Profile of Steve Wright I The forensic evidence in diagrams

In the end it was science rather than shoe leather that caught a serial killer who had taken five lives.

With the police seemingly unaware of the identity of the murderer who was selecting prostitutes to kill under their noses, the hope was that the scientists at the Forensic Science Service (FSS) would be able to find the clue that would lead to an arrest.

As each body was found in December 2006 the scientists’ workload increased as they examined minutely clothes, shoes, single fibres and anything else that was found at the deposition sites. Of the 275 scientists employed at the centre in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, 250 were working on the case.

The scale of the inquiry, with five bodies found in ten days, meant that the police were struggling to keep up. Three hundred officers - from nearly every force in the country and including specialist search teams and behavioural experts – were called in to help.

Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, of Suffolk police, said they were in “completely uncharted territory” and he admitted that they were overwhelmed.

Although dozens of police were patrolling the relatively small red-light district in Ipswich, prostitutes were still disappearing, turning up days later naked and dead.

Steve Wright had twice been stopped by the police and questioned as he drove around the area in his blue Ford Mondeo. On one occasion, within minutes of being questioned, he could not control his “urges” and picked up another prostitute, checking his rear-view mirror to make sure that the police were not following him.

A source said: “Undoubtedly Wright would not have been arrested when he was without the DNA link. Officers had spoken to him but he was nowhere near being a main suspect.”

Two girls had already been found dead, lying naked in a brook that had washed away evidence that the forensic scientists needed. But the third, Anneli Alderton, was found on dry land. Her body had been posed in a cruciform position with her hair splayed out behind her.

There were high hopes that an incriminating clue could be found.

Late on December 14, 2006, a postmortem examination was carried out and the scientists in Huntingdon were anxiously waiting to test any samples that were found on her body.

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