AMANDA MURDER INQUIRY: DETECTIVE Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, Wiltshire's head of CID, has lived and breathed the Amanda Edwards case since he was phoned at home on the Sunday afternoon, three days after the 21-year-old nursery assistant went missing.

"I obviously knew that she was missing but the inquiry had been run by someone else. But as soon as I was rung and told about developments I knew I had to be personally involved," said the father of two who lives in Devizes.

He had been due for a week's leave to coincide with his children's school holiday but instead he started an eight day stint of working more than 100 hours and only managed to get home once to sleep in his own bed for just six hours.

Ian Cortis had already been identified by detectives as a suspect but on Monday Det Ch Supt Howlett made the decision to arrest him.

"There were things that came up about him that made us suspicious," he said.

As with with all inquiries of this type, family and friends closest to the victim have to be eliminated first. Suspicion fell on Amanda's boyfriend David Board as he was the last known person to have seen her alive.

But he had been away for the weekend with his parents to Dorset the same afternoon that Amanda went missing.

CCTV footage of Amanda in her car in Wootton Bassett at 11.55am, 25 minutes after her boyfriend was dropped at his house in Bremhill, also made it unlikely he was involved.

"Right up until Amanda's body was found we were all hoping that she would be found alive.

"She comes from a lovely, normal family and her parents and sister have been totally devastated by this.

"I went to see them to pay my respects on Friday evening after the body had been identified and it was terrible.

"I felt it was something I had to do. We had been keeping them informed of everything that was happening as much as possible all along.

"A team of four family liaison officers has been with them all the time and they have become close.

"It was them that had to break the news to the family that the body definitely was Amanda."

Since taking over as head of Wiltshire CID last year, Det Ch Supt Howlett has been involved in a number of major investigations including the murder of Highworth mother Linda Razzell and Bradford on Avon woman Natalie Williams.

But he said this case, involving a young woman, has probably affected him the most. He said: "With this sort of case you have to remain detached and not get carried away with any information you find out.''

For this reason the knowledge of the double rape conviction against Ian Cortis did not make him believe they necessarily had the right man in custody.

"If you do that you lose your impartiality,'' he said. " It is not the sort of information to get excited about as it is not something you can put before a jury when you are trying to get a conviction.

"You have to have hard evidence that will stand up in court."

Det Ch Supt Howlett met Cortis but did not interview him himself.

"Of course It is something I would have loved to have done. You want to be involved at that level but you can't

"I had to keep an overview of the whole investigation but he was interviewed by very experienced officers."

But he did meet Cortis and described his demeanour as ordinary.

"He answered all the questions during interview but did not give anything away," he said.

At the height of the inquiry there were 100 officers working on the case.

This has now been scaled down to around 60 and the police operation itself has been split into two.

Det Ch Supt Howlett and his team based at Westlea in Swindon are dealing with all matters relating the Miss Edwards' death while another team based at Semington, near Melksham is looking into the death of Ian Cortis.

Both are determined to provide full evidence for the inquests that will follow.

More on this story appears in today's Gazette & Herald