25 years on from the disappearance of Suffolk teenager Victoria Hall

The 17-year-old went missing in 1999

Victoria Hall
Author: Shaunna BurnsPublished 19th Sep 2024

Today marks 25 years since a teenager from Suffolk went missing whilst on her way home from a night out, which would later spark one of the biggest murder investigations the county had ever seen.

On Saturday 19th September 1999, 17-year-old Victoria Hall had a night out with a friend in Felixstowe.

They went to Bandbox nightclub, leaving the bar at about 1am in the morning before heading to get some food at the Bodrum Grill in Undercliffe Road West,

They both separated at about 2.20am, near to the junction of High Road and Faulkeners Way.

Victoria was just yards away from her home.

When Victoria's parents woke-up that morning and discovered she had not returned home, the police were called and a missing persons inquiry was launched.

That quickly turned into a murder investigation, when, five days later on Friday 24th September Victoria's body was found in a ditch beside a field by a dogwalker in Creeting Lane, Creeting St Peter - which is around 25 miles away from where she was last seen.

Graham and Lorinda Hall (right) and Victoria Hall's best friend Gemma Algar (left) make a fresh appeal for help finding their seventeen-year-old daughter Victoria Hall's killer during a press conference at Felixstowe police station

20 years later, in September 2019, Suffolk Police revealed the case - known as Operation Avon - was now a live inquiry again and being fully reinvestigated by a new team of detectives

In May 2024, Steve Wright, formerly of London Road in Ipswich, was charged with kidnap and murder, in connection with the abduction and death of Victoria Hall.

The 66-year-old is due to appear in court on Tuesday 24th September 2024.

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