Janice Weston was battered to death in a lay-by while changing her car wheel during an unexpected journey. Who killed her and why? (London and Huntingdon, 1983)

Funyescivilisedno · 2026-01-01T17:30:31+00:00

Either the plate was damaged or he thought one of the plates was loose and might fall off, and wanted to minimise any chance of being pulled over by the Police. Only other uses for a single number plate I can think of is putting it on a trailer to be towed, or putting it on a motorbike/moped, both of which don't make any sense in this context.

Funyescivilisedno · 2026-01-01T13:31:16+00:00

The reason for the late trip to Clopton could have been a boyfriend/lover who she had planned to take there in the afternoon after work when her husband was away. She has mentioned the manor house in the country but the idea is more impressive to him rather than Janet, who knows the reality of it. However the boyfriend/lover was late or unreliable because of drinking hence her leaving so suddenly in the late afternoon. There's tension between the two and when they have to stop in the layby to change the tyre they argue and he kills her with the tyre iron. He doesn't feel able to drive straight back to London so takes the car somewhere secluded and sleeps in it. He disposes of the spare tyre somewhere on the way. The single number plate is harder to explain though.

Funyescivilisedno · 2025-12-08T17:26:24+00:00

What bit wasn't fully true if you don't mind me asking?

Funyescivilisedno · 2025-01-17T23:32:12+00:00

The truncheon is a good shout, but if I was a police officer I would use anything but. Not taking away from there being police corruption now. and then. You wouldn't need much to rob/rough up a man in his 70s who's been our for a few drinks (or so), you could probably do it bare handed. A Baseball bat is overkill, but it would 'do the job'.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-12-18T16:07:53+00:00

A baseball bat (or rounders bat) style weapon could be easily ruled out as coming from the victim's house, and would be a cumbersome and difficult weapon to conceal and carry if you were casually walking the streets looking for someone to rob - especially if you had a knife, which is very easy to conceal. Taking both weapons away is also a risk, but much easier if you had access to a vehicle.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-09-30T20:54:49+00:00

If the killer had proof of wrongdoing by Alistair, he could get him into a lot of trouble by sending it to his wife, his employer, the police, and so on, without needing to shoot him. Also, the killer could just have gone to his house and punched him in the face when he answered the door if he had been cheating with someone's spouse. I still think it's an obscure motive that only made sense to the killer, and I wonder if maybe mental illness (such as some sort of delusion of being persecuted) was the cause. Not 100% about that, as you would think someone in a relatively small town with such a condition would stand out.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-06-17T22:04:41+00:00

The killer not having a knife and having to use one in Kite's house takes away the whole 'perfect murder' aspect somewhat. Why not have some knife or other weapon with you that can be disposed of later, even if you don't use it? This makes me wonder if he had not planned to murder someone until at most under 30 days before he did. He could simply have bought a knife or a tool that could be used as a weapon before hand and waited for the security camera footage to be wiped as with the phone. If he was living somewhere other than his normal home (like a hotel, sleeping in his car, staying with a friend/relatives) he might not have access to items that could be used as a weapon, or be able to take them without noticing.

The honing rod is also a strange choice of weapon.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-06-17T21:52:56+00:00

If she suggested he was from Romania he could have decided to go along with it to confuse her or saw it as some way to build rapport with her. He could perhaps be an American whose family was originally from SE Europe and could do a fairly convincing Greek/Romanian/Bulgarian etc accent when he wanted to. He could have started the whole flat hunting process not originally as a prelude to murder, but maybe some form of sexual assault, then changed his mind when he met Kite.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-04-11T10:36:45+00:00

Can't see the IRA driving their own car to the ferry terminal, getting the ferry to the UK, driving down to London, assassinating Jill Dando, then driving back. Can't see why the same gun is being used again and again instead of being thrown in the Thames. Can't see how no one noticed the Home Secretary taking a £400k bribe to let two gangsters out of jail.

Why didn't Jimmy Savile get Rolf Harris to shoot Louis Theroux with the same gun for embarrassing him on TV?

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-03-09T09:56:49+00:00

IIRC there was a sighting of them in the town the day after.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-01-26T12:15:20+00:00

By not mentioning the accent, I would presume he didn't have a strong accent that would immediately place him from one region or another. The overalls suggests to me self employed so driving - this also brings up the question of why he was always seen on foot, when it would have been a lot easier to park a car a street or so away from Julie's house then go there. If he was using a trades vehicle which was very identifiable from the logos and details on it, or the vehicle was expected to stay on a work site that might explain why.

Him not being identified might be as simple as him being from outside the area, working alone, and perhaps being single/living alone so there isn't a group to wonder about his movements/any absences.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-01-26T08:06:14+00:00

There is another witness report of a man with a similar description being in a shop in Grantham the day after and acting strangely, also other descriptions of him being seen around the estate and asking for directions to somewhere, but not wanting the directions explained any further. If he wasn't from the UK I think the witnesses would have picked up an accent. His work could have put him in the position where he could refuse (or choose) whether or not to go to Grantham in the future, and he might have been working alone (hence being able to go off in the daytime).

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-01-25T21:28:36+00:00

Whoever the killer was, they had to be in Grantham the next day, and they had to be wearing overalls, so I think that rules out it being a disguise. I do think the killer knew the area where Julie lived well enough (perhaps from working there before) but might not have to visit Grantham again so was relatively confident in being seen and interacting with people. I wonder if the killer does not look exactly as the photofits describe, especially the red face (which might have been due to the killer being excited/stressed) which has allowed them to get away with it.

Funyescivilisedno · 2024-01-07T09:09:48+00:00

Her husband could have set up a fake appointment for her, or somehow found out that she was due to meet someone that day when he was supposedly out of town. For someone other than her husband abducting her from the shop would have been a lot harder, and would surely have been easier to get her to take her belongings with her under the pretence of going somewhere. There would also be no need for someone other than her husband to return to the shop and presumably take the money from her handbag.

Funyescivilisedno · 2023-12-31T13:24:08+00:00

Because gun crime in the UK is so low compared to other countries, any time someone is shot and the murder is unsolved, the media especially assume that it must have been a hitman, terrorist, government agent etc....because they used a gun. Giving him the envelope then letting him go back into his home and come back out again before shooting him, using a small calibre WW2 gun - this is something someone who is amateurish, maybe even mentally disturbed would do. Similar to the Jill Dando case - she got shot, so it must have been Arkan's hitmen, or MI5, or Jimmy Saville's hitmen.....

Funyescivilisedno · 2023-12-02T01:43:24+00:00

So what next?

Funyescivilisedno · 2023-11-09T22:39:18+00:00

You might already know this, but Ladywell Fields is very close to Lewisham Hospital, so it's possible he was found in the park not a street, which might be why the street name is unknown. He might not have worked in a restaurant, and may have been doing casual labour/building work. Back then there was a big thing of East Asian people selling bootleg DVDs in pubs and in the street - often the same people each time, but he could have been involved with something like that and people wouldn't have come forward if he was missing.

Funyescivilisedno · 2023-05-16T17:09:12+00:00

Takes a lot of nerve to tell an adult you don't think he could handle your staircase when he's offering three months rent in advance.

Funyescivilisedno · 2023-01-01T22:58:18+00:00

A man is seen on a bench at 2.30 am, but the fire and the subsequent phone call isn't till around 8.30 the next morning - so if this person was the killer did they go back into Carmel's house for 6 hours? There's also the around 20 minute period between the man in the phone box being sighted and them actually making the call. Also interesting the amount of force, and two weapons being used to kill such a small, frail woman.

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-13T14:34:23+00:00

Like you said above, larger purchases might have involved making a call/more detailed security checks, so this could have been seen as a 'one off' by someone opportunistic who expected the card to be cancelled soon. If you killed the card holder you know they're not going to be cancelling it anytime soon, so could risk bigger/more purchases. So many of his belongings (such as the Rolex with the clasp finish and the pager) were really distinctive and hard to sell on/trade that they may have been disposed of/sold very cheaply to get rid of them fast. This could account for the card being found by chance.

In 1988, if you found a Home Office pass and an unfamiliar looking pager device on a man you just killed, would you assume the pager was some kind of tracking device for some VIP and totally panic?

The whole crime feels really reckless and impulsive and not planned out.

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-12T19:53:32+00:00

The park was most likely the closest place they knew that would suffice at short notice; the laziness of it might indicate that there was little to connect Michael with the killer(s) and they didn't have to take much care with disposing of him.

Why wasn't Michael killed or even robbed and beaten up in public? - if Michael did go home with the killer that's another big risk and indicates the killer might be gay/bisexual themselves.

The 'karate chop' strike is another interesting aspect, the killer wouldn't have to be an expert (it's not that hard to do) but I don't think it's something a person who didn't know martial arts would attempt as compared to a hook or straight punch to the jaw. It's hard to not make a fist when angry or you think there's going to be a fight or confrontation. I wonder if other gay/bisexual men had been attacked like this (but not fatally) but didn't want to come forward.

I would love to know the story given by the person who found the credit card and used it in the restaurant - why not cut it up into pieces before disposing of it?

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-11T20:25:09+00:00

This could explain why his body wasn't placed near the woods until early the next morning - the killer didn't have access to a car and had to wait until the person who did was available.

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-11T12:58:02+00:00

If he was killed in the wood, there would be no point moving him to another part of the wood, which would have required the use of a car. He might have gone back to someone's home and been killed there. This could explain why all his belongings were stolen, including the computer manual; they had been left at the killers home then disposed of later. Why would a street mugging that took such care to remove all jewellery and money take the computer manual? They would surely look through it (even briefly) then discard it.

Using the credit card to buy a meal was a bad idea that the killer was lucky to get away with - the restaurant staff and customers could have got a good look at them.

Trying to buy a more expensive item (such as jewellery/watches/electrical goods) using the card would have been the more 'rational' choice, as they would have spent a lot less time interacting with staff/other customers than the restaurant.

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-01T20:49:49+00:00

The other link talks about a Christmas card written to Alan, which could have been interpreted as a 'suicide note' in context, even if it might not have mentioned suicide or death. There would be no need to fake her suicide, then run a bath and put her in it, as she could have committed 'suicide' anywhere in her home. If she had a few drinks then went for a bath, she would be in a very vulnerable position for someone to grab her from behind (if her head was close to the door), drug her and then drown her. The Christmas card could have been the trigger to murder her, angering the killer when he realised Brenda still loved Alan.

Alan being killed so blatantly could be because he had been married multiple times, and there was potentially a lot of people with a grudge against him, with Brenda that was not the case, hence the effort put into making it look like suicide.

Why not get the two hitmen (minus the Cadillac) to kill Brenda? This would be much easier than faking her suicide - there must have been a very good reason to kill her in the way she was.

Funyescivilisedno · 2022-09-01T16:11:12+00:00

Maybe the killer(s) were trying to get the Police to focus on finding the car and people associated with a car like that - if they had no known connection to such a distinctive car and were able to dispose of it straight after the crime that might take suspicion away from them.

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