Hampshire Constabulary

Since January 11, 2008, police have received more than 1029 calls from members of the community, taken 1729 statements and more than 720 people have viewed the Operation Columbian appeal video on You Tube.

Below are examples of some of these calls, how they have helped the investigation, and why people need to keep coming forward with information.

January 16, 2008 - A man from the Colden Common area telephoned to inform us that in 2004 his wife's handbag was stolen from their property and in the following hours attempts were made to withdraw cash at an ATM in Bishopstoke. This is exactly the type of offence we are interested in and although we have conducted extensive research we know not all crimes are reported and would urge members of the public who have been victims of such crimes within this area or know of such victims to contact us.

January 26, 2008 - A man phoned in to say a road close to the crime scene was the subject of resurfacing by a team of males in the months preceding the offence and suggested they may have knowledge. This was a line of enquiry that was followed up and we would urge any tradesmen, delivery drivers, other workmen, or visitors to the area not yet seen by enquiry officers to contact us as they can easily be eliminated.

January 15, 2009 - A man phoned in to say he was out walking his dog close to the crime scene on the day in question and did not see anything suspicious. There were a number of sightings of males close to the scene on the day of the murder who have yet to be identified - it is calls such as these that help reduce the number of unidentified males within the enquiry and helps focus the enquiry.

January 27, 2009 - A man out walking his dog in Otterbourne Woods found a torch in the undergrowth and thought it might be connected to the incident. This may have been important as it was possible due to the winter months that the offender at some stage used or was in possession of a torch - the informant was visited by enquiry team officers, a statement was taken and the torch was recovered for forensic examination.

January 28, 2009 – a woman phoned to say she had lunch with a friend at the garden centre on the day of the murder and after lunch they walked along the footpath nearby and saw a female jogger. A full description was subsequently obtained of the informant and her friend along with the jogger. As a result the jogger was later traced and eliminated. This one message resulted in three existing unidentified subjects within the enquiry database being traced and eliminated.

A man phoned in to say he used to do door to door collections in the area and many of the local residents should be able to provide details of people who regularly deliver to or collect from houses in the area. We would urge anyone with knowledge of regular callers or deliverers, especially those within the Brambridge area during the day to contact us. We would also like to speak to anyone who had a regular male caller up until January 2008 who has since stopped.

We have received numerous calls about abandoned fluorescent jackets, handbags, purses, training shoes, knives and telephones. These have all been responded to and where property has been recovered we have been able to subject it to forensic examination to identify links to the murder.

We have received two calls about Radley handbags matching the victims being sold around the Eastleigh area on E-bay. This opened up a significant line of enquiry for the investigation team and we would urge anyone who purchased, found or was offered a second hand bag Radley handbag, matching the victim's, in the months following January 11, 2008 to contact us.

A large number of calls have been received from people living locally to the ATM who have named other local residents as using the ATM, matching the description of the man in the florescant jacket. All of these nominated people have been seen by the inquiry team and have been eliminated from the investigation. We would urge members of the community to continue assisting us and giving us names of people who match the description.