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LONDON - The arrest of the 37 year-old suspect in connection with the Ipswich prostitute murders has been the culmination of weeks of drama.
Chronology of events
Monday Oct 30 - Sex worker Tania Nicol, 19, last seen leaving her home at Woolverstone Close, Ipswich at about 10.30pm.
Wednesday Nov 15 - Prostitute Gemma Adams, 25, reported missing to police after she fails to return home after spending the evening in Ipswich.
Saturday Dec 2 - Adams' naked corpse is found in a brook at Thorpes Hill, Hintlesham, a few miles west of Ipswich.
Sunday Dec 3 - Prostitute Anneli Alderton last seen travelling on the 5.53 pm train from Harwich to Colchester in Essex.
Thursday Dec 7 - A motorist driving past woodland in Nacton to the east of Ipswich at 10.30 pm sees what he believes is an abandoned mannequin about 30 yards from the road. He does not report what turns out to be Alderton's naked body to police.
Friday Dec 8 - The naked body of Nicol is discovered in a stream near Copdock Mill, on the western edge of Ipswich, a couple of miles from where Adams was found.
Sunday Dec 10 - Alderton's body is discovered.
Monday Dec 11 - Police say they are worried about the disappearance of another prostitute, 24-year-old Paula Clennell, who had not been seen since Dec 9.
Detectives also say that a fifth prostitute, Annette Nicholls, 29, had not been seen for at least a week.
Tuesday Dec 12 - Police announce that 24-year-old Alderton was asphyxiated. Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull tells a news conference "it appears she was strangled".
Initial tests on Adams and Nicol, whose deaths the police are linking, indicate they were not killed in the same way. Later, police announce they have found two more naked bodies near where Alderton's body was found.
They say they are probably those of missing prostitutes Clennell and Nicholls.
Wednesday Dec 13 - Police say they have had more than 2,000 calls from members of the public offering information.
The News of the World newspaper offer 250,000 pounds ($718,000), believed to be Britain's largest ever reward, for help in catching the killer.
Friday Dec 15 - Police confirm prostitute Nicholls as the fifth murder victim. They said all five murders were linked.
Saturday Dec 16 - Police release surveillance television footage of Alderton, who was three months pregnant when she was murdered.
Monday Dec 18 - Police announce they have arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of all five murders.
- AFP, REUTERS, AGENCIES