MELANIE Hall’s parents are optimistic that police will catch their daughter’s murderer after a DNA breakthrough on the 20th anniversary of her disappearance.

Steve and Pat Hall, of Leigh Grove, Bradford Leigh, are pleased that the police are a step closer to finding her killer after new techniques uncovered DNA on an item found near her remains.

Mr Hall, 72, told the Wiltshire Times: “We are delighted the police have reached a stage where they can possibly get a full DNA profile and find out more about where Melanie was dumped.

“I would like to see someone convicted and jailed. I would like to see it happen in the name of Melanie. That would be the last thing we could do for her.

“It will not make us feel any better because you long for your child back and that is not going to happen. We have to live with that.

“I want to see a result for the police too, for their efforts. It would give me great satisfaction to see them getting a result.

“If Melanie was alive we would probably have grandkids running around here, laughing and playing but that was taken from us. A conviction cannot replace that. The pain will never leave us.”

Miss Hall,  who was 25 at the time and worked as a clerical worker at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, vanished after a night out at Cadillacs nightclub in the city on June 9, 1996.

More than 13 years later, in 2009, her remains were discovered in a plastic binbag on the side of the M5 – 30 miles from where she disappeared.

Mr Hall said the discovery, while harrowing, did bring a sense of relief.

“Not knowing the outcome was worse,” he said.

“It came with the horror, heartbreak and reality of it but we are able to give her a proper funeral which was lovely.

“It still hurts 20 years on. Getting ‘justice’, does not give us justice. I doubt it will have a life-changing effect on us. We still go on living with the loss of our daughter.”

Mrs Hall, 71, added: “Twenty years have gone by and I do not know if we will ever find out what happened.

“All the family miss her dearly. She was always very kind, loving and family orientated. She loved it here.”

Mr Hall cited the conviction of Christopher Hampton for the 1984 murder of Bath teenager Melanie Road as a reason to be optimistic.

“The key thing is getting a match on the database,” he said. “There is a reasonably positive chance.”

Call the Operation Denmark Incident Room on 0117 952 9788.