Suffolk's chief constable Alastair McWhirter has today written a letter of thanks to the people of Suffolk for the unswerving support his officers have received from the community during developments in Britain's biggest manhunt.

CHIEF Constable of Suffolk, Alastair McWhirter, today - through The Evening Star's editor Nigel Pickover - wrote a letter of thanks to the people of Suffolk for the unswerving support his officers have received from the community during developments in Britain's biggest manhunt.

Dear Nigel

I wanted, through your columns, to thank everyone in Ipswich and the surrounding area for the fantastic help and support they have given to Suffolk Constabulary and its officers during the current unprecedented investigations.

The tragic events of the last few weeks culminating in the rapid finding of 5 bodies has stretched us to the full, but the help

and support we have been given has been tremendous. It is helping us to meet the incredible challenges we face to bring the offender or offenders to justice.

Having to do this in the full glare of the world's media is an additional challenge as well as a help but what has cheered and encouraged us has been the support and care of the local media with whom we work on a daily basis.

The morale among my colleagues is high. We are determined to solve these horrific crimes- not only the tragic murders of 5 young Suffolk women but also the fatal shooting of a young man at Zest nightclub on Friday night.

The number of police officers and staff is growing by the day to investigate the information we have received.

We are also trying to ensure that we still provide as good a policing service as we can while concentrating our efforts on trying to prevent any more tragedies and catching the offenders in the 5 linked enquiries and the shooting incident.

We are also grateful to the Evening Star for being the first newspaper to put up a significant reward in this case and for the support we have received from the Editor and staff.

We are working day and night to resolve these cases. We are under a great deal of pressure to get results.

We are however determined to ensure that we carry out our investigations thoroughly and quickly. In the meantime we need the

public of Ipswich to look after each other when out for an evening and to heed the advice about sticking with friends, planning your journeys to and from your destination.

Yours sincerely

Alastair McWhirter