Did tragic Melanie fall prey to serial killer Halliwell?
EXPERT REVEALS NEW LINK TO UNSOLVED MURDER OF UNI GRADUATE
A DOSSIER linking serial killer Christopher Halliwell to an unsolved murder has been sent to police.
Detectives are looking at evidence linked to the disappearance of Melanie Hall, in Bath, in June 1996.
The new info has been supplied by cold case expert Chris Clark.
The remains of university graduate Melanie were found by a workman 13 years after she went missing.
Her killer has never been bought to justice.
Former intelligence officer Clark believes Melanie’s abduction bears the hallmarks of Halliwell’s gruesome death spree.
He said: “The method and other evidence point towards Halliwell.
“There is ‘similar fact evidence’ linking Halliwell to the scene and they are compelling.
“I have sent my dossier to the police and they are looking into it.”
Clerical worker Melanie was last seen at Cadillacs nightclub in Bath.
She is then believed to have left with a man. A couple were later spotted arguing and a man was seen trying to drag a woman into a car park backing on to the Kennet and Avon canal.
Clark says there is an uncanny similarity between Halliwell and photofits of the suspect.
The man was said to be in his 20s, 5ft
10in, with dark hair and a deep tan. At the time, the taxi driver was
32 with similar characteristics.
A few days later, a couple reported hearing a man on a narrowboat talking about Melanie.
Halliwell was a narrowboat fanatic with his own vessel, and used the Kennet and Avon canal.
Clark believes the suspect could have been him.
The sadist also disposed of the bodies of his victims in a different county from where they were snatched.
Melanie was abducted in Somerset but her body was found beside the M5 near Bristol.
Blue rope used to tie up Melanie’s
remains was identical to the rope often used on narrowboats.
Clark added: “The circumstantial evidence adds up. I have sent my findings to Avon and Somerset Police and hope they will investigate.”
Halliwell is serving life for killing clubber Sian O’Callaghan, 22, and Becky Godden-Edwards, 20.
The divorced father-of-three had access to 80 taxi cabs and would drive fares across the UK.
He would also often travel around the canal network in the north of England.
Previously, Clark has linked Halliwell to three unsolved murders: Donna Keogh, 17, disappeared in 1998; vice girl Vicky Glass, 21, in 2001; and sex worker Rachel Wilson, 19, vanished in May 2002.
They all went missing in a small area around the former Shipmate pub, in central Middlesbrough.
The area was well-known to Halliwell. Clark was interviewed by the joint force Major Investigation Team (MIT) in 2016 about his findings.
The MIT is a collaboration between Avon and Somerset Police and Wiltshire Police.
A spokesperson for MIT confirmed it had received the dossier.
But they said currently there is no direct evidence linking Halliwell with the murder of Melanie Hall.
‘The way she was killed and other key evidence points to Halliwell’