Soham murders
2002 murders in Cambridgeshire, England
Why this is trending
“Soham murders” surged to position #8 among the most-read Wikipedia pages on 2026-02-26, with roughly 161,204 views recorded.
Categorised under Politics & Government, this article fits a familiar pattern. Political articles spike during elections, policy announcements, diplomatic events, or when political figures make international headlines.
For context, the 30-day daily average for this page was 1,412 views. The recent spike of 11317% above that average highlights an extraordinary surge in public curiosity.
At GlyphSignal we surface these trending signals every day—transforming Wikipedia’s vast pageview data into actionable insights about global curiosity.
Key Takeaways
- The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, on 4 August 2002.
- Huntley was convicted of the murder of both girls on 17 December 2003 and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with the High Court later imposing a minimum term of 40 years.
- She received a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.
- Disappearance At 11:45 a.
- She told her parents she was going to give her friend a necklace engraved with the letter "H" that she had purchased for her on a recent family holiday to Menorca.
The Soham murders were a double child murder committed in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England, on 4 August 2002. The victims were two 10-year-old girls, Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Amiee Chapman, who were lured into the home of a local resident and school caretaker, Ian Kevin Huntley, who murdered them – likely via asphyxiation – and disposed of their bodies in an irrigation ditch close to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. The bodies were discovered on 17 August 2002.
Huntley was convicted of the murder of both girls on 17 December 2003 and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment, with the High Court later imposing a minimum term of 40 years. His girlfriend, Maxine Ann Carr – the girls' teaching assistant – had knowingly provided Huntley with a false alibi. She received a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for conspiring with Huntley to pervert the course of justice.
The search for Holly and Jessica in the thirteen days of their disappearance has been described as one of the most intense and extensive in British criminal history.
Disappearance
At 11:45 a.m. on Sunday, 4 August 2002, Jessica Chapman left her home in Brook Street, Soham, for a barbecue at the home of her best friend, Holly Wells, in nearby Redhouse Gardens. She told her parents she was going to give her friend a necklace engraved with the letter "H" that she had purchased for her on a recent family holiday to Menorca.
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
