The Suffolk Strangler

by rebldomakr Sun Jun 11, 2017 9:13 pm

The Suffolk Strangler

Steve Wright, often referred to as the “Suffolk Strangler”, was responsible for the murders of five women in Ipswich in 2006.

Wright was born in 1958 and was one of four children. His mother left when Wright was eight and his father, a military policeman, remarried. Wright was married and divorced twice and had two children, one with each of his former wives.

He became known for his addictive gambling habits, heavy drinking and his propensity for domestic violence, but in the mid-1990s and again in 2000, Wright attempted suicide, once by carbon monoxide poisoning in his car, and the second time by taking an overdose of pills.

In 2001 he was convicted of theft when he stole £100 to pay off the gambling debts. It is also known that Wright worked on a cruise ship at the same time as Suzy Lamplugh in the 1980s before the London estate agent simply disappeared after meeting a client at a house in Fulham. There has never been any evidence to link Wright to the disappearance and murder of 25-year-old Suzy.

In late 2006, five prostitutes were found dead at different locations over a six-week period. The women were discovered in the surrounding countryside, stripped naked and in two instances posed in a cruciform position. Despite their bodies being stripped naked by the killer, the women had not been sexually assaulted before their deaths.

Wright attempted to dispose of any evidence that would lead to his capture by ensuring his car and clothes were scrupulously cleaned after each attack. However, traces of Wright’s DNA were discovered on three of the victims’ bodies and microscopic fibres found on all five women were linked to his clothing, car and home.

The police sifted through 10,000 hours of CCTV footage of the red light district and surrounding area of Ipswich and, by using an automatic car registration plate reader, they were able to identify a Ford Mondeo in the area at the time at which each of the women disappeared.

On 19th December 2006, Suffolk Police arrested Steve Wright on suspicion of murder. The trial, which lasted for six weeks, resulted in a conviction for all five murders and a sentence of life imprisonment with a recommendation that he is never released from prison.