COLD CASE INQUIRY INTO MISSING W OMEN
further unsolved murders including those of Julie Finley, Carol Clark, Jackie Waines and Yvonne Fitt. Becky’s mum Karen has carried out her own investigations, and in 2017 discovered a possible link between Halliwell and Claudia Lawrence.
Her enquiries uncovered a witness who claimed Halliwell had been seen talking to Claudia through a taxi window before she vanished in York in March 2009.
Identical
Halliwell’s dad l i ved in Huddersfield, an hour from Claudia’s home, giving him a link to the Yorkshire area.
Karen said at the time: “The description of Claudia’s [alleged] murderer is i dentical to [Christopher Halliwell] – a lefthanded smoker, 5ft 8-10ins, with slightly receding hair and a skinny build. Claudia was asking if he had change so she could ring her dad from a call box.” Officers at Wiltshire Police initially refused to say how much they were spending on the cold case review.
They claimed the information would “further perpetuate the distress of the family, friends and those who knew Becky and Sian”.
But after the Sunday People appealed against the decision, cops
admitted the dedicated fund was no more than £40,000. Retired police chief Kevin Moore, who led a review into the hunt for 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s killer Levi Bellfield, 50, said: “In policing terms this figure is peanuts.”
Mr Moore revealed he once spent £700,000 on a forensic dig linked to Scottish serial killer Peter Tobin.
The ex- Chief Superintendent of Sussex Police said: “£40,000 will not go very far at all. What it says to me is that this is simply an appeasement exercise because the force are under pressure and Halliwell’s crimes won’t go away.
“They need to be seen to be doing something.
“But if you consider the costs of forensics, especially on the 60 items of clothing they discovered, this is a drop in the ocean.”
Halliwell murdered Sian
O’callaghan just two minutes after she got into his cab in Swindon on March 19, 2011. She had been brutally beaten and stabbed.
Having guided cops to the remote spot where he had dumped her body, Halliwell suddenly confessed: “I’m a sick f***er. I need help. Do y ou want another one?”
The fiend then revealed where cops could find Becky’s body – who police did not even know was missing.
Catching a double le killer led to Det Supt Fulcher being hailed a hero by the families and twice nominated for the Queen’s Police Medal. But his decision to break police guidelines and drive Halliwell to where he thought Sian might be found alive, instead of taking him to the police station for a formal interview, cost him his job. Halliwell was convicted in 2016 of murdering Becky and given a whole life sentence.
Det Supt Jeremy Carter, of Wiltshire Police, said: “The figure of £40,000 does not cover any of the t salaries of those working on this case but relates purely to specialist work such as a forensic digs and searches, s and specific expert ex advice.
“Officers working on this case carry out a vast amount of work w as part of their daily duties which would not be captured in this figure.
“The force continue to maintain dedicated staff who work on this job.”
Voice of the Sunday People: P14