Jessica Chapman and her companion were lured away from home and murdered in 2002 when she was just ten years old.
It is said that the efforts of locals and the police to locate Holly and Jessica were among the most arduous and exhausting in the annals of British criminal history.
They were both murdered on August 4, 2002, although their remains were not found until August 17 of that year. As her grieving family and friends mourn the 20th anniversary of her death, this year marks the horrific event that happened 20 years ago.
Soham Murders: Jessica Chapman’s parents are Sharon & Leslie Chapman
Jessica Chapman’s cherished parents, Sharon and Leslie Chapman, are the beneficiaries of the long lost soul Jessica Chapman left behind. When the Chapman couple discovered her lifeless body, they were devastated.
According to an article published in Entertainment Daily, Sharon worked at St Andrew’s Primary School in Soham. This is the same school that Maxine Carr taught Holly and Jessica when they were students.
Carr was responsible for the girls’ deaths and was girlfriend to Ian Huntley at the time. During the initial investigation, she had even invented an alibi for Ian that she claimed he could use.
Jessica was the youngest of her parents’ three daughters; Her two older sisters, aged 17 and 15 when Jessica was killed, were older than her.
Because Leslie Chapman was employed as an engineer and Sharon Chapman was a respected member of the neighborhood school staff, the Chapman family enjoyed financial success.
This couple has gone to great lengths to ensure their three adult daughters have everything they could need.
Where are Sharon and Leslie now? What happened to the family?
After the death of their youngest daughter and widespread media coverage of the case, the Chapman family chose to stay mostly out of the public eye.
For the most part, Sharon and Leslie had respected their privacy and avoided interacting with the media unless the issue involved their daughter Jessica.
The family had just returned from their holiday in Menorca so August 4th was a particularly memorable day for all of them.
Jessica rushed to catch up with Holly, her best friend, so they could attend a BBQ at Holly’s house and give Holly a necklace with the letter ‘H’ on it that Jessica had bought in Menorca.
Leslie was ready to start his new engineering career the next day, but then he found out he had lost his daughter forever. After the traumatic event, both members of the Chapman marriage decided to take time off from work and only returned much later.
A few months later, Mr. Chapman began his new career, but it was several years before Sharon was able to go back to school.
They had since reduced their exposure to the media, but broke their silence on the first anniversary of the inauguration of the Police National Database.
They wished other families would not suffer the same tragedy as theirs, and the couple continued to grieve in solitude, though they hoped other families would not.
ITV documentary about murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman enraged viewers
ITV This Morning presenters Rochelle Humes and Vernon Kay discussed the tragic event and its impact on crime prevention across the country on the 20th anniversary of the death of two of their closest friends, Holly and Jessica.
During their conversation, video footage was played showing the horrific killer Huntley posing as an innocent man. The behavior depicted in the video angered many who saw it as well as those who used Twitter, leading to their anger.
Following his double murder conviction, Huntley was sentenced to two life terms, each with a mandatory minimum term of forty years. Meanwhile, his partner Maxine Carr was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for obstructing the administration of justice.
Viewers continue to find it repulsive that both Huntley and Carr behaved themselves in the search for the girls and even expressed regret to the parents.
They had dragged the bodies of Holly and Jessica into a ditch, stripped them, and then set them on fire while in their state of grief.