The Murder of Colette Arman
Colette Arman was a 16-year-old British girl. She was working as a trainee hairdresser in Nottingham.
Colette left her house on 30th October 1983 just after 8 pm to walk to her boyfriend's home, usually, he collected her but his car was unavailable. Colette was last seen at about 8.10 pm where she stopped to talk to a group of friends. Witnesses reported hearing a woman screaming and a car speeding off shortly afterwards. When Colette did not arrive at her boyfriend's house and could not be found the police were called to help her frantic family and friends with their search. The search for Colette came to a tragic end when the next morning her nude body was found dumped in a field. She had been raped and strangled.
A murder investigation hunting for Colette's killer was launched immediately and a reconstruction of her last known movements was aired on Crimewatch. Despite 400 tip-offs and 1500 potential suspects, no leads were found and the killer remained unapprehended. The case was shown again on Crimewatch in 2004.
In 2008, advances in forensic technology allowed police to put together a profile of the murderer's DNA and began to rule out suspects with mouth swabs.
In June 2008, Jean-PPaul Hutchinson was arrested on a motor charge. DNA swabs were taken and he was found to be a match to Colette's killer however Jean-Paul was only 20 years old and therefore was not even born when Colette was murdered. Paul Stewart Hutchinson, Jean-Paul's father, was arrested and charged with murder. After an initial not guilty plea he changed his plea to guilty on 21st December 2009.
On 25th January 2010, Hutchinson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years. He refused to say why Colette was killed despite her family requesting the information. Hutchinson died in prison in 10th October 2010 of a suspected overdose.