New DNA clues in hunt for Melanie’s murderer
Find throws new light on 23-year-old mystery
TRACES of DNA were found on rope wrapped around bin liners containing the body of a young woman and may hold the key to finding her killer, police reveal today.
Melanie Hall, 25, a clerical worker at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, was last seen alive in the city’s Cadillacs nightclub at 1.10am on June 9 in 1996.
Her remains were found next to the junction 14 northbound slip road of the M5 in Gloucestershire by workmen cutting grass on October 5, 2009.
There have been 11 arrests during the investigation into Miss Hall’s murder but no one has ever been charged.
Now – ten years after Miss Hall’s body was discovered – Detective Chief Inspector James Riccio, from Avon and Somerset Police, has revealed that inquiries are now focusing on samples of DNA found on a length of blue polypropylene rope wrapped around thin black bin liners which contained her body.
He said: ‘We recovered a 13metre length of 4mm rope from the scene, made up from four separate lengths knotted together. There were four other knots on the rope – a total of seven knots. It’s commercially manufactured rope and commonly used on building sites and for drawing electrical cable through trunking.’
Asked if the DNA traces could be those of the killer, Mr Riccio replied: ‘It is possible.’
Police also believe the area where Miss Hall’s remains were found is ‘key’. They say her body would have been left ‘in haste’ in the undergrowth either on the morning of June 9, 1996, or within a few days of that date.
It is likely the person who disposed of her remains would have driven afterwards on to the northbound M5 and may
‘The family want justice’
have turned off at the Michaelwood service station to use a little-known route back through the local area, detectives say.
Mr Riccio said it was ‘an odd place to dump a body’ and it was ‘highly likely’ that the person was familiar with the area.
He added that police were also keeping an open mind about how many people could have been involved and it was possible that the person who dumped her may not have killed her.
Mr Riccio said: ‘We’re convinced that not only one person knows what happened, maybe a group of people.’ He added: ‘The family want justice, we want justice, and I’m confident we’ll get justice.’
Miss Hall’s father Steve says her family also remain ‘eternally optimistic’ that her killer will be found – although doing so could never heal her loved ones’ pain.
He said: ‘In our family, we will forever grieve for and miss our lovely daughter.
‘She will never fulfil her life’s ambitions, never marry, never have children. Her mother’s lasting memory of her youngest daughter is the day she viewed a battered skull and a few broken bones in the coroner’s office.
‘I take stock. A daughter who is dead, a wife who just stares at the wall, a sister who struggles to get her day together, a 100year-old grandmother who sits in a home with soft memories and a father who puts it in all a box and tries to shut the lid – so we all carry on.’
Miss Hall’s parents have reinstated a £ 50,000 reward for information provided to the police which leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for her murder. To date, Avon and Somerset Police has received 1,751 calls from the public about the case and taken 1,668 statements.
Police are asking for anyone who owned a length – or lengths – of blue polypropylene rope that went missing around June 1996 or knew someone who had rope of this kind and whose behaviour had changed since that date to come forward.
Detectives also want to speak to anyone who saw suspicious activity or a vehicle parked at the crime site at Thornbury in the early hours of June 9 or in the following days.