13 December
EXCLUSIVE: WASTED LIVES
PAULA CLENNELL, 24
Happy-go-lucky teenager who went off the rails after she moved away from father she adored
PAULA Clennell grew up a devoted daddy's girl who loved nothing better than seaside jaunts with the father she adored.
But, at 16, her parents split up. She moved to Ipswich with mum Isabella and elder sister Alice - and her life began to tragically unravel.
Soon she was a hopeless junkie and, despite having three daughters, was working as a vice girl to fund her craving for heroin and crack.
Her distraught father Brian, 57, said yesterday: "Paula was a lovely young girl who fell in with the wrong crowd and got into drugs, like so many youngsters these days. She started to go off the rails a bit when she was leaving school, drinking and dabbling in drugs.
"But I never thought it would come to this. I knew about Paula and drugs but that was all. I cannot believe it when I hear the words Prostitute Paula Clennell. I am a broken man.
"My Paula was a sweet and gentle girl. She wouldn't stand a chance against this brute." The estranged father of Paula's children, 32-year-old named Elton, said he had been stunned to learn police believed they had found her body yesterday. He said: "We've been told it's Paula. I'm not holding up well. It was what we'd feared, but I still wasn't prepared for what it would feel like. The mother of my kids... dead. I just can't believe it."
Paula - whose three daughters have been put in care - left home as a teenager to live with Elton.
He told how they regularly used drugs - but her habit swiftly got out of hand.
Elton said: "We used to take drugs together to help forget about our problems.
"Some weeks she'd blow thousands of pounds on drugs - up to £300 a day.
"Then one day I was looking after the kids and she came home with a pile of cash.
"She admitted she got it from prostitution and said it was the easiest money she'd ever made. I was furious but there was nothing I could do to stop her."
A friend of Paula's told how her appearance changed dramatically as the drugs took a hold, adding: "All the tell-tale signs were there.
"She sweated loads, spoke slowly and the dark circles under her eyes were horrendous. It was tragic to watch her lose control."
Now 24-year-old Paula's dad plans to patrol Ipswich's red light district in his daughter's footsteps - in search of her killer.
Brian said: "I am going to find this man. We've got to get him before he strikes again.
"What sort of person does this? Someone out there must know who he is.
"Somebody's husband is coming home in the middle of the night and they must be suspicious."
GEMMA ADAMS
Cheer and kindbut lost her job when drugs took hold at 17 and severed contact with family.
GEMMA'S distraught younger brother Jack Adams last night paid a moving tribute to his "beautiful" sister.
He said: "The Gemma I remember and the Gemma that will stay in my and my whole family's hearts for the rest of our lives is a kind-hearted, fun-loving, cheeky, humorous Gemma.
"It's not the Gemma that has been widely portrayed across the media. That has been a result of drugs and the massive hold it can and does take. Gemma always wanted to help and improve the lives of others.
"She would always put everybody else first. She was a beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her."
Jack, 20, added: "There is now a massive hole in our family which will never be filled."
In a tearful message to his sister, he added: "Gem, you will never be forgotten. I know you're in a better place now and I'll always love you.
Your little brother." Gemma had grown up "bright and bubbling"
on the outskirts of Ipswich. But after developing a drug habit at 17 she lost her job in an insurance company and drifted away from her family.
She vanished on November 15 and her naked body was found on December 2.
TANIA NICOL, 19
Chatty and polite but left her hotel job and turned to massage parlour work and drugs
TANIA was reported missing by her mother on October 30. She lived with her mum and a brother in a suburb of Ipswich. Neighbours there remember a chatty, smiling girl, well-brought-up and fond of martial arts.
A friend from Chantry High School remembers a "lovely" girl. "We were always giggling," she said.
Tania worked as a room attendant in an Ipswich hotel, but drug addiction led her to one of the town's massage parlours where her mother Kerry Nicol was a maid.
Tania was asked to leave after owners suspected her drugs habit. One woman who worked there said: "She was a quiet girl and took the news that she had to leave very well."
A fellow massage parlour girl who had known Tania at school said: "She was so pretty and always wore nice clothes."
Tania's body was found at Copdock on December 8.
ANNELI ALDERTON, 24
Quit home when dad died of cancer and her tragic life became a spiral of drugs, jail, rape and abuse
INTELLIGENT Anneli Alderton ran away from home after her father died from lung cancer and set off on a downward path that was to end in her murder.
Yesterday, her grandmother Joan Molloy, 81, revealed how the 24-year-old came from a highly-respected family, who had battled for years to save her from drugs and prison.
Mrs Molloy recalled that Anneli, then aged 17, ran off on the day of her dad Roy's funeral and recounted a terrible tale of drugs, rape and abuse suffered by her grandaughter.
Anneli, whose mother Maire, 49, is an English teacher, was taken in by a sexual predator, who used and abused her after introducing her to drugs, claimed Mrs Molloy.
As a result of this abuse, Anneli spent years in and out of prison and her six-year-old son was eventually adopted by Maire, who was worried for the boy's safety.
Mrs Molloy said: "I was gobsmacked to hear my granddaughter was dead, but the Anni I knew as a little girl had died years before.
"I remember her as a normal, artistic, bright little girl - happy and alive."
She went on: "Anni has been a girl more sinned against than sinning, but became addicted to heroin."
Widow Joan, who has four daughters, saw Anneli at Christmas last year, but it was not a happy one.
"Anni had spent as long as two years in prison and was released shortly before Christmas," she said. "She upset everybody at Christmas, because she was a totally changed character with a terrible vocabulary.
"There was swearing and arguing. Anni was not the little girl I knew."
During her early teens Anneli, who has an older brother Tom, was brought up in Cyprus, where her grandparents also lived.
Mrs Molloy recalled: "She was a perfectly nice little girl and had a happy upbringing. Anni spoke Greek and got good grades in English and art but she was marked down in the science subjects because of mistakes with the Greek language and it was decided the family should return to England."
"She got pregnant when she was just 17 and her mother made a strong effort to get Anni clean and shopped her to the police.
"Eight officers came round to the house and she was locked up. But it did no good." Anneli gave birth to a baby boy in 2001.
Yesterday, a close friend of Anneli's mother said: "Anneli was a very bright and extremely pretty young woman. I would never have believed she was a prostitute or into drugs."
The last sighting of Anneli was catching the 5.53pm train from Harwich to Colchester on December 3. Her body was found dead near Ipswich after she was murdered by asphyxiation and "probably strangled" and left in woodland.
ANNETTE NICHOLLS, 29
Bright, bubbly youngster whose life was blighted by addiction
AS a teenager, Annette Nicholls was the girl who seemed to have it all - good looks, an attractive personality and a job that she adored.
But all that promise was washed away by an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine that drove her into the dark world of prostitution.
Heartbroken cousin Tanya yesterday told how Annette, 29, was transformed from a caring mum into a shambling, drug-addled wreck.
Tanya, 37, said: "She used to be such an absolutely outstanding person with the most lovely personality. She was stunningly beautiful inside and out."
Annette, who has an eight-year-old son, trained as a beautician and at one stage hoped to set up business as a local beauty therapist.
Tanya said: "I was so proud of her when she passed her course. She used to go round to friends to do their make-up and give them treatments.
"But then almost overnight she got into heroin and it changed her. It was a bit like flicking a light switch. She used to be such a together person. She was a brilliant mother, her house was immaculate and she would always make sure her car was insured and taxed.
"The next thing she was driving around with no insurance and I heard she was using drugs. We basically just lost her. I found out that she had become a prostitute a couple of years ago."
Tanya last saw Annette three weeks ago - touting for business in Ipswich's red light area at midnight. "She saw me riding past on a bike and called me over to say hello. I was really worried for her because it was after the two other girls, Gemma and Tania, were reported missing.
"But Annette didn't want to stop working. She insisted she was OK and just told me, 'Don't tell anyone you saw me here'."
Annette's terminally ill uncle Peter, 58, said she had recently promised him she was off drugs - and off the streets. He said: "She came to see me when she heard I was ill. She rushed up and gave me a huge hug. I asked her, 'Are you off the drugs? And have you stopped the prostitution?' She said yes. It was such a relief because friends had told me a year ago she was mixed up with drugs. It was shocking. She'd been such a happy little girl - and deep down she was still a lovely girl.
"We're all stunned that this nightmare has unfolded before our eyes."
Peter, Annette's dad John and their other brother David spent hours trawling woods and fields around Ipswich for signs of her after Annette was reported missing.
He said: "I'm not a well man but anything was worth it for news of her."
mirror
Well said Ellie 
