Two more bodies have been found by police investigating the murders of three prostitutes.
A member of the public spotted one body on Tuesday afternoon and Suffolk police launched their helicopter and the pilot spotted a second nearby.
A woodland area around the riverside village of Levington, near Ipswich, in Suffolk has been sealed off.
Police said it is likely the two bodies are those of two missing women - Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.
The area is close to where the body of Anneli Alderton was found on Sunday. The bodies of Gemma Adams, and Tania Nicol, were also found near Ipswich.
Ms Clennell, 24, and 29-year-old Ms Nicholls, have not been heard from since Sunday.
Suffolk police officers were called to Levington shortly after 1500 GMT on Tuesday.
The site is off the main road between Ipswich and Felixstowe docks close to a railway line, the Orwell estuary, a marina and is in a rural area close Ipswich.
The officer leading the murder inquiry, Det Chief Sup Stewart Gull, said the "natural assumption" was that the bodies were those of missing prostitutes Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls.
Final interview
Ms Clennell gave an interview to ITV on 5 December in which she said she was prepared to go back on the streets despite the emerging danger because "I need the money".
But she admitted the killings had made her "a bit wary about getting into cars".
However, she said she would probably still continue to do so despite already having had "a couple of nasty experiences", including being beaten up once.
Ms Clennell also said she had noticed there were now fewer men and prostitutes around.
"The girls are probably wary about coming out now," she said.
The naked body of Gemma Adams, 25, was found on December 2 in woodland at Hintlesham, on the outskirts of Ipswich. She had last been seen on November 15.
On December 8 the body of Tania Nicol, 19, was found in nearby Copdock. She was the first to go missing and had last been seen on October 30.
It was still not known if there was one or more than one killer on the loose
Alastair McWhirter
The naked body of the third prostitute, Anneli Alderton, 24, from Colchester in Essex, was discovered at the weekend in Nacton, a few miles further east.
Two more bodies have now been found in the neighbouring village of Levington, a mile or so from Nacton.
All the bodies were found close to the A14, which runs to the nearby port of Felixstowe.
Mr Gull said: "We've formally linked the murders of Tania and Gemma because of significant similarities, and they continue with Anneli, Paula and Annette.
"Clearly they were all prostitutes from Ipswich, they were found naked and in an open rural environment.
"This is so fast-moving, we need to take stock and maximise opportunities to recover forensic evidence from the scene before formally establishing whether they are linked or not.
"We need to catch this person or persons as quickly as possible."
Suffolk Chief Constable Alastair McWhirter described the multiple murder inquiry as "unprecedented".
"If you think of the Yorkshire Ripper, the murders took place over a long period of time," he said.
Mr McWhirter said it was still not known if there was one or more than one killer on the loose.
He said the force was bringing in assistance from other forces around the country to help in the inquiry.
Mr Gull said no further prostitutes had been reported as missing in Ipswich.
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NEW YORK — Police investigating the brutal "Ipswich Ripper" murders of five prostitutes in England will examine possible links between those killings and the murders of four prostitutes in Atlantic City, N.J., last month, FOXNews.com has learned.
Ipswich Police spokeswoman Shelly Spratt said contact with authorities in Atlantic City "is an avenue we will go down." She said investigators already have discussed making that contact, but because more bodies turned up on Tuesday they had not opened discussion yet.
"We can use all the help we can get," Spratt said.
Janet Niedosik, a spokesperson for Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffery S. Blitz, who is heading the Atlantic City investigation, declined to comment late Wednesday.
"We don't comment on onging investigations and that includes what other law enforcement agencies we are talkimg to," Niedosik said. "The investigation is continuing and there haven't been any arrests yet."
In a case reminiscent of the infamous 19th century "Jack the Ripper" slayings, Ipswich police and Scotland Yard investigators continued Wednesday to search the marshlands and fields outside Ipswich for clues — and possibly more victims.
The bodies of five women, all known prostitutes, have turned up in the past 11 days in Ipswich. The latest discoveries came Tuesday, when the bodies of two women were found at the side of a busy road on the outskirts of town.
In Atlantic City, police continue their investigation into the seemingly ritualistic murders of four prostitutes whose bodies were found in a watery ditch behind a seedy motel outside the gambling mecca.
The bodies were found within a few hundred feet of each other, all face down in several inches of water, heads turned east — toward Atlantic City — wearing clothes, but no shoes or socks.
At least one of the victims died of strangulation; another, officials said, died by asphyxia "by unspecified means."
Based on the decomposition of their bodies, authorities believe the women died on different days, from two days to up to a month before their bodies were discovered.
The known similarities of the Ipswich and Atlantic City cases are:
— The victims all are known prostitutes.
— They range in age from 19-42, with most being in their 20s.
— Autopsies have determined that three of the nine victims died of strangulation or asphyxiation. Official cause of death is pending on two of the Atlantic City victims, and four of the Ipswich women.
Atlantic City police identified the victims as Molly Jean Dilts, 20; Kim Raffo, 35; Tracy Ann Roberts, 23; and Barbara V. Breidor, 42.
Scotland Yard detectives were expected Wednesday to identify the two women whose bodies were found Tuesday, but Det. Chief Superintendent Steward Gull said "it is a natural assumption" to believe the bodies are those of Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, both known prostitutes who were reported missing.
So far, Ipswich investigators have been able to determine the official cause of death in only one of their five cases. Anneli Alderton, a 24-year-old whose body was discovered in a wooded area last Sunday, had been asphyxiated, and likely strangled, Gull said.
Police are uncertain how 25-year-old Gemma Adams and 19-year-old Tania Nicol were killed. Their bodies were both found in water, which has hampered the forensic investigation, Gull said. A similar problem is delaying final cause-of-death findings in two of the four Atlantic City killings.
Clennell's father said he didn't know his daughter had worked as prostitute, and he was "going through hell."
"I never knew that she lived the life that she did," Brian Clennell told the BBC. "Somebody out there must know, somebody that's doing this. He's sick, he's got to be caught. It could be somebody's father, it could be somebody's uncle, it could be anybody."
Suffolk police said the other three victims, well known in Ipswich's red-light district, were found naked and a few miles apart: one in a stream, another in a pond and a third in the woods near a country road.
The two bodies discovered Tuesday were lying near a busy road outside Levington, a village about five miles south of Ipswich.
Ipswich, a small blue-collar city to the northeast of London, has about 40 prostitutes working the street, Hannah Besley, a community safety officer who chairs the city's Prostitution Steering Group, told the Associated Press. The women are well known to her group and police.
When the first women vanished, most of the prostitutes — including Clennell, who disappeared after the first two bodies were discovered — kept working, but that's no longer the case.
"It's now gotten to such a critical stage that they are terrified, and last night it was very quiet — reassuringly so," Besley said.
Atlantic City prostitutes have echoed the same fears.
"It's dangerous, but all you're focused on is that next dollar," said a prostitute known on the streets as Spazz who last month told the Associated Press that she was looking for a gun or a knife to protect herself. "It kind of clouds your judgment. You're not focused on the situation you're getting into. That's the scariest part about it."
Atlantic City authorities do not believe the four bodies found Nov. 20 just off the Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township are related to the attacks on three prostitutes earlier this year in Atlantic City. In each of those earlier attacks, the prostitutes' throats were slashed; one survived.
Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey Blitz said the Atlantic City cases were sufficiently different from the Egg Harbor deaths to make authorities believe they were carried out by different attackers.
The U.S.'s most notorious prostitute killings were committed in the Pacific Northwest by a single attacker who came to be known as the Green River Killer. In pleading guilty in 2003 to the murders of 48 prostitutes, Gary Leon Ridgway told a judge he targeted streetwalkers "because I thought I could kill as many as I wanted to without getting caught."
"They were easy to pick up, without being noticed," he said in court. "I knew they would not be reported missing right away, and might never be reported missing."
The Associate Press contributed to this report
DETECTIVES hunting Britain's most prolific serial killer today said are determined to catch the killer or killers behind the quintuple murder.
On the day the reward to catch the killer was upped to £300,000, police were calling in specialist help from across the country.
The News of the World has boosted the bounty on the killer's head by £250,000, bolstering the £50,000 reward offered by Ipswich businessman Graeme Kalbraier.
Detective chief superintendent Stewart Gull told how there was a stark silence when the news was broken that two more bodies had been found close to where 24-year-old Anneli Alderton was found on Sunday.
He said: “Yesterday's developments were tragic. It was desperate, desperate news.
“I was in a meeting with chief officers just after 3pm when we got the breaking news and there was a stark silence.
“I had been appealing for Annette and Paula to make contact with us and we knew the very nature of their lifestyle is chaotic and transient and it is not unusual for them to disappear for a number of days.
“We had hoped we would find them but we fear for the worst at this time.”
Police today praised the public's response and continued their appeal for anyone with information to get in contact.
Between 6am and 11pm yesterday the constabulary received 2,199 calls from the public.
Last night three more prostitutes were also reported missing but they have since been found safe and well.
Det chf supt Gull said it was important that anyone who feared for the welfare of a prostitute or another woman should contact police immediately.
He stressed again that the murdered women could have been snatched from the red light district or could have arranged to meet their killer elsewhere.
He said: “The response from the public for our appeals for information has been massive.
“Our task now is to sift through this vast volume of information to prioritise our inquiries into these murders.
“However, it is vitally important that people continue to ring in if they have information. In each of the three murder inquiries we have a significant gap between when the women were last seen and the discovery of their bodies.
“We need to find out where these women were between these times.”
He confirmed it was the biggest inquiry in the force's history and today spoke of the pressure being faced by officers.
Det chf supt Gull added: “It is a crime in action that we find ourselves in and it is developing all the time. It makes the job that much more challenging.
“I am pressured and I think the whole force feels under pressure. It is our responsibility to make sure we provide a safe county and before these tragic events the county was safe.
“These tragic deaths are unprecedented, not only in Suffolk but in the UK. I can't rule out anything and the tragic events have clearly overwhelmed us (emotionally) in many respects both in terms of capability and capacity.
“We need to find the person or persons responsible as quickly as possible.
“Suffolk police are determined to find the person or persons responsible. We have got tremendous support from experts, mutual aid from across the region and the UK.”
Police yesterday uncovered their fifth body in just ten days.
Two naked women's bodies were found 100 metres apart in Levington, about one mile from where Anneli Alderton's body was found on Sunday.
More than 30 officers, including specialist inquiry officers and detectives trained to use the Holmes computer system which forms a part of major investigations across the country, have been called in.
Others with expertise as document readers and exhibits officers have also been drafted in from around the country to assist with the dragnet.
He said: “These are huge inquiries but the extra help could make a crucial difference.”
He tried to reassure the wider public that a normal policing service was continuing for lower level crime.
Already the Association of Chief Police Officers has been drafted in, including top experts from Scotland Yard.
The latest victims are thought to be Annette Nicholls, 29, and Paula Clennell, 24, who were reported missing earlier in the week, but have yet to be identified.
Det chf supt Gull said it was potentially more disturbing if the women turned out not to be Annette and Paula, and were in fact further victims.
He also said it was unlikely that the identities of the latest two bodies will be released today.
Speculation among psychologists is that the killer is now playing games with police and could have dumped the latest two bodies within metres of the cordon set up following the discovery of Anneli Alderton's body on Sunday .
Det chf supt Gull added: “The bodies could have been dumped before or after the cordon went up (in Nacton) we don't know when they were dumped so we have to keep an open mind.
“The bodies could have been deposited recently. The Old Felixstowe Road is fairly well used and I would ask anyone who has travelled it to cast their minds back. If you saw anybody or anything, in particular a vehicle, we need to know the details.”
He urged anyone with the slightest information to contact police, adding: “The wider community will have a view on prostitution and working girls but they mustn't forget that these young women will have families that care for them.”
Yesterday it was revealed that the third victim Anneli Alderton was strangled, however police are still not certain what caused the deaths of Tania Nicol and Gemma Adams, the first two victims.
They have not ruled out the possibility that the women may have been poisoned and are currently awaiting toxicology results.
Post mortems into the latest two deaths are yet to be conducted.
Despite pleas from officers yesterday, det chf supt Gull said the killer, or anyone pertaining to be the killer, has not yet contacted police.
He said if contact was made specialist officers were trained to deal with it.
Det chf supt Gull added that police were not interested in prosecuting kerb crawlers or prostitutes, their priority was catching the killer.
He said they had a number of lines of inquiry they were following up and several people were helping them with their inquiries but no warrants have been executed and no cars seized in relation to the inquiry.
Asked if the killer is likely to have taken the latest victims from the streets, despite the high police presence, he added: “Clearly the timeline under which these girls disappeared is crucial to us. I can't exclude anything.
“However, a number of prostitutes do operate off street via mobile phone calls or other methods.”
Although it is likely all five murders are linked, det chf supt Gull would not be drawn on whether it was the same murderer.
He said linking the murders now could create problems in future legal proceedings.
However he added there was “a symmetry” between the murdered girls, pointing out they were all prostitutes whose bodies were dumped naked away from the scene of their murders.
Officers are still appealing for information about any of the women's clothing and have retrieved clothing from some locations but police cannot confirm if any of it is connected with the inquiry.
However, it is still not known what the last three victims were wearing.
Tests are currently being conducted on trainers found outside the Wilco garage in Norwich Road, Ipswich to ascertain if they belonged to Gemma Adams.
Wednesday, 13 Dec 2006 18:03
Annette Nichols and Paula Clennell have been reported missing The body of one of the victim's in Suffolk police's largest ever murder inquiry has been removed from the woodland near Levington it was discovered in.
Police said this evening that the body, thought to be that of one of two missing prostitutes, was taken away by a private ambulance so that a cause of death and identity could be formally established. Another body, found 150 yards apart from that which was removed, remains in situ.
Officers are investigating a spate of prostitute murders near Ipswich, confirming earlier today that that all five bodies recovered were naked.
Speaking at a news conference today Suffolk police praised the public for their response.
Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull said that between 06:00 and 23:00 GMT yesterday his force received 2,199 calls from members of the public offering information.
It is widely thought that the two unidentified bodies are Annette Nicholls, 29, and Paula Clennell, 24 – two sex workers who have not been seen for a number of days.
Det Ch Supt Gull yesterday confirmed that the "natural assumption" was that the latest bodies were those of the two prostitute.
The naked bodies of three other sex workers, Anneli Alderton, 24; Gemma Adams, 25; and Tania Nicol, 19, have already been discovered in the Ipswich area over the last ten days.
"The response from the public to our appeals for information has been massive," Det Ch Supt Gull said today.
"Our task now is to sift through this vast volume of information to prioritise our enquiries into these murders."
He added: "We are getting good support from the public, media and colleagues in other forces and I would like to extend my thanks to them. An example of this is a £250,000 reward – apparently the largest reward ever – which has been put up by the News of the World newspaper."
The two bodied found yesterday evening remain in an area of rough ground near Levington, about 150 metres apart.
Police have cordoned off the area and forensic examinations are ongoing.
Ms Clennell was last seen in Rendlesham Court, Ipswich, on Sunday December 10th, while Ms Nicholls was last seen on the evening of Tuesday December 5th, in Norwich Road, Ipswich.
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