Another Woman Missing In England

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.
The youngest — 19-year-old Tania Nicol whose body was found in a pond last week — used to frequent the courtyard of the church, where teenagers often gathered late at night. Often, they would find the young woman sitting alone on the church steps, or leaning against the wall of St. Mary and St. Botolph Church, smoking a cigarette, a dazed expression on her face.

A 79-year-old woman came to tend the grave of her dead husband at the church, saying she'd come early to finish scrubbing the tombstone before dusk. "I now go home before it gets dark," said Lily Marsh, as she unwrapped a bag of plastic roses, hurrying to finish before the light began to fade.

Throughout the town, women spoke of how fear clouded their daily routines.

Town authorities organized shuttle services to get women home from the local council offices, and the council's monthly newsletter was publishing a safety message: "Stick Together" — advising all women in the city to stay off the streets alone. Two of the town's largest employers have equipped their female employees with panic alarms.

Late Thursday night, authorities announced they had deployed officers with special equipment to scan license plates. People with previous violations would be stopped.

"When it first started, people were able to detach themselves and say, it's not something that affects me," explained Terry Hunt, editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, one of the dominant newspapers in eastern England.

"But as it accelerated and more bodies were found, people started feeling it does affect me. They began asking, 'Is he after prostitutes? Or is he after women — and prostitutes just happen to be easier prey?"' he said.

The suspected serial killer reminded Britons of the so-called Yorkshire Ripper who killed 13 women over five years in the 1970s. That killing spree prompted comparisons to Jack the Ripper, the notorious Victorian serial killer who murdered at least five East London prostitutes in 1888.

This time, police found the naked bodies of five prostitutes in just 10 days, beginning Dec. 2, when 25-year-old Gemma Adams was found in a stream. Six days later, Tania Nicol was found in a pond.

On Dec. 10, the naked body of 24-year-old Anneli Alderton was spotted in the woods, after initially being mistaken for a discarded mannequin. On Tuesday, two more bodies were found in the bare field near the highway, one of which was identified as Clennell.

Police are combing through more than 5,500 calls received on a hotline and some 1,000 e-mail tips. More than 200 police officers are on the ground, a number expected to swell to 300 by week's end.

The women showed no signs of violent sexual abuse, Gull said. All five, he said, were known drug users, yet their death has been met with sympathy.

Ipswich, about 70 miles northeast of London, used to be a bustling port in the 19th century. There were nearly 40 brothels in the red light district at the time, but these days the prostitutes ply their trade on a quiet road lined by red-brick houses in the shadow of the town's main soccer stadium.