine and her new husband to a safe house ahead of relocating her.
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman’s parents – where are they now?
In 2015, the mum and dad of murdered Soham schoolgirl Holly Wells revealed they had become grandparents.
Holly would have become an auntie if she was still alive.
Mr Kevin Wells, who runs a cleaning and window cleaning business, agreed to become the founding patron of the Grief Encounter charity in 2004.
In 2005, dad Kevin published a book entitled Goodbye, Dearest Holly – a diary of the days after Holly’s disappearance and death.
The family still lives in Soham.
Jessica Chapman’s parents also stayed in Soham, according to reports.
They have stayed out of the spotlight, and tried to protect their remaining two children.
Do you remember the tragic Soham murders – and what do you think of the sentences given to Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix.