The Suffolk Strangler

Most people know Suffolk for its villages, coast and countryside – not for headline grabbing crime. But in 2006, this county became the centre of the UK’s most serious and closely watched police investigations. Over about six weeks, the bodies of five women were found in and around Ipswich, their sudden disappearances and deaths shocking local communities and news outlets across the country.

The man eventually convicted for those crimes became widely known in the media as the ‘Suffolk Strangler’. This name captured headlines and captured people’s minds. But the real story involves an intense police investigation, forensic science and much more.

In late October to December 2006, five women went missing from the Ipswich area. Their ages ranged from late teens to late twenties, police mounted one of the largest and most complex investigations in Suffolk’s history, using CCTV, DNA evidence, phone records and witness interviews to build a picture of what had happened.

Eventually, Steve Wright – a local man – was arrested and charged with the murders of Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Tania Nicol, Annette Nicholls and Paula Clennell. In 2008, he was found guilty of all five murders and given a whole life prison sentence. The sudden disappearances of these five women caused fear and confusion, the investigation involved hundreds of detectives and officers.

For many years Wright’s conviction focused solely on the 2006 crimes, so why is it relevant today? Well, in February 2026 at London’s Old Bailey he pleaded guilty for the first time to a much earlier murder; the killing of 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999.

Victoria was a local teenager from Trimley St Mary who vanished after leaving a nightclub in Felixstowe one night in September 1999. Her body was found days later in a rural area of Suffolk, and the case stayed unsolved for more that 26 years while her family waited for answers.

Forensic technology, particularly DNA analysis, and a careful review of old evidence, detectives were able to link Wright to Victoria’s disappearance and murder. On the 6^th February 2026, he was sentences to life in prison again for her kidnapping and murder, with a minimum of 40 years of more added to his sentence.

Police also revealed that the night before Victoria Hall disappeared, Wright had tried to abduct another woman in Felixstowe, but she managed to get away and tell the police what had happened. This connection helped detectives see pattern that linked the 1999 case to the later 2006 murders.