EXCLUSIVE: Major police update on 30 year unsolved murder

Detectives have launched a new probe into the murder of Melanie Hall - whose body was found years after she vanished on a night out - and hope AI technology will snare her killer.

Melanie, 25, was last seen by a friend sitting on a stool near the dancefloor of what was Cadillacs nightclub in Bath at 1.10am on June 9, 1996. Her remains were not discovered until October 2009, wrapped in rope and bin bags, 28 miles north, near a sliproad on to the M5 motorway near Thornbury, Glos.

It is one of the longest running murder investigations in the country, having remained open and live continuously for nearly 30 years. Detectives at Avon and Somerset Police have now begun a "root and branch" review of the case, digitising the contents of 90 crates of evidence so they can analyse it with the latest technology.

A pool of under 100 "persons of interest" has been whittled down to less than 20 and officers are re-interviewing alibi witnesses to see if they stand by their stories. Det Chief Insp Ben Lavender, who is leading the cold case team, said he believes the answers to solving the mystery lie in the archives.

"With the advancements in AI in the coming years, I am sure it will give us another way of looking into the data that we have got again in intelligent ways. I'm hoping that by having all the information on the systems on computer will allow us to do those checks again," Mr Lavender said.

Artificial intelligence can be helpful in identifying potential leads in cold cases where vast amounts of material has been amassed including CCTV footage, emails and witness statements. One test showed it was able to review the evidence in 27 complex cases in just 30 hours - which it is estimated would have taken a detective up to 81 years to complete.

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