The arrest of two locals suspected of murdering Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells has made the people of Soham wonder who they can trust, writes Eithne Donnellan in Soham
Thunder bolts shattered the eerie silence hanging over the village of Soham yesterday as the community tried to understand how two local schoolgirls could have vanished and their bodies dumped on nearby wasteland.
Soham is a village of around 10,000 residents where people trusted each other so much they left their doors unlocked at night.
Now, however, with the arrests of two local people on suspicion of the abduction and murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman people are wondering who can they trust.
The two people being questioned, the caretaker at the local college, Mr Ian Huntley, and his girlfriend, Ms Maxine Carr, who was an assistant teacher at St Andrew's Primary school, had only moved into the area recently and were said to have been checked by police before they were given their jobs.
Jessica's mother Sharon worked with Ms Carr at St Andrew's and they would have lunched together in the staffroom.
A parent of a child who attended the school, Mr Michael Bunn, said he found the developments unbelievable.
"To have this happen to this area is something you just can't come to terms with and you just can't imagine there are people out there that can do things to children," he said.
"People aren't shocked . . . I think most people knew in their heart of hearts there wasn't going to be a good outcome. You do want somebody caught for it but to think they may be from the area is unbelievable. It makes you wonder who can you trust."
A grandmother living on Brook Street, close to the home of Jessica's parents, said people would now be much more security conscious and lock their doors at night.
"The change in the town has been tremendous. There's a duck pond at the end of the road and during school holidays it would be packed with children. There is no one there these days. It's deserted.
"It would have been easier to bear if it was strangers who were arrested," she said.
A teacher at St Andrew's, who didn't want to be named, said she had chatted with Mr Huntley while out searching for the girls and it emerged during that conversation that Mr Huntley had seen them on the Sunday evening they disappeared. The teacher told police to speak to Mr Huntley. It was at this point the caretaker said he was out washing his dog that evening and the girls had asked for Ms Carr, who they knew from school.
He said he told Holly and Jessica: "She's not very good, she didn't get the job," referring to a full-time post at the school for which Ms Carr had unsuccessfully applied.
"We were all desperately trying to find these children and he didn't automatically come forward and say 'Oh, I think I saw them'. It was only when I was talking to him that it emerged," the teacher said.
"Of course we're saying this and we don't know whether or not it was him," she added.
Mr Huntley changed his name recently from Nixon but this is said to be for family reasons after his mother remarried. Ms Carr is also said to have changed her name from Ms Capp.
Soham is situated near the racing town of Newmarket and the university town of Cambridge in south-east England. Messages of support for local people and especially the families of Holly and Jessica have been pouring in from across the world, including Ireland.
Locals began to place floral tributes and soft toys outside the parish church on Saturday after police announced the search for the missing girls had become a murder hunt and that two bodies had been found about 15 miles away in woodland near a US airforce base.
The messages attached to the flowers are emotional. "I wish I could have been there in your hour of need," said one.
"Holly and Jessica - precious angels up above, wrap your families with your love," and "Sleep little angels, hold each other tight, you're in our thoughts day and night."
Holly and Jessica went for a walk on Sunday, August 4th and never returned. Now their faces stare out of nearly ever home and shop window in the village.
The police investigation, which has involved more than 400 officers, first focused on a sighting of the girls which proved inaccurate, then on reports from a taxi- driver and his passenger that they may have been in a green car speeding out of town, and later to recently disturbed earth, which turned out to be nothing more than badger sets.
Last Thursday, however, at a public meeting in Soham, police told locals they believed the answer to the mystery lay in Soham or nearby.
Police urged the villagers to think about whether their neighbours had been acting strangely. It is believed this is what led to the arrests.
A subsequent search of Soham Village College, where Mr Huntley was caretaker, yielded "significant" evidence which was being examined, police said.
Ms Patricia Purkiss, who lives a few miles from Soham, said she was furious at what happened. "What happened shouldn't have happened. These children should be alive and enjoying their summer holidays. Let's hope those responsible for their deaths are put away for a long time." Her husband, Bill, said he felt depressed and churned up inside.
Ms Janet Rouse, speaking as she left Sunday service yesterday, said she was now fearful for her grandchildren's safety. "I'm terrified for them, terrified that somebody that can live in the middle of our village and be so accepted can be so evil. We've had evil in the middle of our village and we haven't realised."
The parish vicar, Rev Tim Alban Jones, who visited the Wells and Chapman families on Saturday night, stressed Soham had always been a great place. "It's the sort of place people come to and do not want to move away.
"I've been asked whether Soham will ever be the same again. It seems to me that questions of this sort are very much for the future and probably not the immediate future at that. We have been taking things one day at a time since all of this began on August 4th and I think we need to continue like that for a little while longer."
The Methodist minister in Soham, the Rev Alan Ashton, believes, however, Soham will never be the same again. "We will be different but I hope we will be stronger."