Another Woman Missing In England

(CBS/AP)  British police said Friday that they were investigating the case of another missing woman in the area of Ipswich, where a serial killer has taken the lives of five prostitutes, according to British media.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that a man contacted police on Thursday night, saying he had spoken with the missing woman, and that police helicopters were seen flying low over Ipswich all day, only later confirming that they were searching for another person.

According to the reports, police said the missing woman is also believed to have worked as a prostitute in Ipswich.

Two other girls were reported missing several days ago, but were later located by police unharmed.

If the killer or killers — dubbed by local media the "Suffolk Strangler" — did manage to abduct another sex worker from the Ipswich area, it will have been in spite of a massively increased police presence in the area normally frequented by the city's prostitutes.

British media also said the police had narrowed their list of "persons of interest" in the case down to 50.

Investigators have identified the fourth and fifth women believed to be victims of the killer targeting sex workers, as mourners gathered to pay tribute to the slain prostitutes.

The fourth body was identified Thursday as that of a woman who told reporters days before her death she was afraid, but needed to carry on working in the city's red light district to support her heroin habit.

The naked body of 24-year-old Paula Clennell was found in a field flanking a freeway on the outskirts of the tiny town in eastern England. Police said she died from "compression to the neck," but refused to elaborate.

She vanished days after telling a TV reporter she needed to earn money to buy drugs.

Police confirmed Friday morning the identity of the fifth victim, Annette Nichols, 29, who was found in the same area as Clennell. Police said an autopsy on Nichols "failed to determine a clear cause of death."

It emerged Thursday that local police and drug rehabilitation centers were giving prostitutes in Ipswich cash handouts to keep them from working the streets. Some of the girls have continued working in spite of the danger, saying they need the money and have no other options.

"Poor girls," said Angela Marjoram, one of some 50 parishioners who attended a memorial at a 1,000-year-old church for the five slain women.

Inside the hushed pews, the sober congregation interrupted their annual Christmas carol service to light candles for each of the dead women.

Elderly women wiped tears away from beneath their thick glasses, as the vicar read out the names of the prostitutes.

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[caldwellptr]

Thank You.

[adian1-2009]

Considerations regarding the moral worth of a prostitute or drug addict, or if prostitution is a profession and has a social value, is not relevant. If we examine dictionaries of the English language, as well as the translation of that word to French or Spanish or Italian, prostitution, which is accepted as having sexual relations for something valuable in exchange, does not fall into the definition of the concept. No doubt that sexual activity must have been the first social activity between humans, this is to mean, between two individuals of the same group, no matter if you believe in Darwin or in the Bible. What is relevant is that under the British system, which we copied, life is inherently valuable, be it the life of a prostitute or of a saint. We all have the right to life once we are born. We do not kill at birth babies born physically or mentally disabled. We do not make an assessment of the worth of their lives. We just love and take care of them. So, these ladies, without taking into account their occupation or addictions, had the right to life. Whoever took their lives is a murderer and must be found and brought to justice.

[caldwellptr]

Is this a debate over prostitution, or is it about murder?

[mygramma]

jimibear and Mormonman1 -- you make a point but it's ignorant and cold. Prostitution is a profession. You may not like it, but many people think working girls perform a necessary service.

In Nevada, where it's legal except in 2 counties, a county attorney once tried to close down the houses of "ill repute." When he took steps to do so, the public ran him out of office. In fact, one famous brothel was taken over by the Internal Revenue Service for tax evasion by the owner. The IRS ran the brothel for a number of years and not long ago finally sold it.

Since when has the condemnation by blue noses like you ever disuaded a prostitute from practicing her profession? Probably never. The profession has been around since mankind populated the earth and will be until we vanish. The deaths ARE a loss to society, the killer needs to be caught, and the families deserve our empathy.

[mormonman1]

Jimibear,
While the sad truth behind things is something we don't like to often hear - you are making an excellent point here. Good work on giving us a real perspective about what we've actually "lost".

[blazercoach1]

I don't know why I'm saying this here...but I have a tremendous gut instinct that the woman they are NOW searching for...IS the killer.

[mrshyatt]

I do not condone what they did for a living and as for the families I'm sure they were heartbroken at the choices these young woman made. But they in no way deserved what they got. the drug addiction is a sickness, they needed help. Not someone saying they are worthless. I understand what your saying but it still seems cold.

[jimibear]

True, MrShyatt. But here's a point: if they had family that craed about them, what were they doing as streetwalking drug addicts?

Who's heartless there?

I was "thinking out loud", I guess. To amplify: people who have multiple *** partners and intravenous drug addicts are the two highest risk categories for AIDS. As such, a heroin-addicted prostitute is a walking landmine of deadly disease. In a societal sense, I ask again: How great is the loss?

Of course the person doing this is a monster na dhas to be stopped. But the little old ladies saying "Poor little girls" and crying over the victims are the same ones who would have condemned them when they were alive, so those are crocodile tears.

I was simply being pragmatic. In the larger scale, the world would probably be better off with fewer professionally promiscuous drug addicts, I think. It's horrible that someone is murdering women, but I find it hard to feel sorry for someone who, according to what she said to reporters, put hooking to feed the monkey on her back ahead of her own safety.

[mrshyatt]

You do sound heartless. They are a loss to their parents, brothers, sisters and every other person that cared about them.

[jimibear]

Not to sound heartless, but if you are a heroin addict and prostitute, how much of a loss are you?