Double killer Christopher Halliwell had extensive links to the spot where a murdered graduate was dumped 30 years ago, a Mirror investigation can reveal.
Melanie Hall, 25, vanished after leaving a Bath nightclub in the early hours of June 9, 1996. Her remains were finally found 13 years later, 28 miles north, by a slip-road off the M5 in Gloucestershire. Det Chief Insp Ben Lavender said in January that one theory was that the killer had links to Dursley, five miles from where Melanie was dumped.
Electoral roll records now obtained by the Daily Mirror show Halliwell’s sister, Sarah, had been living in the small Gloucestershire town for four years when Melanie was murdered.
View 7 ImagesMelanie Hall’s killer has never been found(Image: Avon and Somerset Constabulary )
And the monster’s mother, Sofia, and stepfather John, lived in neighbouring Nailsworth for 20 years from 1986, the documents reveal. Karen Edwards, mother of Halliwell victim Becky Godden-Edwards, said: “I think it’s too much of a coincidence. This is good evidence, this is solid evidence. I think the police know that he’s committed a lot more crimes. They need to put all the resources into this and investigate this.”
Retired Det Supt Steve Livings, who led the original investigation into Melanie’s disappearance, said of our work: “I think what the Daily Mirror is doing is great.” It comes as Melanie’s dad Steve, 82, this week said he hopes he lives to see her killer brought to justice. The retired building and architecture lecturer said: “If we can actually bring Melanie’s killer or killers into court then at least we’ve done the last thing we can do for her in her name.”
View 7 ImagesSteve Hall hopes to see his daughter’s killer jailed (Image: Avon and Somerset Constabulary )
Melanie was wearing a pale blue silk dress, black suede mule shoes, a cream single breasted jacket and carrying a black satchel-type handbag when she was last seen. They have never been found. Her remains were discovered in October 2009 wrapped in black bin bags and blue nylon rope by the northbound slip road leading on to the M5 at junction 14, heading towards Gloucester.
One of Halliwell’s former friends has now told the Daily Mirror that they would use the Michaelwood service station, around a mile up the road. He said: “Chris knew that junction well. In the 1980s we used to go to those services, when he was doing burglaries all over the region. I think his sister lived nearby and his mum as well. Chris knew the roads all round there. And he’s got a connection to Bath because he used to rob the auction house there in the 1980s.”
View 7 ImagesDCI Ben Lavender of Avon and Somerset Police(Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Mirror)
The next junction up connects to the A419 for Halliwell’s hometown of Swindon. Mr Lavender previously told us that his team were “really interested” in the location where Melanie was found. He said: “One of the hypotheses is did the suspect had links northbound, maybe Dursley, Gloucester area or further and also to Bath. It’s a mystery for us and we would like to have help and I think the key to unlocking it is that the suspect potentially could have links northbound and to Bath.”
Now 62, Halliwell is serving a whole life term for killing Becky, 20, and Sian O’Callaghan, 22. Like Melanie, Becky and Sian were both abducted after leaving nightclubs alone in urban areas and dumped in rural locations in a neighbouring police force area. All three were young, small and had been stripped. Melanie and Sian both suffered brutal head injuries.
View 7 ImagesChristopher Halliwell is serving a whole life term(Image: SWNS.com)
Former Met Det Chief Insp David McKelvey said: “The Daily Mirror’s findings are substantive. Halliwell’s methods match Melanie’s murder, the victim profile fits Halliwell and his sister and mother lived near the deposition site. These people offend in places that they know. This is a very strong line of inquiry that needs to be followed through to the end.”
The Mirror has unearthed a Court of Appeal ruling for former antiques dealer David Critow, 52, which reveals Halliwell was sentenced to nine months in a young offenders institution in 1983 for four burglaries. He targeted houses and isolated churches in Cheltenham, Marlborough and Langley Burrell, close to Bath, the document states.
Halliwell was calling himself Christopher Bentley when he moved in to Critow’s home in Highworth, near Swindon, in 1982 aged 18. The older man was later jailed for plotting the burglarees with Halliwell after the teenager pleaded guilty and gave evidence against him.
View 7 ImagesSian O’Callaghan was murdered in 2011(Image: PA)
Critow told the court: “Those were the words of a convicted thief, a self-confessed liar, a drug addict. They were the words of a rat.” The dealer was later cleared on appeal. Documents obtained from Swindon Magistrates’ Court show after his release Halliwell was charged with a string of burglaries across the south west, including in Cheltenham and Cirencester.
After slipping out of handcuffs and going on the run, he was jailed, aged 22, in January 1986 for four years for stealing almost £100,000 in a string of raids in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Halliwell sold £100,000 worth of stolen goods in Hatton Garden, London’s diamond district, Swindon Crown Court was told.
View 7 ImagesHalliwell murdered Becky Godden-Edwards in 2003(Image: Godden Family / SWNS)
He continued to travel across the country after meeting his first wife and becoming a lorry driver for his father-in-law’s construction company upon his release from jail. Halliwell then became a taxi driver, giving him a perfect cover to stalk his victims and scout out places where he could dump their remains.
He was 47-years-old when he was finally caught in 2011 after he abducted office worker Sian as she made her way home from a night out with friends in Swindon. Halliwell then led detective Steve Fulcher to an isolated field where he buried Becky eight years earlier. But a judge ruled the confession to Becky’s murder breached police rules and was inadmissible, and her case was dropped in 2012 while Halliwell was convicted of Sian’s murder.
View 7 ImagesMelanie Hall vanished in 1996(Image: Avon and Somerset Constabulary )
Tireless campaigning by Karen finally ended in the killer’s 2016 prosecution for her murder and he was handed a whole-life sentence. Karen was played by Imelda Staunton in A Confession, ITV’s 2019 drama about the case with Martin Freeman as Det Supt Fulcher and Joe Absolom as Halliwell.
The latest breakthrough comes seven years after a Mirror investigation made Halliwell the prime suspect in the unsolved murder of a fourth woman. Julie Finley, 23, was abducted from the centre of Liverpool in the early hours of August 5 1994, two years before Melanie’s murder.
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Her naked body was found dumped in a carrot field 12 miles away next to a layby in Rainford on the Lancashire Merseyside border. The Mirror revealed in 2019 that at the time Halliwell was living a few miles away in Aughton, Lancs, while fitting windows in north Wales. Crucially, he was driving an unmarked white D-reg Ford Transit van just like one spotted at the spot where Julie’s body was discovered.
A witness said they had seen a man and woman arguing by the vehcile in the early hours of August 5 1999. Avon and Somerset Police said: “It would be wrong to ignore any previous people who have killed, but there’s nothing in our investigation to suggest Christopher Halliwell is more of a suspect. It’s not a strong line of enquiry for us at the moment.”