Victoria Hall

Victoria Hall went missing after a night out in Felixstowe and was found dead in a stream 25 miles away in Creeting St Peter near Stowmarket five days later.

A man was tried for her murder but acquitted in November 2001.

She had lived in Faulkeners Way, Trimley St Mary.

It was said that the man that was tried had been seen near Victoria Hall's home on the night of her murder and that mud found on the accelerator pedal of his Porsche car was similar to mud from the place that she was found dead. It was also said that he had lied to the police about where he had been at the time Victoria Hall had vanished.

On the night she vanished she had been out to the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe with a friend with whom she had walked home with afterwards. The friend said that they had stopped to buy chips on their way back and that when they had got within a few hundred yards of their homes at about 2.25am, at the junction of Faulkeners Way and Trimley High Road, they had said goodnight and parted.

Evidence was heard that the man tried for her murder, who ran a newspaper, had been to the Bandbox nightclub on the 19 September 1999 during a pub crawl and had later been dropped off in a taxi a few hundred yards from where Victoria Hall was last seen at about 2.30am. It was then heard that at about the same time a witness heard two screams followed by the roar of a throaty exhaust which was claimed to have been the man that was tried's Porsche 944 car.

The man tried had said that he had got out of the taxi that he had taken back home after his night out outside his home, which was about half a mile away from where Victoria Hall lived. However, two other girls that he had shared the taxi with had said that he got out a few yards from where Victoria Hall and her friend had said good night and parted.

It was also heard that the man would often park his Porsche car at his father's house which was nearby, close to the roundabout.

She was found five days later on Friday 25 September 1999 by a dog walker, naked in a ditch full of water near Creeting St Peter, 25 miles away. It was determined by the contents of her stomach that she had died about two hours after parting with her friend at 2.25am.

It was said that there was no sign of her having been sexually assaulted or strangled and it was thought that she had been suffocated. Her only injury was a bruise on her back.

About ten days after she vanished the man that was tried had visited a female client that had heard the throaty exhaust on the night of the murder and said that she was immediately struck by the similarity of the sound of his exhaust to that which she had heard previously.

The man tried for her murder was later arrested on 18 December 2000.

The man tried had admitted drinking 10 pints of beer on the night as well as several vodkas.

However, it was noted that no one had seen his car in the area and that a geologist for his defence said that the soil that was alleged to have linked him to the scene could have come from elsewhere in East Anglia.

In September 2019 the police released photos relating to the crime scene as well as pictures of the sorts of clothes she had been wearing on the night, a black dress and tan jacket, and black high heel shoes that had been fixed with sticky tape. It was also stated that she had been carrying a black oval-shaped purse and a house key that had a fob that said 'Vicky' across the top and 'Victoria' down the sides. She also had a gold hair pin. In September 2020 the police said that they had received several new lines of enquiry followinf their appeal which resulted in 90 phone calls.

The police also released pictures of two separate events in which people were filmed going to the field where Victoria Hall was found dead. The first was on 7 October 1999, a month after Victoria Hall's body was found when a man in a van pulled up and got out and looked around the field. The second was on 18 October 1999 shortly after dark at 7.47pm when some people arrived at the same field entrance and got out and looked around with torches. The police said that they were keen to trace both sets of people.

Victoria Hall had been a sixth-former at Orwell High School in Felixstowe where she had been studying for three A-levels.

On 28 July 2021 it was reported that a man had been arrested on suspicion of her murder, however, he was later released under investigation although the police said in July 2022 that they were making good progress and he was re-arrested on 7 December 2023. It is thought that the man arrested was a known serial killer who is currently in custody after having murdered several prostitutes in 2006. The man was charged with her murder on 23 May 2024 and first appeared in court on 2 September 2024 and ws due next on 24 September 2024.