West Yorkshire : A suspected serial killer arrested[ 1307 ]

Suspect quizzed over six women as police probe CCTV of crossbow attack

Justin Davenport and Rashid Razaq
27.05.10

A suspected serial killer arrested for the murders of three prostitutes may be questioned about the deaths of up to six women, it was revealed today.

Mature student Stephen Griffiths, 40, was being quizzed as police confirmed the remains of a woman found in a river were those of Suzanne Blamires, 36.

The criminology student, who researched serial killers, is also being held on suspicion of murdering Shelley Armitage, 31, and Susan Rushworth, 43, who have disappeared.
All three sex workers had vanished from Bradford's red light district — a haunt of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women, mainly prostitutes, 30 years ago.
The Standard can reveal the suspect sent “unnerving messages” to a yoga teacher a year ago, according to a friend of the woman.

Detectives are also said to be studying CCTV footage found by a security guard at the weekend which shows a woman being chased, attacked and shot with a crossbow.
Griffiths was arrested at his one-bed flat in a converted mill in Bradford on Monday, the day before police found the human remains in the River Aire.
Now detectives are combing through the killings and disappearance of other women dating back 20 years. In particular, they are examining the unsolved murders of three other women from the Bradford area.
Ms Blamires, 36, went missing from her home in the red light area last Friday. Ms Armitage vanished on April 26 and Ms Rushworth, a grandmother and mother of three, vanished on June 22 last year.
West Yorkshire Police have confirmed they are treating the disappearance of al three as murder.
Detectives are also said to be examining the disappearance of Gemma Simpson, 23, from her home in Leeds in May 2000 and the murders of Bradford prostitute Yvonne Fitt, 33, in 1992 and Rebecca Hall, 19, whose naked body was found in a Bradford alley in 2001.
While police are looking at further cases, senior officers emphasised today they had not found any definite links so far. They have been granted extra time, until early this evening, to question Griffiths. Detectives are scouring a My Space internet site set up by Griffiths to research his background.

The site, now removed, was created under the pseudonym Ven Pariah and he styled himself “the misanthrope who brought hate into heaven”. He is believed to have written about notorious serial killers and claimed he was doing a “PhD in murder”.
He used two main images of himself, gave himself the age of 99, listed his location as Bradford and last accessed his pages on April 23.
Listing his mood as “evil”, he quotes the book of Ezekiel: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides.” The quote was made famous after being used in an execution scene in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction.
One black and white shot on the website shows Griffiths with his hair slicked back and was taken a number of years ago. A second is a topless self-portrait taken in a mirror.
Born in Dewsbury, he was said to be doing a criminal justice course specialising in homicide at the University of Bradford. He is also said to have a psychology degree. The university today refused to comment.
Neighbours at the block of flats in the converted property known as Soho Mills described him as “weird” and a “a bit of a Goth”.
West Yorkshire Police said today: “Inquiries are ongoing and a man of 40 remains under arrest in custody.”