Builders using a giant bulldozer this morning demolished the house where British double murderer Ian Huntley killed his 10-year-old schoolgirl victims.
Watched by a small, quiet group of onlookers, the machine took just over half an hour to tear down 5 College Close in the village of Soham, the three-bedroomed house where Huntley murdered Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in August 2002.
The girls were killed after being lured them into the property that came with Huntley's job as caretaker at Soham Village College, Cambridgeshire, which was on the same site as their primary school.
"It's now a pile of rubble," a spokesman for Cambridgeshire County Council said.
Since Huntley was charged with murdering the two young friends, the house has been screened off by a large fence and has only been visited by forensics officers and the trial jury.
Only a bare shell remained after detectives stripped the interior during their search for evidence.
Huntley was jailed for life last December for the murders. The council condemned the property fearing it would be a permanent reminder haunting the local community.
Mr Howard Gilbert, head teacher of Soham Village College, described the demolition as symbolic and said it was a relief the house was gone.
"It's another chapter finishing. But the memories will never go away," he told the BBC.
The spokesman said the area would now be laid to turf, and the girls' families would help decide what, if anything, would be put there.