Stage 4

This is the follow up investigation, this depends on the preliminary investigation and the investigation plan. The police take a look at all the evidence they now have and decide what this leads to. In the Jamie Bulger case, by this stage James' body had been found so instead of this being a missing person case it was now a murder case. The next thing the police needed to do was find out who the young boys were on the CCTV with James in The Strand on the day he went missing. The police decided to check Friday's absent list from schools in the community, they held press conferences in hope that more witnesses would come forward and provide them with more information.

An anonymous woman called the police station reporting that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had both skipped school on Friday and that they resembled the boys in the CCTV footage. The police checked their school's absent list and seen that Jon and Robert were both absent on the Friday that James went missing, they then decided to bring them both in for questioning. Police officers turned up at both their homes, they took the clothes that they were wearing that day and noticed blood on Robert's shoes. Jon's mother mentioned that Jon had came home on Friday with paint on his coat, the police took Jon's coat and took the two boys to different stations for questioning.

The police did not immediately suspect that Jon and Robert were the killers of James. Especially as the boys in the CCTV looked a lot older than Jon and Robert who were both 10 at the time. The police took blood, hair and fingernail samples from both of the boys and they were both kept in custody.

This part of the investigation is important as this is the part where the police put together all of the evidence and information that they have collected and follow a lead so that they can solve the case.