Final moments of Steve Wright's first victim - and the 26-year wait for justice

For more than 26 years the identity of Victoria Hall's murderer was a mystery.

Victoria, 17, went missing on her way home from a nightclub in Felixstowe, Suffolk, in 1999.

Her naked body was discovered in a water-filled ditch five days later.

On Monday, serial killer Steve Wright, 67, was due to be tried for Victoria's murder and kidnap but changed his plea to guilty at the last moment.

After killing Victoria, he went on to murder five more young women in Ipswich in 2006.

So what happened, why was Wright not caught sooner, and could he be responsible for further crimes?

Victoria was an A-Level student at Orwell High School in Felixstowe and hoped to go to university to study sociology.

On the evening of Saturday, 18 September 1999, she left her home in the village of Trimley St Mary, heading to the Bandbox nightclub in Felixstowe with her friend Gemma Algar.

The girls left the club at 01:00 BST and walked the two miles back to Trimley, stopping at a takeaway along the way.

They then parted at 02:30, just 300yds from Victoria's home near Faulkeners Way.

Gemma reported she heard two high-pitched screams, but believed it was other people joking about.

When Victoria failed to return home, Suffolk Police launched a major missing persons inquiry.

Victoria's parents, Graham and Lorinda Hall, told journalists at the time that she was a "model daughter".

"As soon as Victoria went missing we knew something was horribly wrong," said Lorinda, who died last December.

"It was so totally out of character. She would have phoned."

Graham added: "She was nearly 18 and she wanted to go out and as parents it's difficult to hold on to them for ever.

"But we told her to be careful and she was always very responsible."

Gemma also spoke with journalists.

"I just want to say how much I miss Vicky and would do anything just to be able to talk to her again," she said.

"Many people will tell you we were inseparable.

"She was like a sister to me and I wish I could bring her back... she was my best friend and she'll be with me for ever."

Five days after she disappeared, a dog walker found Victoria's body in a ditch beside a field in Creeting St Peter, about 25 miles (40km) away from where she was last seen.

Subsequent post-mortem examinations showed she had been suffocated.

Four people were initially arrested in the first four months of the investigation. All four were released without charge soon after.

Then, in December 2000, police charged businessman Adrian Bradshaw with Victoria's murder.

The 26-year-old was from Trimley St Mary and living in Felixstowe.

Going on trial at Norwich Crown Court in 2001, he denied all the charges.

The jury of seven men and five women were told he had been at the Bandbox the same night as Victoria.

Bradshaw had travelled home that night with a friend and two girls in a cab, but their accounts of where he had been dropped off differed.

Prosecutors alleged he climbed out the taxi a few yards from where Victoria said goodbye to Gemma, before abducting her.

He told the jury: "I did not see them walking away. I cannot remember where I was dropped off.

"If I am dropped off in the area it is just unlucky. I have got absolutely nothing to do with the disappearance and murder of Vicky Hall."

A huge part of his trial hinged on soil in his car.

The prosecution argued that mud found on the accelerator pedal bore a "remarkable similarity" to soil at the spot where Victoria's body had been found.

However, geology experts for the defence argued it was unlikely the soil came from the ditch where she was found, despite not being able to say exactly where it was from.

It took a jury only 90 minutes to find Bradshaw not guilty.

Outside court, Det Supt Roy Lambert, who led the inquiry, was sure of his investigation.

Speaking after the jury returned its not guilty verdict, he told reporters he was “very disappointed“ and added: “I believe I know who murdered Vicky Hall.”

He went on: "Our job is to obtain as much evidence as we possibly can and place it before the court.

"I believe we have done that and it is for the court to determine as they wish."

But during a hearing earlier this year, held in preparation for Wright's trial, prosecutor Marti Blair told the court: "There are a multitude of reasons why a jury could not think Adrian Bradshaw... killed Victoria Hall.

"The court can be sure he was plainly not the person who abducted Victoria Hall and killed her."

Suffolk Police reopened the investigation in 2019 on the 20th anniversary of Victoria's disappearance.

New details were released of what Victoria was wearing and what personal items she had on her the night she vanished, as well as CCTV footage showing people visiting the area where her body was found.

Her parents said at the time it had given them "hope".

In 2024 Wright was charged with Victoria's murder and kidnap and with the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the previous night.

He initially denied all the charges.

In the mid-1990s Wright had been working as a labourer in Felixstowe and lived in the town until he moved to Ipswich in 2006.

In 2001 he had also been working as a barman at the Brook Hotel in Felixstowe but was fired after stealing hundreds of pounds from the till.

Due to stand trial at the Old Bailey in London in February, it had been agreed by the judge beforehand that the jury would be told of Wright's previous convictions, which rarely happens.

Court reporting restrictions had prevented the media from mentioning that he had been jailed for life after he murdered five women in Ipswich in 2006.

Wright was convicted after his DNA, on file from his Brook Hotel theft conviction, matched samples taken from the victims.

During that investigation, Suffolk Police told journalists they had no evidence to link Wright to Victoria's killing.

It was a line they maintained until shortly before Wright's eventual arrest for the 1999 murder.

As with the Ipswich killings, it was DNA evidence that led detectives to him.

But before jurors could even be sworn in on Monday, Wright changed his plea to guilty.

Directly afterwards, Suffolk Police issued a statement that did not address issues around any previous investigations.

Assistant Chief Constable Alice Scott said: "Victoria's family have waited over 26 years for this day and I am so very pleased that we have been able to deliver justice for Victoria."

She praised the modern-day investigation team.

"Their task was huge and today is the culmination of seven years of perseverance and determination to fully investigate every piece of evidence and then build an incredibly strong case to bring to court," she added.

Wright has been speculatively linked to other crimes, including the murder of Michelle Bettles in 2002 and the disappearance of Amanda Duncan in 1993.

Criminologist Prof David Wilson, of Birmingham City University, has followed developments closely.

"I think it was always likely that Steve Wright was responsible for murders prior to the sequence of murders in Ipswich in 2006," he told the BBC.

"He's a serial killer. In my experience serial killers don't start killing in their late 40s, and Steve Wright in 2006 was 48."

Retired Metropolitan Police detective Hamish Brown also believes Wright may have committed further crimes.

"I just wonder how many [murders] he has done. Was Felixstowe the beginning?" he said.

"It is worrying what happened before that, and indeed what's happened after, because that is quite a gap between Felixstowe and Ipswich.

"In my experience, people don't switch on and off like that."

On the time taken to bring Wright to justice for Victoria's murder, he said he was not aware of any errors made by police.

"Nowadays it is more likely the assailant would have been caught by virtue of CCTV and suspect identification, and all the other things we have," he said.

"It is important to the relatives that someone is caught. Now, it doesn't bring them [the victim] back, but it draws a line to an extent under the case.

"I am pleased this cold case has unearthed this result."

Suffolk Police was asked whether it would be reopening any other cases in the light of Wright's admission but has yet to respond.

Wright is due to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.

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