The Mystery Predator Caught 26 Years After Teen Murder | Nightmare In Suburbia | Absolute Crime

Colette Aram was a 16-year-old British trainee hairdresser who was abducted as she walked home from her boyfriend’s house in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, on 30th October 1983. The murder was the first case to be featured on the BBC television series Crimewatch when it began in June 1984.

Absolute Crime is your go-to channel for the best crime documentaries. Subscribe for your weekly dose of crime shows, serial killers, thieves and prison stories.

Subscribe here: https://tinyurl.com/AbsoluteCrime

#TrueCrime #Documentaries #CrimeDocumentaries

In October 1983 the Nottinghamshire suburb of keyworth was rocked by the sudden disappearance of 16-year-old Colette arum I just knew kette so well she was so predictable I knew something was wrong and I knew that I had to phone the police as a massive police investigation was launched detectives became aware they

Were dealing with a predator intent on committing a vile and vicious attack this crime understandably ripped Colette’s family apart and keyworth itself has never been the same syrs but this was a crime destined to taunt detectives and Colette’s family for a quarter of a century he would have

Seen the publicity about this case over the many years and just remained his cool calm individual that um the family thought he was I feel like I’ve been punished he was getting on with his life as far as I could see whereas he destroyed ours he destroyed my family it destroyed my

Marriage but Nottingham Shire police remained determined to catch ket’s killer however long it Took The Sleepy suburb of keyworth lies to the southeast of the city of Nottingham ke a very nice Village um there was very good Community Spirit there I would say it’s quite an affluent area in the early 1980s keyworth was home to the arum family parents Jackie and Tony and their two teenage children

Mark and Colette we are a lovely family really nice people to know love the kid to bits and their youngest child 16-year-old kette was the perfect daughter she was vivacious bubbly a bit giddy at times she could never see any bad in anyone and she cared about other people too she

Was a loyal best friend kette was a lovable person great to get on with everybody liked kette she was one of these people you could trust the 16-year-old was enjoying a new more independent lifestyle having recently left school and started an apprenticeship as a hairdresser I think she would have been

Very good in the hairdressing profession she was quite an Arty person and she was very interested in the beauty side too she also liked spending time with her boyfriend they had been seeing each other 6 months and they were nice loving couple uh suited to each

Other at just 16 Colette had her whole life ahead of her if Colette was here now I would like to think that she was still this happy gol lucky love life love people person that she was all those years ago but in 1983 the arum family was to experience the most

Devastating series of events the 30th of October was just like any other day Colette wanted to make cakes we had our tea together and had some of the cake and then she went and got herself ready to go out to her boyfriends Colette’s boyfriend would usually pick her up in his car however

On this one particular night he didn’t have the use of any transport she came in and said that his car was off the road and she said it was a nice night and she wanted to walk but Jackie wasn’t happy with the arrangement I said no you know I’m going

To take you in the car and she said no Mom I don’t want you to it’s a nice night I want to walk any are you sure Jackie refused to back down but Colette was determined to walk fine not asleep eventually I said to okay you know if you’re insistent just be

Very careful and you make sure that you’re home for about half 9 and she said okay mom we’ll do byebye Colette left her home at around 7:50 p.m. on Sunday the 30th of October 1983 she put her arms around me and said love you love you very much and I’ll see

You later that was it and she left the house that was the very last time I saw her the walk from Colette’s house to her boyfriends would normally take around 20 minutes just after she left Colette’s boyfriend telephoned the house hi he just asked if she was at

Home and I said no she said to Telly that she’d walked up nicah hill to your house and he said okay then I’ll go on my bike and I’ll meet her several minutes later the telephone rang again he phoned back and said I thought you said Colette was walking up nicker

Hill but I’ve been all the way around the village on my bike and I can’t see her anywhere when he said that the alarm Bells went and I just knew something was wrong she’s not there I knew my daughter I knew is so well and I knew that if

She’d gone anywhere or called in at anyone’s house on the way she would have made sure that she’d have founded me but Colette hadn’t called and Jackie started to panic I was thinking that maybe a car or something had hit her and that she was lying in a hedge bottom she’d been

Knocked over and I can remember I think it was my neighbor who said to me look Jackie you know this is keyworth you know stop worrying nothing like this ever happens and I said it might be keyworth but there’s a first time for everything and I’m telling you something has happened to my Daughter on Sunday the 30th of October 1983 16-year-old hairdresser kette arum set out on a simple Journey a 20-minute walk to her boyfriend’s house but when she failed to appear Colette’s boyfriend was instantly concerned and raised the alarm I said to my husband there’s something wrong Colette hasn’t arrived

At the boyfriend’s house and he can’t see her anywhere in the village and I said we need to phone the Police Jackie telephoned the police to report her daughter missing please please I didn’t feel awkward I didn’t feel embarrassed or anything I just said she’s missing she hasn’t arrived at where she was supposed to be and they just said how can you say a 16-year-old

Girl is Missing at 8:00 at night and I said easy when it’s my daughter because she’s so predictable well they asked me actually what time does she normally come home and I said she’s never home any later than half 9 and they said okay well if she hasn’t

Arrived home by half 10 phone is back again Jackie and her husband Tony were determined to find their daughter and immediately formulated a plan I said to Tony you know we can’t leave it that length of time you have to go and drive around and see if you can

See her meanwhile Jack ja started to phone anyone who might have seen her daughter I rang my a and I rang my friend who lived on Route and I I believe I rang a couple of her friends it was like everything was a blur because I was in such a

Panic but no one had seen or heard from Colette Jackie then joined the search it got to half 9 and she still wasn’t home and and I said to Tony I can’t stand this any longer I am not waiting till half 10 to phone the police again I have to phone them

Now when the police arrived Jackie LED them to retrace the route kette should have taken the concern kicked in very very quickly because was that time we didn’t know what had happened we didn’t even know if anything had happened there was no signs of there having been an accident or a struggle

There was nothing no clues nothing it was like she’d disappeared Into Thin Air as they reached the early hours the police officers were forced to suspend the search but Jackie’s night was far from Over the police said they’d come the following morning but we never went to

Bed that night we sat up all night and periodically I had stopped to panic and say you know what can we do to find her so I found every hospital that I could imagine and no one had had an accident reported or a girl bought in from a car

Accident so I knew that something was Far Far More Sinister early the next morning a local man began his drive to work a businessman who was just going to a local Farm saw what he he thought was something suspicious uh in one of the fields as he went along the man turned

His car around and drove back down the lane to investigate he wasn’t sure what he’d seen but he suspected he’d seen a body in the field the man stopped his car he saw what appeared to be a naked girl laying in the field quite clearly she was Dead the businessman did not know the girl but her name would hned him forever he had just discovered the lifeless body of 16-year-old hairdresser kette Arum there was blood at the scene I believe it was coming from a head wound it was clear that she had suffered a sexual assault overall it was not a pleasant side Colette had been found just off Thurby Lane l than 2 miles from her home whilst the detectives were securing

The crime scene Colette’s brother and grandfather arrived Mark and my stepfather got to Furby Lane as the police had actually just putting the Cordon up instinctively Mark jumped out of the car and raced over to the crime scene the police tried to stop them from going into the field but not before Mark

Was able to get in far enough to actually see Colette lying in the Hedge bottom and see the light way she was lying there what Mark saw has changed his life forever it’s had a big big impact on his life he still can’t talk about Colette easily these

Days Mark and his grandfather returned home faced with the horrifying Prospect of having to break the news of Colette’s death to Jackie and the rest of her family as Mark got out of the car I saw this officer shake his head to the officer at the bottom of the drive and I

Knew as soon as I saw him do that I knew that she was dead that my worst fears were true and I just I just remember all these screams really loud screams my Screams whilst the family tried to accept the shocking news of Colette’s murder detectives set up an incident room in a nearby sports Pavilion I was a young detective at that time and like many other detectives I was stationed in the instant room uh at keyworth which is where all the

Information perent to that inquiry was filtered through within hours the police officers made an intriguing Discovery police officers came across a car which they believe they recognized as one that had been reported stolen the previous day detectives were soon able to confirm the car a red Ford Fiesta was the

Vehicle that had been reported missing obviously alarm Bells start to ring uh because you’ve had two strange incidents that happen collect being missing stolen car found in the vicinity we’d be failing our duty if we hadn’t given a lot of thoughts to that car even at the very early

Stage the car was stolen 5 miles away from keywood in an area called home Pier Pont earlier on in that day at about half 4 a lady had had gone to tend to her horses and she’d parked up her red Fiesta motor car left the keys into it

And as she’d gone away from the vehicle the vehicle was stolen and she thought it was an opportunist who drove it away as the detectives learned more about the theft they became convinced the car was connected to Colette’s murder at the scene where Colette was found there were tie tracks in and out

Of the field and there was no mud on Colette’s soles of her feet that would indicate that um she’ probably been attacked in the vehicle that was suspected to have been involved in this offense and sadly deposited in the field and uh the offender driven away the detectives painstakingly examined the

Car for any signs of a struggle and discovered both blood and Seaman stains within hours of the media reporting Colette’s murder police officers were inundated with information from potential Witnesses information came to the police attention that as she walked to her boyfriend’s house she saw a couple of

Groups of people had brief conversations with them as far as the people were concerned there was there was no suggest suggestion that Colette was being followed or anything and she just seemed a normal cheerful self eyewitness reports revealed that Colette was last seen on the junction of

Nicol Lane and plat Lane walking towards Willow Brook as expected but it was another local witness Who provided the police with a chilling piece of information a man had been working in his garden when he heard a scream he also heard a car skiding he went to his

Gate to have a look but he couldn’t see anything of course he thought nothing more about it but pass that information as soon as he was aware that had been the instant this latest piece of information suggested Colette had been taken just moments after the last sighting as the investigation progressed

Ket’s family struggled to cope with the traumatic circumstances surrounding her brutal murder you’ve got the initial shock of yeah you know all your worst fears have been confirmed and then you suddenly realize yeah you know this is for Real it’s not a dream she’s never going to come

Home knowing that she’d actually been raped and murdered she was murdered for sex if you like for want of a better word and I find that very very difficult to come to terms with and when Colette’s friends heard the news they were de stated my friend suzan told me that CL had been

Murdered um didn’t quite believe it at the time um and she said Nick’s got the paper Wendy looked at the evening newspaper and couldn’t believe what she read it was there in black and white that she’d been found murdered but I just didn’t want to talk all I did was cry it

Was a total total shock as details of the vicious murder continued to spread not one but two crucial Witnesses came forward two young girls who came forward who separately had actually seen the man and been disturbed by his behavior at that time the first girl was just

Walking from house to house in keyworth during that early evening prior to collap being abducted and was definitely followed by the man in the red vest she didn’t speak to him and he didn’t speak to her but his behavior the way was looking at her alarmed her and she immediately went to

A friend’s house nearby to get away from him at 7:30 p.m. the man approached the second girl who was 14 years old she was exercising a dog and I actually saw him and he stopped nearby when she looked at him he asked for the direction of a nearby

Road the girl kept on walking but was surprised when the same car pulled up next to her about 10 minutes later the man got out of the car and walked towards her the man seemed surprised by the girl’s dog suddenly he turned on his heels and left once the two girls came forward

They were interviewed at Great length and they were able to give us a good description of the man which was vital to subsequent inquiries by questioning the two girls in detail the detectives were able to build a picture of of what Colette’s murderer looked like the composite

Description was of a white male about 5′ 10 stocky build with wavy hair without a shadow of a doubt those two teenage girls were extremely lucky not to have been abducted and and subjected to the assault that kette was subjected to these two new Witnesses were very

Important but there was more to come detectives were about to speak to the investigation’s most important eyewitness whose testimony was to prove vital the land lady explained to the detectives that she’d seen this stranger in the pub uh with what appeared to be blood on his Hands on the evening of Sunday the 30th of October 1983 16-year-old kette arum disappeared as she walked to her boyfriend’s house ket’s body was discovered the next morning of abandoned in a nearby Field a postmortem revealed she had endured a serious sexual assault before being strangled the police appealed for

Information through newspapers and television generating a wealth of leads the information provided by one eyewitness who came forward was to prove crucial the land lady from the generous Britain Public House at Costo told the police that a stranger had visited the PO on Sunday the 30th of October between

About 8:50 and 9:15 p.m. the man explained he was in the area to visit a friend but had lost his way then the land lady noticed something unusual during the conversation she noed he got some blood on his hands and she commented to him he appeared generally

Surprised he then went through to the jent’s toilet to where he wash it off uh and used the paper towels that were in there despite her never having served a customer with blood on his hands before the land lady had no specific reason to be suspicious but it’s only when she the

Following day that she heard about the murder of kette and immediately telephone to the police police officers headed straight over to the pub they search through the gent’s toilet and they took possession of the paper towels from there uh including one where to there eye appeared to have

Blood on it forensic scientists were able to prove the paper towel did have blood on it but techniques available in 1983 could barely identify what blood type it was let alone reveal whose body it had come from it didn’t particularly take the inquiry uh further because you

We didn’t know whose blood it was at that time the investigation continued but on the 17th of November 1983 the detectives were surprised to receive a very peculiar letter the letter was written with a with a straight edge obviously to disguise the handwriting and an exclamation mark had been put in place

Instead of the S why is still not known to this day the letter goed the detectives over their inability to catch him there was certain information in there that was not in the public domain hence the detectives at the time believed the letter was genuine and that the perpetrator had actually written the

Letter the author of The Letter betrayed his identity with a foolish mistake forensic experts found a fingerprint just above the line you will never get me it’s significant that fingerprints were were left on the letter but I think it was an accidental Mark the letter was examined and checked on the databases

That existed in those days but sadly no hits the days turned to weeks the weeks turned to months hard work was continued we were running a full incident room uh and taken a lot of Manpower because it was felt that it was an important case one that we needed to throw whatever

Resource we got at it but despite the evidence found in the early stages of the inquiry detectives were unable to identify Colette arum’s killer and as time passed newer crimes began to demand their attention we didn’t actually close it down all together at that time but it

Was reduced after about 12 months to 18 months because we were getting nothing new on this particular inquir to justify us carrying on there were no more leads they never actually knocked on the door and said you know we have to shove this we can’t continue with the

Investigation I just thought that they weren’t doing anything about it anymore Colette’s mother was devast stated I’m thinking well you know he’s got away with this and he was out there living his life wherever he was and it wasn’t bothering him and he didn’t have any form of conscience really you know

All these things go through your mind and eventually this was one of the reasons I went to live Abroad but in the late 1980s detective work was revolutionized by the introduction of DNA profiling each one of us has a unique DNA profile the police began to use forensic science to identify perpetrators of Crimes by analyzing any bodily fluids skin or hair left at the scene of a

Crime if you could prepare a DNA profile from something deposited by the offender you could then challenge the national DNA database and potentially identify somebody and in 1997 Dr Tim Clayton was given the task of using DNA analysis to identify Colette arum’s elusive killer my remit was to try and prepare a

DNA profile from anything that may relate to the offender for which we could then search against the National Database and I was fairly optimistic that we would be able to at least attempt DNA profiling we still had some collect clothing and some various other items like the car mats and various

Swabbing taken from the vehicle there were also some of the postmortem samples available as well but there was a risk Dr Clayton was well aware that his investigations could have repercussions you’ve got a limited amount of material available and the question is do you commit it to testing

Now and effectively consume it and destroy it or do you leave it and think there may be future developments which will give me better tests and better opportunities and that was the Dilemma that I faced in 1997 Dr Clayton decided to do everything he could to identify the DNA profile of the

Killer it’s no good having it all in the freezer if it remains undetected and I’d rather do it and fail than not Advance a case using samples taken from the postmortem the scientist was able to identify Colette’s DNA profile but UNT fortunately he had less success when

Trying to identify the profile of her killer most of the exhibits that we tested a lot of recovered hairs and things just failed to yield a profile because there was simply insufficient DNA present Dr Clayton hoped to have more luck with a set of sealed microscope slides containing Seaman samples recovered during the

Postmortem those microscope slides had been kept so I’d got there a little Time Capsule a little sample of sperm from Colette’s body which had been sealed and so they were obviously a target for us the forensic scientists got to work as it turned out we didn’t get the

Result we wanted we got a partial result not a full result a full DNA profile features 20 markers 10 that come directly from each parent Dr Clayton had found just three in the event it didn’t help progress the inquiry much other than provide the partial profile and maybe

Eliminate some Persons of Interest from the investigation even the paper towel recovered from the generous Britain Pub failed to produce any fresh clues in 1997 the main object was to try and identify a potential offender I’d failed in that regard and um eventually the 97 review was wound down But the murder of Colette arum would continue to haunt the residents of Nottingham and Nottingham sh police remained Resolute in their determination to catch the 16-year-old’s killer when this crime happened it it rocked notam Shire and keyworth itself has never been the same since in 2004 the case was to

Get a new lease of life when detective superintendent Kevin Flint was appointed head of Nottingham sh police is homicide unit every person that’s been involved in this investigation has wanted to bring it to a close so I was determined there anyone else that had worked on it

To try and bring it to a successful conclusion believing that new advances in DNA analysis could help identify ket’s killer detective superintendent Flint launched a fresh investigation into her murder we ran the investigation as though it was a murder that had occurred today with a dedicated inquiry

Team this case was so big there was so much information that had been gleaned if that answer was there to be found we’d find It over the next 2 years the team painstakingly analyzed every last detail of the case there was in excess of 2 and a half thousand statements 5,000 documents up to nearly 700 exhibits everything was placed on the home’s computerized system so that we could examine and identify

Any new leads in the inquiry Dr Tim Clayton was also employed to reexamine all forensic evidence pertinent to the investigation I have to say I was quite pessimistic because in 1997 I’d thought I’d used everything that was left we gradually built up a picture of what exhibits were left and came up with

A a batting plan of what to test now one of the key exhibits was the paper towel although I was still skeptical whether it was even linked to this particular matter using improved DNA analysis methods developed during the 24 years since the police had first found the

Paper towel the scientist was able to search for traces of blood and semen we picked up mixtures of DNA effectively people’s DNA profiles superimposed on each other and when I looked at these most of these mixtes appear to be just two people one male one female intrigued

Dr Clayton compared the sample to the one full DNA profile he had recovered in 1997 that of Colette Aon it matched and here we are potential link between CL and a paper towel found in a pub toilet miles and miles away and suddenly the land lady story took on a

Better and higher significance because now we potentially got a positive link between kette and this paper town suddenly Dr Clayton realized he was finally on the brink of discovering the full DNA profile of kette arum’s murderer it was possible to subtract ket’s profile from these mixtures I was

Able to work out his DNA profile unambiguously exactly in order to be sure all the evidence was pointing to the same man the scientist ran the results against the partial profile identified back back in 1997 the partial DNA profile obtained from the microscope slide in 1997 was a match against this

Male 24 years after the murder Dr Clayton had finally identified the full DNA profile of Colette’s killer it was another significant boost and lift to the enquiry and we knew that we were on the right lines Dr Clayton immediately hoped he would find the Killer’s DNA profile already on the National Database

He ran the search we got told almost immediately that there were no matches on the national DNA database in the space of probably a few hours we’ve gone from being elated to being quite disappointed I had on a piece of paper in front of me the DNA profile of KX

Killer but it tolds me nothing about him without somebody to compare that to it’s effectively a useless piece of information right people the team were also disappointed by the news and wondered how someone who had committed such a horrendous crime could be absent from all police databases throughout the investigation

The consideration was that the person could be dead and obviously that brings with it the feeling that that person’s got away with it both from a police perspective and Colette’s family so it was still important to eliminate them or identify the person if he was

Dead back in the lab Dr Tim Clayton was Keen to utilize another form of DNA analysis known as familial searching first deegree relatives that’s parents or children or siblings along the same generation have much more similar DNA profiles than do unrelated people by searching the DNA database for

Profiles with high similarities to the killer it might be possible to identify one of his close relatives the search for the parent child list yielded several thousand people and The Sibling list again gave several thousand people so although you’ve reduced the pool no longer we’re looking for now a

Needle in a hay stack we’re now looking for a needle in a hay bale the scientist identified three groups of 100 people who had the closest DNA match to the killer the first group were the parent child matches the next 100 were the sibling matches and the final list featured Persons of Interest

Already named within the inquiry there weren’t the resources to go down those lists further than that it took nearly 18 months of work to screen out 300 People in 2008 as the 25th anniversary of Colette’s brutal murder approached detective superintendent Flint launched a fresh appeal for information we published a leaflet and delivered it to up to 20,000 homes in and around Nottinghamshire it was the first time that we’d publicized the fact we’d got a

Full profile and we we wanted it to be known that we were able to identify the killer the campaign generated hundreds of New Leads there were lots of positive enquiries and and lots of good information and lots of good um potential Persons of Interest despite a positive response the

Detectives were still unable to identify Colette’s killer we thought that a 25-year push would give us something with the number of Cs that we investigated we were obviously very disappointed you think where do we go next with this is there any more the key line of inquiry remained with the familial

DNA however in Spring 2009 18 months after first run running a familial search of the Killer’s DNA the team concluded their investigations of the 300 people identified as it turned out none of the people on the prioritized lists had the same profile and effectively all the top 300 people had all been

Eliminated the reinvestigation into Colette’s murder was starting to look as if it had hit another brick wall Mr Flint said I think we’re at the at the end now we’ve given this a really good go is there anything else we can do now before we put this to bed and say we

We’ve tried and we we failed and I just came up with one idea I just said well it was nearly 18 months 2 years ago since we did the familial search maybe that we should just redo it and just see if in the intervening period whether anybody has has been

Added to the National Database Detective superintendent Flint gave the go ahead and the forensic scientist ran the search to my amazement on the top of the list came a person who had the highest ranked genetic likelihood ratio and more intriguingly than that that person lived very close to the key with Area the database had identified a man who had been arrested in early 2008 for a minor offense her detectives finally found 16-year-old kette arum’s killer 25 years after Colette arum’s blood soaked body was found on Farmland in Nottinghamshire detectives were finally close to identifying her killer using familial DNA analysis

Forensic scientist Tim Clayton had identified a 20-year-old man who shared a number of DNA markers identical to ket’s killer but there was a major problem he wasn’t born until after Colette was killed we researched that individual who was actually on the DNA data base and quite clearly that was not

The offender uh it was too young and was not a positive match but the results suggested that either this man’s father or possibly an uncle had raped and murdered let back in 1983 those inquiries led us to be interested in four brothers that emanated from South Notting Hampshire you can see the

Similarities any of those individuals could have been the offender the detectives started to investigate the lives of the four brothers and were surprised to discover they had been raised in the home Pier Pond area we found out that the family home overlooked the site where the the car

Was stolen from near the riding stables the family also had connections to keyworth we we felt we were into the right family to find the offender specifically the detectives discovered that one of the men actually lived in keyworth at the time of Colette’s murder his name was Paul

Hutchinson hington married and moved to keyworth with his wife in 1983 he was quite surprising to find that he was so a few streets away from ket’s address there’s no suggestion that he knew Colette or actually knew the family as the detectives continued to explore the lives of all four brothers

They became aware of a complication we found out that one of the siblings had died recently so that was a blow initially to think how are we’re going to eliminate this person despite the the circumstantial evidence pointing to Paul Hutchinson and the Revelation that one of the brothers

Had passed away the detectives couldn’t rule anyone out we couldn’t rate one higher than the other hence we took the decision that um all three surviving brothers would be arrested and the only way to to effectively eliminate was to obtain each individual’s DNA on the morning of Monday April the 7th 2009 police officers carried out simultaneous raids on three properties in the Nottingham area and arrested three men on suspicion of murder two out of the three brothers were cooperative and helpful and assisted the police the other brother was uncooperative and the officers felt

That he was quite worried upon arrest each of the men was taken into custody where DNA samples and fingerprints were collected before being sent for immediate analysis in the interviews that followed one of the brothers Paul Hutchinson continued to be evasive one of the brothers had reserved his right to

Remain silent and effectively went no comment through all the interviews that were put to him with events developing rapidly detective superintendent Flint telephoned Colette’s mother Jackie he said where are you and I said I’ve just come in from shopping and I said why if you got something to tell me

If you got some news for me and he said well we’ve got three brothers in custody and we know that it’s going to have to be one of them and I just broke down and then of course he said well you know we’ll let you know more when we

Know more and then he said you know I’ll phone you in a couple of days as the suspects were interrogated the forens team closely examined the Three Brothers DNA and fingerprints eventually they were able to tell the detectives what they’d found one of the brothers fingerprints was on the

Letter and it was absolutely fantastic news because there was always a question mark over whether the author of the letter was the Killer and this just confirmed it and it was the icing on the cake and soon afterwards the results of the DNA analysis were also confirmed I

Think around the 10:00 time at night on the IAL day of arrest I received a telephone call giving us the news that we got a positive match it was fantastic news and it was what we’ve been waiting for all these years and it was the moment of of Truth really we’d found our

Mal on Wednesday the 9th of April 2009 25 years after her death the detectives were finally able to charge a suspect with the murder of Colette arum his name was Paul Hutchinson and he claimed he was not guilty I think it was a mixed emotions really that I felt when he was charged

Relief um disbelief um all the emotions that I felt in the beginning raised their ugly head again as detectives started to collate evidence in preparation for the trial it seemed that after Colette’s murder Hutchinson tried to live in almost normal life it remained local living in

Keyworth and would appear to have been a likable person to his immediate close family and close friends when the police team interviewed Paul Hutchinson’s relatives they were told Hutchinson’s life hadn’t been easy because he had fought intermittent battles with cancer but detectives investigated all his medical records and

Found this was completely untrue he lied to his family about the and even went to the extent of removing some of his hair and disappearing for a little while pretending to be in hospital even back in 1983 during door-to-door inquiries immediately following the murder Hutchinson claimed to have been in hospital receiving

Treatment his family were obviously unaware in relation to the fabrication about the cancer this man was an inveterate liar uh made a career out of telling lies particularly with his uh he close members of his Family Paul Hutchinson’s murder trial was due to take place in Spring 2010 but as the date approached Hutchinson suddenly became Cooperative ultimately we received the defense statement where Paul Hinson blamed his dead brother for committing this atrocious offense the tale he told was that his brother committed the offense

And told him about it thereafter but unbeknown to Hutchinson the detectives had already acquired a sample of his late brother’s blood from the hospital in which he had been treated before he died we managed to obtain that individual’s DNA and with the cooporation the deceased brother family

We were able to eliminate him from the inquiry with his accusation of his dead brother discredited the suspect had a sudden change of heart thankfully when he looked at the weight of evidence against him he decided to change his plea to guilty and ultimately pleaded guilty to the uh murder of

Collap in January 2010 Paul Hutchinson was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 16-year-old kette arum finally Nottinghamshire police have been able to close one of their biggest cases the efforts of people some 25 years ago supported by the efforts of recent times of of culminated in this

Man being found guilty had the original inquiry had the advancement of forensic technology that we had hopefully that this case would have been detected in 1983 or 1984 despite the many years which have passed colet’s murder continues to affect everyone involved to this day Paul Hutchinson has

Not explained why he’s done what is done and that would be really difficult for the family to understand I don’t think we’ll ever get an explanation from him and for Colette’s family her loss overrides any sense of justice I miss her smile I miss her laughter I just miss

Her just miss it very much it’s all those years ago but it’s like it was yesterday and I just wish she was here with us now and I think if she was here now my life would be different too but she’s not and she never will Be