THE MYSTERIOUS disappearance of a law student from a Snettisham caravan site 33 years ago should be looked at again following police searches of convicted sex killer Peter Tobin's former home.
That is the belief of former Lynn police inspector Ivan Jordan after the bodies of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton (15) and 18-year-old Dinah McNicol were discovered in the garden at Tobin's former Margate home last week.
Earlier this year, Tobin was jailed for the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk, whose body he hid in a Glasgow church, and now police forces nationally are investigating his movements over the past four decades.
Mr Jordan, from South Wootton, would like to see the case of missing Pamela Exall (21) reconsidered as part of the latest investigation because of her similar appearance to Dinah and to give closure to her family.
He was one of the first officers sent to Snettisham's Diglea campsite when Pamela disappeared on August 30, 1974, as a young constable based at Dersingham on motor patrol.
He said Pamela, her brother, Peter, and a friend, David, had stopped off at Snettisham for the bank holiday weekend towards the end of a touring and camping holiday.
"One of them made a phone call from a phonebox near the sailing club before the two boys returned to their tent.
"But Pamela decided to have a walk along the beach because it was a nice night – that was the last anyone saw of her," he recalled.
Mr Jordan said: "No missing person case is ever closed until it comes to a satisfactory conclusion. I would like to see this case closed for the sake of the family, and particularly her brother who was there when she disappeared and greatly affected by it.
"Until the actual outcome is known it leaves it in limbo and that can cause greater distress than knowing what's happened.
"If she is dead, at least they will have some kind of finality rather than the uncertainty of not knowing."
He was part of the massive police search operation at the time and 20 years later, as an inspector, took part in London Weekend Television's Missing programme when it featured Pamela's disappearance to try to instigate new leads for investigation.
He was heard talking about the inquiry as her parents, Winifred and Len Exall, from Fleet in Hampshire, were shown walking along Snettisham beach.
The Exalls had approached the National Missing Persons Helpline after the body of a young woman fitting Pamela's description was found under builder Fred West's "House of Horrors" home in Gloucester. After discovering it was not their daughter, the couple were invited to do the programme.
Pamela, who had just graduated as a Bachelor of Arts from Kingston Polytechnic and was hoping to take up a job as a solicitor's articled clerk with Berkshire County Council, had phoned her mum on the Friday evening that the trio arrived at the Diglea site. She told her she had had a lovely holiday, and expected to arrive home at Fleet in Hampshire on the Sunday evening.
Pamela was last seen at 10.30pm that Friday. She was wearing blue jeans, a leather jacket and brown suede shoes. Her brother and friend, both 17-year-olds, discovered she was missing when they checked her tent the following morning. All her possessions were still in the tent.
Norfolk Police yesterday declined to say whether the Pamela Exall case would be referred as part of the latest investigation.
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