UPDATED:

A MURDER scene has been reopened to the public.

Hundreds of trees and shrubs have been cut down on the Salary Brook Nature Reserve by officers who have spent three weeks searching for clues to help solve the murder of Nahid Al-Manea in Greenstead on Tuesday, June 17, shortly before 10.40am.

The search teams have left Greenstead.

Nahid, 31, of Woodrow Way, Colchester, was stabbed 16 times and killed.

The family of the Essex University student from Saudi Arabia are still waiting for justice.

The killer is still out there, there are no eyewitnesses who have come forward and no confirmed forensic evidence to identify them.

Detectives are now going through the thousands of items recovered and thousands of pages of witness statements.

Others are looking at CCTV footage recovered.

Det Chief Supt Steve Worron said: “It is three weeks on from the brutal attack on Nahid.
“We continue to appeal for witnesses.

“I know the single greatest reassurance we can provide to the community is to catch the people responsible.

“The killers of Nahid took a great risk killing so close to a busy main road and close to blocks of flats.

“This, and the attack of James, are very rare.”

Officers are still searching for a man in a beige jacket and a man in a red hooded top.

The investigation into the murder of James Attfield also continues.

Jim, 33, of East Bay, a father-of-five, was murdered shortly before 6am on Saturday, March 29.

Police are desperate to find a couple seen the night before on a bench close to a man who may have been Jim at about 11.30pm the previous evening.

Anyone with information call 01245 282103 or anonymously via independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Rewards of £10,000 have been offered by Crimestoppers for information leading to the conviction of either killer.

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ATTEMPTS to catch Colchester’s killers will be slow and painstaking, police have admitted.

The first phase of the investigation into the murder of Nahid Al-Manea – gathering witness statements, CCTV and items – is ending.

The Salary Brook Trail, where Nahid was found with 16 stab wounds, is expected to reopen today with the search of the area coming to an end.

Det Chief Supt Steve Worron urged residents to remain patient as police move on to the next phase.

More than 100 officers will be reviewing witness statements, CCTV footage and the thousands of forensic exhibits collected, and cross referencing them with information in the James Attfield murder.

Mr Worron said this work will take time, but is the most likely way they will catch the person, or people, responsible.

He added: “There is no golden nugget.

“No eyewitnesses to either murder has come forward and no significant piece of forensic evidence provides conclusive proof of who the offender or offenders are.

“This is going to be methodical, taking one piece at a time to build a picture “The public have given us a great deal of assistance, but it will take time.

“I can understand people are worried the killer, or killers, are still potentially out there.

“This will be a slow and painstaking investigation, the scale of which is very rare, not just in Essex but nationally.”

Nahid, 31, was killed on the Salary Brook Trail, near Colchester’s Greenstead estate, on Tuesday, June 17, at 10.39am.

She was living with her brother in Woodrow Way, Colchester, while studying English at Essex University.

She had arrived in the UK six months ago and was planning to do a PhD in life sciences.

James Attfield, 33, of East Bay, Colchester, was found with 102 stab wounds, near Lower Castle Park, on Saturday, March 29, at 5.50am.

! Anyone with information can call Essex Police’s incident room on 01245 282103, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.