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"Two Little Beckhams"
Left to right: Maxine Carr, Ian Huntley, Holly Wells, Jessica Chapman |
WARNING: This post has sensitive details regarding child murder and sexual abuse. Viewer discretion advised!
"Creativity & Crimes" is a series I'm making where I draw my interpretations of real victims, murderers, and everyone in between. I go on a story on the case, how I drew them, and my opinion overall.
These stories will be less in-depth then my usual true crime blog posts, so I may save future blog posts to discuss more in-depth details on the crime. In this case, I drew the culprits and victims of the Soham murders.
Today marks the 23rd anniversary of this infamous and heart-wrenching crime, which takes place in a village in Cambridgeshire.
On that fateful day in 2002, 10-year-old best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman took a picture of themselves wearing iconic, red matching Manchester United shirts. This image would be taken a mere hours before their murder, and live in infamy of two innocent lives taken. It'll stay in your mind forever.
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| Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman. (1991 - 2002) |
It was heartbreaking to try and draw these two innocent girls. There were a few things distinct about the photos I wanted to capture: Holly's toothy grin, her beautiful blonde hair, Jessica's hair tuff above her eyes, and Jessica's slightly bigger clothing, which I'll explain in a second. I think I did a good job, with the wavy lines and similar colors. I simplified their jewelry however. Also, Jessica has a bit more of a tan complexion compared to Holly.
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My first sketch. Holly's hair looked less smooth.
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Let's resume. For further context, Jessica visited Holly's house that day after coming back from a vacation. The two decided to get into matching shirts. Jessica wore Oliver's (Holly's brother) shirt, which is why it looks a bit big on her. A few hours after this image was taken, at about 6, Holly and Jessica decided to leave their house to buy sweets nearby.
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| Left: Map of Soham. Right: CTV footage of the girls. |
They passed by Soham Village College to a Sports Center, and were caught on CTV footage. One man with his wife witnessed the two matching girls walking and mentioned to his wife there were "two little Beckhams".
As they begin to walk home, they were lured into the home of a caretaker, 27-year-old Ian Huntley. For reasons that are sadly still somewhat unclear to this day, those girls wouldn't leave that house alive.
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| Ian Kevin Huntley. He has a really punchable face. |
This is Ian Huntley. But I would argue it's a cold, soulless monster. Huntley initially seemed innocuous, but investigation after he was caught (referred to as a Bichard inquiry), revealed he was actually a sexual predator who had his charges completely subdued when he began working in a school. Absolutely horrific. [Just to let you know, it's unconfirmed if Huntley had tried to violate his last victims.]
It wasn't that hard replicating him, and I did give him a smug grin I feel he would have and more curly back hair, even though he had a short hair cut. I think it was mostly because I depicted him at an angle.
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| Later two drawings, showing things becoming more refined. |
It is unknown why Huntley lured the friends into his house, but it's suspected to be sexually motivated. What we do know is that after doing so, he murdered both girls, possibly in a jealous rage, before covering up his crime.
He dumped their bodies a few miles away in a ditch, and made a poor attempt to burn them. He also took their clothing and dumped it in a trash can in Soham Village, where he worked at. Absolutely gut-wrenching.
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| Burnt clothes upon discovery |
The girls were later reported missing the same day they were murdered, and it quickly became a high-profile case in Soham. Disgustingly, Huntley actually participated a lot in the search for the girls, and said he was the "last friendly face" who the girls saw. Awful.
Of course, he quickly became a suspect, and this is where we introduce his girlfriend at the time- Maxine Carr, who was the girls' primary teacher at school.
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| Maxine Ann Carr. She also has a punchable face. |
Maxine quickly became hated for giving a false alibi for where she claimed she was with Huntley at the time the girls went missing, when in fact she wasn't. Other clips of her went infamous such as her referring to Holly in the past tense. Creepy. The media didn't do her much justice either, with continuous badgering and demonization fueling the fire.
Maxine was actually a later addition to this drawing once I realized she was significant in this crime. I initially worried I'd have trouble replicating her hair, but I think I made it pretty decent. I also wanted to give her a face I thought fitted her: not entirely evil or smug, like Huntley, but not entirely innocent, like the girls. More like an unconfident, suspect woman. Most people hate her, which I understand, but there was some information on her being controlled by Huntley at the same time. I don't think she's a villain, but not a victim either. I'll probably get more into it if I make a full blog post.
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| Sketch of Maxine Carr |
Anyway, for 13 grueling days the investigation continued, until the burnt remains of the girls' clothing was found, alarming the public, and resulting in the arrests of both Huntley and Carr under suspicion of murder.
And tragically, soon enough, later on that August 17th, the burnt, badly decomposed bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were found in a ditch by a farmer.
Due to the state of their remains, a cause of death couldn't be determined, but it's suspected to be asphyxia. It also couldn't be confirmed if at least one girl had been molested before death, but it couldn't be denied either.
Although seeing the effort Huntley took to deprecated these two young souls, it is terrifying to think of what those innocent, cheeky, sporty girls might've gone through in the last moments of their lives. And that a monster had gone through such effort to conceal his heartless crime.
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| Crime scene |
The public was outraged and heartbroken, resulting in many memorials and dedications to the stolen lives. Over a year later, on December 17th, 2003, Ian Huntley was sent to life in prison for his heinous crimes.
Huntley has refused to go in-depth on the true events of that day. He eventually admitted to both girls dying in his house, but he had a story for it. A story SO ridiculous, cartoonishly stupid, and pointless that I'm not going to waste my time explaining it. Maybe wait until I make the full post. He also made a disingenuous apology. It's absolute BS and I don't want to talk about this inhumane danger anymore. Like what happens to most child predators and murderers, he has since been attacked multiple times in prison. GOOD.
As for Maxine Carr, she was sentenced to at least 3 years of prison for perverting justice, but was released early. She has since been given anonymity and has allegedly re-married and had a child. Many people are mad at this and don't believe she deserves this treatment. She's a very controversial figure in this case.
The Wells and Chapman family have since dealt with their grief of the horrifying murders of their innocent girls, and appear to be doing better. Sharon and Leslie Chapman (Jessica's parents) have remained mostly out of the media, while Kevin and Nicola Wells have since made a few more appearances discussing how they've learned to handle life without Holly.
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| Left to right: Leslie Chapman, Sharon Chapman, Kevin Wells, Nicola Wells |
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| Kevin and Nicola Wells |
I highly suggest reading Kevin's book "Goodbye, Dearest Holly", which is a dedication to his daughter and discusses the reactions he had handling the horrifying case.
Rest in peace, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Two Soham roses.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
