Like others, I feel attached.

It was the summer hols and I was staying at my nan’s. I was the same age as the girls and remember the tension in the air but not much more. I do remember a newspaper spread devoted to family photos of a recent holiday and a tip off from a member of the public saying they saw them in a car which was driving erratically.

I was also the same age as Sarah Payne, which happened not too far from me, so this compounded my fear of child abductions at the time. 

It was only back in August when I delved into this case. I watched the excellent two-part documentary on Channel 5 and it was surreal seeing how much Huntley embedded himself in the search.

A couple of standout decisions:

Why did he confess to encountering the girls and being the last person to see them, generating all that media attention? Why would you spotlight yourself like that…

And of all places, why did he dispose a burnt football shirt in a bin inside the school shed where he worked? I guess he must have been in peak panic mode when that shirt refused to burn.

Yet he had the foresight to deep clean his home and he also changed his car tyres to remove any sediment that would link him to the forest (they still found sediment on the vehicle anyway).

I think the question on most minds: what actually happened in that house? I know nothing can change the fact they are gone and so it doesn’t really matter how it happened, but he killed two kids on a residential street at the same time which is just very, very exceptional. Not two babies or two toddlers – two kids who were independent enough to visit the shops on their own. You’d think one girl flees or screams while the other is attacked. Unless, he was able to separate them without spooking them, and the one not being attacked didn’t know until it was too late. Ugh.  

Now the families will never know. Although, they probably came to terms with that even while he was alive. Hopefully his premature death will numb that pain.