The Billie-Jo Jenkins Mystery

The assignment: Pick an unsolved British Mystery and use detective skills and logic to come to your own conclusion. Along with your fellow group members come up with creative ideas, reports, and evidence to back your claim.

Note: Below is my perspective on the Billie-Jo Jenkins murder mystery. However, arguments, reports, and other material may be fabricated by group members for the purpose of this assignment. I was given the task of writing about the murder from the victim’s and from the killer(s) perspectives. Think of it as a play on The Lovely Bones.

Who murdered the young, talented, and beautiful Billie-Jo Jenkins?

Here are the facts:

1. Billie Jo-Jenkins born on March 29, 1983 in England. She was murdered at the age of 13 on February 15, 1997.
2. Her father, Bayard Jenkins, was imprisoned and her mother was unable to cope on her own, so Billie-Jo was placed in foster care  from the age of nine with an unrelated family, Siôn and Lois Jenkins, coincidentally having the same surname. She moved with the family to Hastings, where she attended Helenswood School.
3. On 15 February 1997 she was murdered at the family home severely bludgeoned to death. After Siôn and his daughters Lottie and Annie departed for a DYT store. They returned and found the body.
4. Siôn Jenkins was charged with the murder and later convicted, but always maintained his innocence of the crime. An appeal in 1999 against his conviction failed, but after a second appeal in August 2004 it was quashed by a court as unsafe and he was released on bail pending a retrial. The juries in two retrials were unable to reach verdicts, and a not guilty verdict was recorded in 2006.
5.  The case has gained widespread media attention and remains unsolved to this day.
6. No other suspects panned out and the suspicious man seen in the neighborhood on the day of the murder, Mr. X , had a solid alibi.

Here is my perspective:

Billie-Jo’s Perspective

I know who killed me, do you? When I awoke the morning of February 15, 1997, it was a normal day. Nothing at all seemed different. I was a typical 13 year old girl with dreams, hopes, and fears. Never did I think my life would come to such an abrupt and gruesome end. I never thought my life would end in that manner, I always figured it would be peaceful, just like going to sleep, you know? I had never even in my worst nightmare prepared myself for what would happen to me that day.

The Jenkins, even though they were not my real family, made me feel like one of their own, especially my foster-parents.  They took great care of me. I went to a good school, had plenty to eat, and had stability. They even supported me in ways no one else had. I loved the dearly and am forever grateful.

I wasn’t always the smartest of their daughters, nor the best at sports, nor the funniest, but I like to think I was the favorite. I was the one they bragged about and loved so dearly. even though we weren’t the same bones. I was the apple of their eyes.

Then my world came crashing down. I remember it vividly. It was a sharp pain, I was dizzy and fell. Then at the very second everything went dark. And cold, the coldest feeling I have ever known. Colder than the most freezing and bitter day in Sussex.

But, it all started when I was painting the patio doors in the garden. Annie and Lottie were going with my dad to the DYT store. I didn’t want to go, partly because they were going. They were my sisters by force, not choice. And they were not my friends. They picked at me for doing work. They said I tried to make them look bad, and that my parents didn’t really love me, they just kept me around because I was unfortunate.

I hated when they did that. I didn’t think those tings were true. I know they loved me and yes at one time I was an unfortunate soul. I just wanted to be a good daughter. I wanted to be proud of my work and help.  Annie and Lottie were the worst though. They hated it. And when they saw me in the garden the day suddenly grew dark.