Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were killed by evil Ian Huntley in a sickening crime that shocked the nation.
Since then, Huntley has spent his life behind bars - where he has been described as a 'skinny' old man that is virtually unrecognisable.
The twisted killer is a recluse behind bars - at constant risk of attack from other prisoners and has a string of health problems.
A former inmate at HMP Frankland told The Mirror in 2016 that Huntley was leading a sinister double life behind bars.
Fellow jailbirds never knew which side of the killer they would see emerging from his cell every morning – the strutting cocky king of the wing or the self-pitying suicidal zombie.
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The source said: "He has constant ups and downs. On a high he'll walk the corridors, mocking other prisoners and acting the big man."
But other times they would see the shambling loner, feeling sorry for himself over not being eligible for parole until he's 71 in 2042.
According to the ex-inmate, Huntley loved watching TV and playing video games on consoles he bought with his wages.
They added: "Huntley rarely gets involved in group activity and never goes to the yard. He stands around by the kitchens, moaning he wants more food. He's only about 5ft2in but he’s over 15st."
But in November 2019, Huntley was reportedly locked up in solitary confinement after swearing at an official and kicking a guard.
The monster's special privileges were said to have been taken away after the attack, meaning he lost his £20-a-week painting job and was not allowed to buy fish and chip dinners.
A source then claimed he had shed weight, saying: "He's almost unrecognisable now from what the public would remember. He looks like a skinny old man with no fight left in him."
The two girls would have turned 30 this year, but their time was cut short by Huntley, who wasn't caught straight away thanks to the alibi provided by his girlfriend Maxine Carr.
Police said they thought Huntley was a ' normal bloke ', and he even appeared on television to claim that he spoke to the youngsters before they disappeared.
It was these appearances that ultimately helped cops in their hunt for the girls’ killer and he was eventually charged with two counts of murder and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment.
But even though he's behind bars, he's remained at risk of attacks from fellow prisoners, disgusted at his actions.
In 2005 while in HMP Wakefield, Huntley was scalded with boiling water by convicted spree killer Mark Hobson.
Two years after being transferred to HMP Frankland in 2008, Huntley had his neck slashed by convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes and received hospital treatment.
In April 2007, Huntley confessed to having sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl whom he had dragged into an orchard in 1997.
Then in 2017, The Mirror broke the news that Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe had a chilling jail run-in with Huntley.
Sutcliffe called Huntley a "child killing b*****d" in the face-to-face flare-up and told him to "p*** off" during the altercation at their Category A jail.
The astonishing clash was revealed by Sutcliffe's brother Carl, who said: "Peter thinks he’s a higher class of killer than Huntley, but a murderer is a murderer in my eyes."
Dismissing rumours the two killers had become pals, Carl added: "He doesn't like Huntley at all. Peter's always been good with kids and he must think killing two children is worse than 13 women. But it doesn't make sense to me."
During his trial, Huntley had claimed he had "killed the girls accidentally" but in 2018, he was heard apologising for the murders in leaked recordings from his prison cell.
"I know the people of Soham took me into their community, they trusted me, gave me a job and a home, and I betrayed them in the worst possible way," he said in the tapes.
"And I am sorry for what I have done, sorry for the pain I have caused to the families and friends of Holly and Jessica, for the pain I have caused my family and friends, and for the pain I have caused the community of Soham.
"I am genuinely, genuinely sorry and it breaks my heart when it is reported I have no remorse, that I relish something. I do not."
After saying he couldn’t change what he had done, the killer added: "I know I am never getting out. I have accepted that from day one."
Holly and Jessica disappeared after leaving a family barbecue to buy sweets on August 4, 2002, and a huge search was launched
Police descended on the small Cambridgeshire town of Soham, with more than 400 officers working full-time and round the clock to find the girls.
Along with hundreds of local volunteers, they combed the area for any trace of them and a massive media appeal kept them on the front pages of every paper and in every news bulletin for 13 days.
Holly and Jessica had left the barbecue to get snacks from the vending machine at the local leisure centre, then they walked past Huntley’s home on the way back.
He spotted the pair and lured them into his house, claiming his girlfriend Maxine Carr, who was a teaching assistant at their school, was inside.
Huntley murdered the girls and then hid their bodies in an irrigated ditch close to the RAF base about 10 miles from their home.
The entire nation reeled when the tragic news broke that their bodies had been found by a gamekeeper.
It was revealed that Huntley, who had already been taken in for questioning, had gone back to where he dumped the bodies to cut off the girls’ distinctive Manchester United shirts and tried to burn them in a bid to destroy any DNA evidence.
He then dumped the shirts in a bin at the school where he worked, covering them with another bag of rubbish, but the police found them in a watershed moment for the case.
During the investigation, one concerned member of the public called the Grimsby Telegraph about Huntley and Carr, who were both from Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
After checking the newspaper archives at the suggestion of the caller, a reporter in the Grimsby newsroom alerted Humberside Police to the link with earlier investigations into Huntley, reported Grimsby Live.
His name appeared in court reports and allegations of sex attacks - which the Telegraph had published.
Cambridgeshire Police quickly established their route and identified Ian Huntley as the last person to see them alive. He brazenly appeared on television interviews to lie about where he had seen them walk.
In fact, during the early days of the investigation, Huntley was treated as a witness rather than a suspect in the crime.
Carr also provided an alibi for Huntley and said that they were together. But this was a complete lie as she had been out in a bar in Grimsby at the time the girls disappeared.
Huntley had allegedly targeted young girls in the mid-1990s while living in Immingham and in Grimsby.
However, despite services investigating complaints and Humberside Police being involved, there was never sufficient evidence to convict him.
His criminal activity was also never spotted by his college employers in Cambridgeshire when applying for a role in 2001.
On August 20, Huntley was charged with two counts of murder and after a trial at The Old Bailey, Huntley, then 31, was sentenced to 40 years behind bars.
Carr, Huntley's girlfriend, was jailed for three-and-a-half years for conspiring with the killer to pervert the course of justice, but is now enjoying a life of freedom, complete with the protection of being given a new identity.
Huntley will not be considered for release until 2042 at the earliest, and now resides in HMP Frankland, in Durham.
A recent Channel 5 documentary, Soham: The Murder of Holly & Jessica, looked back at news footage from the days during the search and includes interviews with those closest to the case.
Former Special Constable, Sharon Gilbert, was one of the many police officers who descended on the small Cambridgeshire town in a bid to find the girls.
She reveals what happened when Huntley approached her patrol car in a "very relaxed" manner and began asking questions.
Sharon explains how there was a "solemn" atmosphere in Soham and not many people were walking around the streets.
They were asked to go to Soham college and Huntley came over and lounged over the hinge section of the door and started asking about DNA evidence.
Speaking in the documentary, Sharon says: "He was very relaxed in his talking, he wasn't nervous in any way shape or form.
"Quite early in the conversation he said to me, 'how long does DNA evidence last?'
"Everything about him made me feel uneasy, he had very strange eyes, like he's looking at your but through you, like you’re not there."
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