NewsBeat
My mum was last seen outside pub 26 years ago
IT’S a heartbreaking case that has gone unsolved for more than two decades.
Kellie Pratt was just 28-years-old when she vanished from the streets of Norwich in July 2000.
The mum-of-two, who had bravely been pulling herself out of heroin addiction and sex work, was desperately trying to reunite with her children.
Tragically, just weeks after making arrangements to see her boys, she disappeared – and is now sadly presumed dead.
But her son, Kurtis Pratt, is determined to seek justice for his mother – and fears serial killer Steve Wright could be behind the heinous crime.
Wright, who earned the macabre moniker Suffolk Stranger, this week admitted to killing 17-year-old Victoria Hall in September 1999.
The tragic teenager was found naked in a ditch after a night out with her friends in Felixstowe.
It’s the first time the monster has admitted murder, although he is currently serving a full life tariff for killing five women in 2006.
His known victims are Tania Nicol, 19, Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29 – but it’s suspected there could be many more.
The Suffolk Strangler’s own brother told The Sun he believes Vicky Hall was just the tip of the iceberg.
It is believed Wright could have murdered multiple sex workers from Norwich, cops say.
Kellie Pratt went missing a year after Victoria’s killing and was last seen in Norfolk.
She had split up with Kurtis’ dad Michael two years prior and relocated from Newcastle to be near her mum.
The mum-of-two was last seen outside the Rose Inn pub in Norwich, at 11:30pm on June 11, wearing a black skirt, black t-shirt and light blue coat.
Around the same time someone called her and she told them she was with “a punter”.
Her pals raised the alarm when she failed to turn up at an arranged place and time.
Norfolk Constabulary previously investigated links between Kellie’s disappearance and the murder of 16-year-old Natalie Pearman.
The teenager, who was also a sex worker, had been killed by “asphyxia” in 1992.
Cops also investigated possible connections when two years after Kellie vanished, another woman from the Norwich red light district was found dead.
Michelle Bettles, 22, was strangled and left in woodland on March 29, 2000.
Meanwhile Wright ran a pub in the same area with his ex-wife Diane Cole – who said he would frequently go missing and leave her to tend the bar.
Kellie’s son Kurtis, 30, has now appealed to the Suffolk Strangler to come forward about his mother’s case.
In a message to the prisoner, reported by The Mirror, he said: “Do you know where my mum’s body is?”
Kurtis grew up in foster care after his mother’s disappearance and was “scared of the world” due to a “tumultuous upbringing”.
He believes if she was still alive, Kellie would have made contact with him at some point.
HEARTBREAKING PLEA FOR ANSWERS
Despite having very few memories of his mum, and being told very little about her as a child, Kurtis “always thinks of her”.
“I tell people I’ve got her curly hair and I’ve got the same initials as her, it’s just little things like that,” he revealed.
“I just learned to live with the mystery of what happened to her and where she went but I now realise it would help me to know.”
Kurtis continued: “I want to reach out to Steve Wright directly and ask that if Steve himself wanted to rectify – even a little bit of damage he caused to his victims – it would be really important.
“I think now is the time to come forward to give the victims’ families and friends the peace they deserve.”
Is he key to more killings?
SERIAL killer Steve Wright could hold the key to solving a string of other murders:
JEANETTE KEMPTON, 31, was found strangled off the A12, near Southwold, Suffolk, in February 1989.
She lived 120 miles away in Brixton, South London, and had no links to Suffolk — suggesting her killer did. Wright was living at the time in Chislehurst, South London.
MICHELLE BETTLES, 22, was last seen alive in the red light area of Norwich on March 28, 2002. Her body was found by a dog walker three days later.
A forensic review into her murder in 2022 identified several DNA profiles on her clothing.
AMANDA DUNCAN, 26, was working as a prostitute in Ipswich in July 1993. The single mum-of-two was last seen alive in the red light area near Ipswich Town’s ground.
No trace of her has been found since.
NATALIE PEARMAN, 16, was working as a prostitute in Norwich’s red light district on November 20, 1992. Her body was found five miles away.
She died from asphyxiation. It is possible she had sex with one punter before meeting Wright.
Kurtis, who began researching his mum’s disappearance as a teenager, urged the person responsible to disclose where his mother’s body is, so the family can have some sense of closure.
The 30-year-old admitted he has spent most of his life feeling “numb” to the realities of Kellie’s case.
But he insisted answers would allow him to “move on”, and begged Wright to come forward.
“All he can do now is cooperate to the best of his ability and try and get some kind of good karma out of this by letting us all know what’s happened and who the victims are, where they are,” he said.
‘HE’S AN ANIMAL’
Kurtis’ heartbreaking plea for answers comes as disgusted members of Wright’s family have spoken out this week in support of his victims.
Wright’s half-brother Keith told The Sun: “It’s time he did the right thing and told the police everything
“There’s still so much we don’t know, so many unanswered questions.
“How many more victims are there?
“I’d like to say that this is it, but I’m not convinced anymore.
“I just hope he comes clean about the whole lot for the families of everyone involved.”
Married dock worker Keith, of Felixstowe, Suffolk, said Wright was living with him just months after he murdered tragic Vicky.
He said: “There were no outward signs of what he had just done.
“To know that he was living under my roof having done something like that makes me feel sick.
“People want answers, an explanation, a reason, not just a guilty plea.
“We want to know why. What possesses someone to do these things? Vicky Hall was just 17 years old.
“He’s an animal.”
‘EPITOME OF EVIL’
Wright’s former wife also urged the serial killer to confess to any other potential crimes.
Diane Cole, 71, told The Sun: “He needs to come clean.
“It’s time the families of his other victims had some sort of closure.
“He needs to break the habit of a lifetime and just tell the truth. He should tell the police everything.”
Diane, who married sadistic bully Wright after they met while working on the QE2 liner in the mid-1980s, added: “I don’t think this is the end.
“We only know about the ones he has been convicted of, but there will be others, I’m sure of it . . . he’s the epitome of evil.”