Kurtis Pratt has no memories of his mother – he was only four when she disappeared without a trace.
Kellie was 28 and in the grip of drug addiction. She became a sex worker in Norwich to fund her habit.
On 11 June 2000, she met a customer and was never seen again.
“The only photos I have of my mum are the ones that the press have,” says Kurtis.
“By the time I started googling my mum, I was spelling Kellie with a ‘y’. That’s how little I knew about her.”
Kellie Pratt’s murder remains unsolved
Kellie Pratt’s body was never found – and her murder remains unsolved.
Now, Kurtis is dealing with speculation that the “Suffolk Strangler” Steve Wright may be responsible for other unsolved cases, including Kellie’s disappearance.
The theory has grown since the serial killer’s unexpected guilty plea last month to the kidnap and murder of 17-year-old Victoria Hall in 1999, and the attempted abduction of Emily Doherty, 22, the day before.
Wright had previously been jailed for killing five sex workers in Ipswich in 2006.
Kurtis Pratt says ‘a piece of my heart has been missing’
The serial killer was told during his sentencing last month that he will die in prison, and police have launched a fresh appeal for information about his “possible previous offending”.
“I almost feel like this desperation that I’ve had my whole life has now come to the surface,” says Kurtis.
He adds: “A piece of my heart has been missing.
“Being able to have the answers would let me start the process of mending that broken heart.”
The stretch between Wright’s first and last murders rings alarm bells for Professor Sam Lundrigan, a criminal psychologist from Anglia Ruskin University.
Steve Wright killed six women over a seven-year period
“The seven-year gap stands out to me,” he says.
“Is this actually really a gap or is this only what we know around the extent of Steve Wright’s offending?”
Having studied 300 cases of serial killers from the UK and US, Prof Lundrigan has other concerns too.
“In every case, without exception, not one of the killers was in their 40s when they commenced their murder career,” she says.
Wright was 41 when he murdered Victoria Hall.
When Kellie Pratt disappeared nine months later, police took 270 statements – but the man she was with that night was never identified.
There are other unsolved cases in Norfolk and Suffolk too.
In 1992 Natalie Pearman was found strangled. She was only 16 and had been a sex worker in Norwich.
A year later, Amanda Duncan, a sex worker 45 miles away in Ipswich, disappeared.
Two years after Kellie disappeared, Michelle Bettles was strangled. She too was a sex worker in Norwich.
Wright knew the city – in the late 1980s he ran a pub in what was then the red-light district.
But the police are clear he is not an official suspect in Kellie Pratt’s disappearance.
“Cold cases are never cold, they are just unsolved homicides,” says Detective Superintendent Phill Gray, head of the Joint Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigations Team.
“In relation to Steve Wright, he is not currently a suspect for any of our current unsolved homicides, but we are keeping open-minded as to any information that might well come to us.”
If there were other crimes, what follows is the question of whether any could have been prevented if Wright had been caught sooner.
Potential missed opportunities were outlined during Wright’s sentencing for Victoria’s Hall murder.
Emily Doherty had already told Sky News that police treated her like “a silly little girl” when she reported the attempt to abduct her.
In court, it was revealed that the partial number plate she’d given would have whittled possible owners, who lived in relevant locations, down to just two.
One of those was Wright.
The police have acknowledged that “the line of enquiry relating to the attempted kidnap could have been more prominent in the original investigation” but said it was “complex and challenging” at the time.
For Kurtis, life has been tough. He became homeless after leaving foster care, where he grew up, and struggled with alcohol addiction.
Kurtis Pratt says he needs answers over his mother’s death
He has now turned his life around.
“Given the timeline of events and when Emily came forward, it truly does break my heart to think that I could possibly still have a mother today,” he says.
Kurtis’ hopes for clarity may now rest solely on a confession.
“All I can do is hope and pray that if Steve Wright is the culprit behind my mother’s death … that he does come forward and tells us,” he says.
