Catching Colette Aram’s killer

How police caught Hutchinson for the murder of Colette Aram Colette Aram (Feb 3, 1967 – Oct 30, 1983) featured on the new program “BBC Crimewatch.” The program showed forensic evidence including a taunting letter Hutchinson wrote to police in which he bragged about the crime.

In 1983, police managed to get fingerprints from the letter but no match was found. They had collected blood and semen samples from the crime scene but DNA technology was still in its infancy. In 2004, a new cold case team re-examine the case.

When Hutchinson was arrested, he tried to put the crime on his brother Gerhard. Gerhard passed away. Police compared his DNA and were able to rule him out. Eventually Hutchinson confessed to fellow prison inmates when he was awaiting trial. He pleaded guilty.

Hutchinson raped and strangled Colette and then he dumped her body in a field near her home. Police found her body the following morning. Hutchinson abducted Colette who was a the trainee hairdresser as she walked from her house to her boyfriend’s.

While police hunted for her killer in 1983, Hutchinson escape from capture by shaving his head to make it look like he had cancer and telling his family he had to go away for treatment.

Hutchinson was armed with a bread knife when he approached a 17-year-old girl and another schoolgirl before abducting Colette. After he murdered Colette, he went to the Generous Briton pub. The landlady there became suspicious after she saw blood on his hands. Police later retrieved a paper towel used by Hutchinson from the pub bathroom. In 2007, they found a full male DNA profile from a tiny segment of paper towel that he had thrown away in the restroom. The break in the case came when police found Colette’s DNA on the same paper towel.

Hutchinson never explained why he murdered Colette, leaving her family with a host of unanswered questions. On 11 October 2010, Hutchinson was found unconscious in his cell at Nottingham Prison. He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital. They think he took an overdose of medication but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive. Hutchinson, who was 51 when he was jailed, was in poor health. He suffered from diabetes, the effects of which left him partially sighted.

Rest in peace, Colette Aram.