SIX killers are walking free today. And The Evening Star pledges to put its weight – and reward money – behind a new push to put the killers of Joan Albert, Vicky Hall, Karen Hales, Doris Shelley, Edna Harvey and Diane Jones behind bars.

By Jessica Nicholls

SIX killers are walking free today. And The Evening Star pledges to put its weight – and reward money – behind a new push to put the killers of Joan Albert, Vicky Hall, Karen Hales, Doris Shelley, Edna Harvey and Diane Jones behind bars.

Many months – but in most cases years – have passed since the killers struck and still they walk free. They breathe our air, walk with us, sit next to us on the bus, in the office and maybe, even share our lives at home.

Our reward pledge will go to anyone who helps bring about convictions of the brutal killers of these people who walk around with the false belief that they have escaped their fate.

Despite huge police investigations into every one of these murders the killers have yet to be found.

For their families it is frustrating and bewildering that the culprits are still at large and have somehow managed to disappear into the melting pot of people in everyday life.

How have they been able to walk free for so long? Suffolk police have solved many high profile murders, what are the differences with these? How have they managed to hide from justice? Someone somewhere is hiding them.

Just within the last two years several highly dangerous individuals have been jailed for vicious murders.

Teenagers Lee Ford, 17 and Jamie Briggs, 16 were jailed in May last year for the brutal murder of Ipswich man Simon Williams.

Ford, from Bantoft Terrace and Briggs from Nacton Road were found guilty of clubbing the quiet 30-year-old to death with a table leg and a tennis racket on May 10 2000.

Also behind bars as a result of major police investigations are evil Damien Duberry and Leon Sobers who brutally murdered Ipswich barmaid Janet Fleming.

The 38-year-old mum of one died two days after masked crack fiends Sobers, 23 and Duberry, 21 left her for dead outside Harleys pub on Stoke Drive in December 2000.

Lewis Carroll, 31 of Crocus Close, Ipswich was convicted of murdering Chinese man Phil Hoi Phat Lui.

The 24-year-old was attacked both inside and outside Kartouche nightclub on August 14 2000.

But still there are some murders that remain a mystery and these are the ones that prey on people's minds.

Where are they? Have they done it again? Will they do it again? And what goes through their minds when they wake up every morning a free person?

Anna Woolnough, a spokeswoman for Suffolk police said that they never consider their cases to be unsolved and that they always remain open until the killer is caught.

She said: "Our investigations keep going all the time.

"Cases can be solved years after the event – just one call followed up could give us a key result."

It is hard for the police working on the case, but even harder for the family involved. Someone viciously killed their loved ones and yet they still walk free.

The repercussions for the family of 21-year-old Karen Hales have been immense and her devastated mother, Geraldine said she is constantly tormented by the question, Why?

She said: "It is so hard to put it into words but it has torn our family apart.

"Me and Graham (Karen's father) are no longer together and I often think that had this person been caught, had this whole thing never happened, maybe we would still be together, I just don't know."

Catching the killer can never bring her beloved daughter back but Geraldine can never rest until they are caught.

Her anger is still evident as she said: "Yes it would help if the killer was caught – I don't know why they did this.

"She was a young mum in her home bringing up her baby and she was so happy.

"It torments me as to why they did it."

The most recent horror in Suffolk, which is still very much on people's minds, is the brutal murder of Capel St Mary pensioner Joan Albert, who was found stabbed to death in her Boydlands home on December 16.

Almost five months on and detectives and police are still following up the many lines of inquiry that have come out of the investigation.

Residents living in the village are nervous – they want the killer caught but, as the Star has already revealed, as time goes by doubts are beginning to form in their minds as to how many positive leads the police have to go on.

Behind the scenes Suffolk police are ploughing through the huge amount of information that has come in, trying to piece together the jigsaw.

Police spokesman Simon Stevens said: "The team is using everything at its disposal to try and trace her (Joan Albert's) killer.

"Our officers are still out and about, door knocking and making inquiries, also telephoning people and checking out everything."

Very little has been revealed about the killer so far – forensic evidence is also a huge part of the investigation and results are still coming back of tests taken during the course of the inquiry.

A psychological profile of the killer is also a route that could be taken and is available to the team, but Mr Stevens could not confirm whether this had been done or not.

As with all the other murders, somebody, somewhere knows something and they are hiding these killers.

Anyone with this information could help to stop the daily torment of these families, and while it will never bring their loved ones back it may help to ease the pain that their killers have been brought to justice.

If you have information call Suffolk Police on 01473 613500.