Dundee Weekly News
27 June 1987
A railway worker set out on the afternoon of 1st October 1973 to check on some wagons on a railway siding, under an arch, near Battersea Power Station (right next to Chelsea Bridge and the Thames, on the spot where apartment buildings, offices and shops now stand, at since point referred to as
Spicer's Wharf but I can find no reference to that name on maps).
Under the arch a naked body of a female lay face down.
Much of the next section is already known here, her travel arrangements, the wedding, what she had been wearing, when it was noticed she hadn't returned home etc.
A post mortem stated she had died around 1.30am, Sunday morning.
Death had been caused by suffocation after inhaling her own vomit.
Markings on her face indicated a punch to her jaw to knock her unconscious.
They are guessing her clothes were then removed and at some point she must have regained consciousness and tried to scream and thus her mouth was covered to keep her quiet and she choked on her vomit, dying in the process.
A task force of 33 police detectives was made based at Nine Elms police station, especially reopened for this, under Detective Chief Superintendent David Frew.
The first thing they investigated was the journey.
Leaving the wedding party at 10.30pm she was given a lift by two work colleagues to Upminster tube Station, catching the district line from the Eastern end, to Victoria to catch her train home to Norbury.
An engineer and wife recall a girl in a yellow dress sitting near them in Victoria Station.
Jacqueline was also seen running across the station the wrong way to catch her train.
They're stating that JJ had gained a companion between Upminster and Victoria, a girl , the girl was described as being around the same age as JJ, 16, slim, impish face, dark hair, with a centre parting, wearing a full sleeved, black dress that was knee length, short maroon jacket, platform soled, blue, calf length boots. (Other descriptions elsewhere described her as having long hair)
A porter in the main line station of Victoria recalls Jacqueline being with the girl, who he remembers wearing beads, when JJ asked him for time of trains to Norbury.
They were again seen at 12.45am in the main concourse.
Jacqueline's train should have left a few minutes before, but was delayed by 6 minutes, she may now have realised this and thought she missed it.
They point out that with their striking dress the two girls should have stood out, yet they had few people come forwards who saw them. They were never able to identify the girl with JJ.
As Welsh guards were seen in the station at the time, the detectives travelled to the army barracks at Lydd in Kent, to appeal to the 488 men there if any had witnessed the girls at Victoria.
Only one could help and stated he saw both girls at 12.50am - 40 minutes before the supposed time of death. (It's about 20 minutes walk, depending in speed and stoppages, from Victoria to where Jacqueline's body was found.
After the soldier the police reach a stalemate.
It says there was no evidence of sexual assault (odd as she was naked as all the contemporary press of the day constantly referred to her, as if for titillation).
They believe she was not killed there, but taken there after death. They believe she had been carried a short distance from a vehicle parked nearby to the arch.
They also believed that she had been carried two people, one holding her arms and another holding her legs.
They say that where her body was found, it was usually used by courting couples and wasn't easy to find which suggests some local knowledge.
Appeals for witnesses, for the girl seen with JJ, and the reconstruction with someone dressed as JJ retracing her movements all came to nothing.
The Battersea coroner's report, Feb 13th 1974, had a verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown.
A photo reconstruction in September of that year, showing how JJ would have looked in the clothes she was wearing in the hope it would jog someone's memory.
They end by wondering about the impish faced girl and whether she may have been involved in Jacqueline's death, was she killed and her body not found, who was she, why did she not come forward?...
A previous piece I read made it sound like Jacqueline was seen crossing Chelsea bridge, whether that was a misunderstanding or poor word choice I don't know.
