Hall had arranged to stay with her boyfriend Philip Karlbaum on 8 June and her mother dropped her off at his home. On the night of 8 June 1996, Hall went to Cadillacs nightclub in Bath with Karlbaum and another couple. Hall was reported as having had an argument with Karlbaum, and he left the club "upset" after he allegedly saw her dancing with another man. She was reported missing on 11 June 1996 by her parents after she failed to turn up for work. and the BBC show
Crimewatch and
Crimestoppers both made appeals to the public for information, as did Hall's sister Dominique, but no trace of Hall was found. The
Crimewatch appeal broadcast on 5 November 1996 included details of unconfirmed sightings of Hall around the time she disappeared: one witness saw a woman who resembled Hall in Cadillacs nightclub, talking to a man and saw them leave together; at approximately 2 am on 9 June, two women had left
Domino's Pizza on Walcot Street and were heading towards the nightclub, when they witnessed a woman who looked like Hall arguing with a man outside the church hall; around the same time, further along Walcot Street, another witness saw a man coaxing a woman, who may have been Hall, into the Podium car park. Despite this, police refused to confirm that the body was that of Hall until a post-mortem had been carried out. The remains were formally identified as being Hall's through dental records on 7 October. Hall's parents launched a fresh appeal on 8 October for anyone with information to come forward, On 29 October 2009, police announced that three keys to a
Ford vehicle, possibly a
Transit,
Fiesta or
Escort, had been found near the body, and that they were working with Ford to try to identify the vehicle.
Crimewatch also launched a fresh appeal for information, which resulted in more than 200 phone calls from the public. The reward for information leading to arrest was also increased to £20,000. In October 2019, police revealed they had obtained a partial DNA profile from the rope wrapped around the bag containing Hall's remains and stated that they remained confident that Hall's killer would be caught. Her parents reinstated a £50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
Arrests In 1998, the suspected killer of
Suzy Lamplugh,
John Cannan, was questioned over the disappearance of Melanie Hall. Known for his Bristol connections, Cannan was spoken to by police after allegations came to light that he had plotted the murder of Hall from his prison cell at
HM Prison Durham. Detectives investigated claims from sources who said that Cannan had spent many hours planning what he described as the "perfect" abduction with a fellow inmate. The other inmate was a convicted rapist who supposedly put the plan into action after being released from prison. Inexplicably, although Cannan was in prison at the time Melanie Hall was last seen alive, some witnesses came forward to say they were certain that Cannan was the man they had seen abducting Hall that night. Hall's parents said that they feared if Cannan was responsible for their daughter's death they would never know the truth of what happened to her, as Cannan was infamous for tactically withholding information about victims in order to maintain a sense of control over investigators. In 2003, police arrested two men in connection with Hall's disappearance but they were released without charge after police searched buildings and a field near Bath. In July 2010, a 38-year-old man from Bath was arrested on suspicion of Hall's murder and subsequently released on
bail. In August 2010, a 39-year-old man from
Wiltshire was arrested by police on suspicion of murder after handing himself in at a police station in the
Avon and Somerset area. The man was subsequently released on bail., was searched. On 28 November 2014 it was reported that there was insufficient evidence to charge the suspect. On 23 June 2016, a 45-year-old man was arrested following retrieval of DNA from where Hall's remains were discovered, and released on bail a few days later. By October 2019, eleven arrests had been made during the police investigation but no one has ever been charged. The unknown assailant is known to have attempted to
carjack a woman at knifepoint, leaving her wounded when she fought back and managed to escape, in the same area of the city a few hours before Hall was abducted. It has also been suggested that there may be a link between Hall's murder and
Levi Bellfield, who is serving life imprisonment with a
whole life order for the murders of
Milly Dowler,
Marsha McDonnell, and
Amélie Delagrange committed between 2002 and 2004. A suggested link with convicted killer Christopher Halliwell, who is serving a life sentence with a whole life order for the murders of
Sian O'Callaghan and Becky Godden-Edwards, has been ruled out by Avon and Somerset Police. ==See also==