Colette Aram: BBC'S First Crimewatch Murder Solved

In 1983, a 16-year-old trainee hairdresser was horrifically murdered and the police did not find her killer until 2008.

On the 30th October 1983, Colette Aram left her home she shared with her parents and brother in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire after an afternoon of baking cakes for Halloween. She set out to make the mile walk to her boyfriend’s house (Russel). Normally Russel would drive to her and pick her up but his car was out of commission in the garage. Her mum offered to drop her off but Colette refused and stated it was a nice evening and she wanted to walk.

She was last seen at 8:10PM on Nicker Hill talking to a group of friends which is also where witnesses in the area reported hearing a woman scream and a car speeding off shortly after.

Around 5 minutes after she had left, Russel called Colette’s home where her mother, Jacqui, answered and confirmed that she was on her way to him. He decided he would meet her halfway on his bike instead. Russel rode his bicycle the whole route that Colette would have walked but she was nowhere to be seen. He called her house again and when her mother heard that he couldn’t find her she knew immediately that something was wrong. She called the police but was told to call back at 10:30PM if she hadn’t turned up as they weren’t sure if she was actually missing or just with friends.

Jacqui decided to call around all of her friends houses to ask if anyone had seen her but nobody knew where she was. She called all the hospitals in the area and questioned if anyone fitting Colette’s description had been admitted. The police looked for a couple of hours that night and then called the search off until the morning.

At 9 o’clock the next morning, on 31st October, Colette’s brother, Mark, decided to go out to look for her in his car. As he was driving down Thurlby lane, not too far from their home, he saw the crime scene tape and investigators in the field. He raced past all the police who tried to stop him to see his sisters naked, bruised body in a purposely placed sexual position. She had been raped, beaten and strangled.

Two weeks after her murder, police received a letter claiming to be from the killer. It was strangely written with exclamation marks in place of the S’ of every word and read: “As it is, you will never find me. I was in a hut for hours waiting for a girl to return from her horse riding, no one saw me. When the car came with keys, I could not help take it. Masks are common around Halloween, No one knows what I look like. That is why you have not got me. I go soon and then you will never get me. I know I strangled her when a car parked, he would have seen me.” Police searched the huts close to the local horse-riding school where they found a contaminated rag with semen. This confirmed the letter was sent from Colette’s killer.

Unfortunately, even though investigators had DNA they did not have much more to go on. On the 7th of June 1984, Colette’s case was featured on the first ever episode of BBC’s Crimewatch, a TV show that would play factual reconstructions of unsolved crimes to appeal to the public for information. Police received close to 400 calls about the murder, they managed to piece together a little bit more of what had happened.

The killer had stolen a red ford fiesta that day which was spotted several times. The first time was around 5PM on a housing estate in Keyworth. A resident told police that he got a good look at the driver and could accurately describe him. He was about 25-30, white with wavy brown hair. Later that evening, around 6:20 to 7:20PM the suspect was spotted again cruising the neighbourhood trying to pick up young schoolgirls. One of the girls he had stopped stated she was out walking her dog when he pulled up beside her and asked for directions before questioning where she was going. He offered her a lift which she refused and he drove away. Half an hour later, at around 8PM, a local resident was in his front garden when a male in a red ford fiesta pulled up in front of his house. The driver got out of the car and stated he was going to a friend’s and wouldn’t be long. Around 10 minutes later, he came back and commented that he wasn’t home. The resident thought it was strange as the direction he walked did not have any houses. He described that the suspect was carrying a knife so he noted the car’s registration number however it is unknown whether he called the police at the time. Another caller told his police that he was in his house when he heard screaming at around the same time. When he got up to look, he saw a red car speeding off. The landlady of the local pub, The Generous Briton, said a man matching the description of the killer came in at around 9PM and he ordered a pint of orange juice and a ham cob sandwich. He was not local as she had never seen him before and she found him strange as he changed his story multiple times during their conversation. At first, he claimed he had taken the wrong turn on the motorway after she asked if he was on holiday. She became suspicious of him when he was able to describe the local area alleging that his friend worked at the power station and got injured in an accident so he came to visit. She noticed that he had blood on his hand and decided to keep the napkin that he used. When police searched the pub for DNA traces, they found a match to the DNA on the contaminated rag in the male bathroom. They also found traces of Colette’s DNA on the napkin. Another caller claimed to know who the killer was however hung up before ever revealing a name and never called back.

The case remained unsolved for 26 years until 2008. Jean-Paul Hutchinson was arrested for drink driving and was legally obligated to give a DNA sample. When it was run through the system, it came back as a near match to the killer’s sample however he was only 20 years old. The police arrested his father, Paul Hutchinson. He was twice married with 4 children and living only 15 miles away from the crime scene.

Back in 1983, he was living alone in Seymour Road whilst pretending to his family that he was going through cancer treatment. When he was arrested, he attempted to blame it on his deceased brother who had been cremated so he figured they couldn’t get his DNA. However, the police had already tested the brother’s DNA as the hospital had kept a blood sample. The DNA was an exact match for Paul. He changed his plea to guilty.

In court, he gave a full account of what happened. After leaving the hut near the horse-riding school, he stated he drove around for a while before arming himself with a breadknife and coming across Colette. He hit her over the head and bundled her into the back of the ford fiesta he stole. He drove to the nearby field where beat her over the head with a bottle. He then stripped and raped her whilst he strangled her. He then positioned her into a sexually proactive pose when he was sure she was dead. No explanation was given for the cryptic letter but he had recently graduated from a psychology degree. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison at the age of 52 in 2010.

Only 8 months into his sentence, he was found dead in his cell after taking an overdose. His daughter states that he became increasingly depressed when his wife had filed for divorce and decided he wanted nothing to do with him anymore. The family of Colette Aram will never get the answers of why he did what he did but they finally knew the what, where and who.