The Murder of Hannah Williams and Missing White Woman Syndrome
Hannah Williams was a 14-year-old British schoolgirl who went missing during a shopping trip on 21st April 2001, her body was found on 15th March 2002 and Robert Lesarian Howard, a convicted sex offender, was charged with her murder.
On 21st April 2001 Hannah Williams told her mother she was going shopping but never returned home. It was initially presumed Hannah had run away and the search for her was hindered by a friend reporting seeing her long after she had been killed. During the search for another missing girl (Danielle Jones), Hannah's body was found in an industrial area of Kent and was identified by her distinctive clothing, she had suffered a violent rape and been strangled. Robert Howard, who had known Hannah since 1999, was arrested 8 days after her body was found. At trial, Howard was found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Williams and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 2015.
Many parallels have been drawn between the press coverage of Hannah Williams' case and other missing girls of a similar age who disappeared around the same time (notedly Milly Dowler and Danielle Jones). Hannah's case received significantly less coverage than other missing girls and it was argued this was due to her not fitting the more 'wholesome' image, Hannah had a nose piercing, came from a working class, single parent family, she had spent time in care and had a history of running away from home. Milly Dowler and Danielle Jones, on the other hand, were middle class and had stable family homes. Jones and Dowler received heavy press coverage and were featured on the front pages of national newspapers, in contrast most of the press attention, a total of 62 articles, about Williams' case got was when her body was discovered due to initial speculation it was the body of Danielle Jones. The Soham murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman received 898 articles in less than 2 weeks. A police spokesperson described Williams' mother as 'not press conference material.' The National Missing Persons Helpline highlighted the differences in reporting commenting that often the media would ask for cases with a female victim, within a certain age range and from a certain background.
The Guardian published the following quote from a Kent police officer: "There are serious questions to be raised about the original missing persons investigation. This is very sensitive, but if Hannah Williams had been a Milly Dowler, she may not be dead now."
