A quiet and largely unknown Cambridge village was thrust into the spotlight for the most horrific reasons. Eithne Donnellan reports from Soham on the effect the murder of two little girls has had on their community
An air of disbelief greeted the early morning news. People huddled together on street corners to discuss how it was that police knew two of their children, missing now for 13 days, had been murdered when the 10-year-olds had never been found.
All the more shocking was that two of their own people, familiar faces on the footpaths in Soham, were arrested for questioning in connection with the abduction and murder.
It was a lot to take in. Some began asking questions, for which there were no obvious answers. More were speechless. Others looked frightened. Most went into deep shock.
Then came confirmation that two bodies had been found in woodland about 15 miles away. Local resident Bill Purkiss said he felt "churned up inside".
The village was, as local vicar, the Rev Tim Alban Jones, put it, "rocked" by the developments.
The community turned to their church for support. They arrived at the parish church of St Andrew's clutching bunches of flowers which had been hastily picked from their gardens or purchased at the supermarket on their way through the village.
The bouquets were laid on either side of the church door in memory of 10-year-old best friends Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. One child took with her her teddy bear and laid it amongst the floral tributes.
"Holly and Jessica, I am giving up my teddy in despair," read the card fixed to the cuddly toy.
Despite the numbers making the pilgrimage to the church all week the village - which has just one main street - remained incredibly quiet.
Apart from the sounds of nature and church bells tolling, as well as the occasional bolt of thunder, the only other sounds that stood out were weeping and wailing, the sounds of a community plunged into grief.
It's no more than a 10-minute walk from the church to the houses where Holly and Jessica grew up.
They lived around the corner from each other, Holly on Tanners Lane and Jessica on Brooke Street.
The children were not only best friends and in the same class - their parents were also very close and both families had just returned from holidaying together in Majorca when the girls disappeared on August 4th. They went out for a walk around Soham - a place with a population of less than 10,000 - wearing matching Manchester United jerseys and sporting their newly acquired tans. They never returned.
Such is the level of fear in the community following the abduction and murder of the schoolgirls, elderly people who would never lock their doors at night are changing the habit of a lifetime. It is rare now to see a child out on the street unaccompanied by an adult.
Ms Marilyn Giaracuni said she wouldn't let her six-year-old son out of her sight. "It's taken his childhood away too because he can't walk up the road any more to play with the other kids," she said.
"We sort of spoke to him about not talking to strangers but now it emerges the people accused in relation to the children's abduction and murder of Holly and Jessica would have been known to them. It means you can't trust anybody, can you?"
The couple now charged only moved into Soham over the past year. Ian Huntley (28), caretaker of Soham Village College, is accused of murdering Holly and Jessica and is being detained under the Mental Health Act at a high security psychiatric hospital in Nottinghamshire. He will remain there until he is deemed fit to attend court.
His girlfriend, 25-year-old Maxine Carr, has been remanded in custody charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice by giving false information to police investigating the case. A former assistant teacher at Soham's primary school, she is being held at London's Holloway Jail, where staff are said to be watching her closely for any attempt she might make to harm herself.
An angry crowd gathered outside Peterborough Magistrates Court for her first court appearance and all kinds of obscenities were shouted at her. Eggs were also hurled at the police van ferrying her to and from court.
Back in Soham, the mood was sombre. People spoke of not being able to sleep at night. Children are said to be having nightmares. Counselling services have been set up. Samaritans are mingling discreetly among the crowds who visit St Andrew's churchyard to lay flowers.
The governors of the primary school attended by Holly and Jessica met on Monday night to discuss how the school might go about rebuilding its pupils' trust in adults. Teachers are said to be dreading the new term, beginning on September 9th. Delia Tickner, one of the 32 teaching staff, said she didn't know how staff, parents or pupils would ever get over what happened. "What has happened is like an open wound and, while I know it won't always be like this, I can't see it ever healing properly," she said.
"This is a unique situation. Have you ever heard of a similar story where the suspects have come from within your own community? That is what makes it so difficult.
"The real problem is that the children's trust has been broken. We taught them about 'stranger danger' and gave them lists of people they could and couldn't trust. Now their basic trust has been shattered and we are going to have to re-establish it," she added.
The reaction to the murders of Holly and Jessica is being compared in Britain to the outpouring of grief that followed the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. At this stage the churchyard at St Andrew's is carpeted in flowers, sent by people from all over the world. There's even a bouquet from the inmates of a prison.
The church pews too are full of soft toys, thousands have signed books of condolence and lit candles in memory of the dead girls and their families.
"I think it's clear from the number of flowers that we have here and from the messages in them that this has touched the hearts and minds of people across the country," the Rev Alban Jones said.
"The emotions are one of just pure grief. It's a genuine outpouring of public grief. This has touched the lives of so many people and they are responding in this way.
"It's very moving to see that people coming into the churchyard looking at the flowers are so visibly moved by what has happened and so there's scarcely a man woman or child who walks out of here with dry eyes having read the cards and the messages of heartfelt sympathy," he added.
The families of Holly and Jessica have spent most of the week indoors. It took five days to identity the girls' bodies. Holly's parents did visit the churchyard on Tuesday to see the floral tributes and both sets of parents were taken on a brief visit at daybreak on Wednesday to the wooded area at Lakenheath where the bodies were found.
No funeral arrangements have been announced yet as tests are continuing to establish the girls' cause of death. However, it was confirmed yesterday that the Wells and Chapman families wanted the funerals to be held separately and wished them to be private affairs.
Next Friday, there will be a public memorial service in Ely Cathedral. It will be a packed and emotional occasion.
The events of the past number of days have, as acting Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire police, Keith Hoddy, put it, turned the village upside down.
Hundreds of police officers had worked tirelessly to trace the girls, he said, and refused to give up hope that they would be found alive. They too acutely felt the sense of sorrow gripping the community, he added.
Some of the officers visited St Andrew's church to sign the books of condolence.
"I'm a human being in the end. I just wanted to pay my respects that's all," said PC Stuart Gurry.
Most are agreed the murders have changed forever the small village of Soham in the Cambridgeshire countryside, which was up to this seen as a safe place to bring up children.
The village, within commuting distance of London by train, was one most people even in Britain had never heard of a month ago. Now millions of people around the world will never forget it.
As one person wrote in a tribute to the murdered children: "Holly and Jessica, We never knew you, but we will never forget you."