UK UK - Janice Weston, 36, Murdered, A1 Layby, Brampton, Cambs. / London, 10 September 1983

[davidt]

Just floating this theory. MOO obviously. Her husband arranges her murder whilst he's out of the country as a perfect alibi. He has the spare wheel tampered with so that it needs JW to have it repaired. He confects an issue with the rear nearside tyre necessitating the change and tells his wife to take the repaired spare to someone he knows locally late on Saturday to have it fitted at a location within the catchment of her flat, office and where her car was eventually found. She's not going far so leaves her handbag. She's then dispatched while the wheel is being changed, hence the blood evidence on the car. Her body is bundled into another vehicle and transported fast out of London, the quickest route from that catchment being the A1 north bound. Her body and the murder weapon are dumped at a suitable layby on the A1 in the dark where approaching vehicles could be avoided during the transfer. Her car is then moved later from the murder scene to a public location within the same catchment.

The one character that do not know much history about is the husband before and after the murder. He seems to have moved on pretty quickly IMO, and no public appeals that I have seen.

Yep I posted before we don't seem to know much about her husband or his business dealings. Property speculation industry seems to have its fair share of dodgy characters and dodgy deals. If you mean did he make any public appeals he did make at least one. One of the podcasts I listened to had a clip of it on it.

Again one podcast says the couple originally met through Janice's work whilst he was still married to his first wife. It was very vague on whether there may have been an affair at that time or whether nothing happened until after he was divorced. Other than that there seems little information on him or on their relationship. Nothing on whether or not the marriage was happy or if there was any known volatility in their relationship etc. Same podcast said he owned various properties in the UK and other countries but nothing on the origins of his wealth.

Similarly the idea has been floated he or they may have been involved with dealing drugs but I don't see a scrap of evidence for this tbh.

The police did get as far as sending a file to the director of public prosecutions so they clearly thought they had a case against him of some sort. You do wonder what information they had as it seems obvious it was more than just idle speculation. Also you might wonder if his alibi was too good.

 

[davidt]

To summarise and please correct me where I am wrong.

On the day in question Janice is known to have gone to her office. A witness says she was looking out of the window as if she was waiting for someone. Although I've no idea how you can tell what someone is looking out of a window for. She may just have been staring out of the window deep in thought over something. It's not known whether someone did call or exactly when she left the office. We do know she was still there around 4.45pm as she took a call for a colleague at that time. I don't think anyone saw her leave nor do we know if she left alone.

She returned to her flat, again, I think without any witnesses. It looks like she was settling in for the evening, she'd told friends she was staying in London over the weekend. She'd opened wine and started a meal. At some stage she left the flat in what looks like a hurry. Its also been said she was very anti drink driving. Again no one saw her leave or get in to her car or whether or not she was alone. She took keys to Clopton Manor, some food and wine, an overnight bag, purse with money but not her bag or credit cards etc. The overnight bag I think has the potential to mislead as there's no way of knowing if it was already in the car or whether she packed it that night or had one in the flat ready packed as a matter of course.

I don’t think anyone ever came forward to say they had any contact with Janice after leaving the office. No friends, colleagues, relatives etc. We don't know why she left the flat or for sure where she was going or if she was alone. Were there any sightings of her at all until the lay by?

So really we have next to no idea of her movements or intentions that night. Was she going to Clopton Manor directly (or at all) or did she go somewhere else first. Might she have gone to pick someone up first? So we really have a massive gap of nothingness. It was a dark unpleasant night which wouldn't have helped with any potential sightings. I'm not aware anyone reported seeing Janice or her car on her drive so no way of knowing if she was alone or indeed actually driving the car at all. After that the next thing is her murder (if she wasn't murdered earlier) and all that followed.

If this happened just a few years later it may well have been a different story. Mobile phones, CCTV and the advent of social media and phone records would probably have picked up something.

 

[tes1984]

Just floating this theory. MOO obviously. Her husband arranges her murder whilst he's out of the country as a perfect alibi. He has the spare wheel tampered with so that it needs JW to have it repaired. He confects an issue with the rear nearside tyre necessitating the change and tells his wife to take the repaired spare to someone he knows locally late on Saturday to have it fitted at a location within the catchment of her flat, office and where her car was eventually found. She's not going far so leaves her handbag. She's then dispatched while the wheel is being changed, hence the blood evidence on the car. Her body is bundled into another vehicle and transported fast out of London, the quickest route from that catchment being the A1 north bound. Her body and the murder weapon are dumped at a suitable layby on the A1 in the dark where approaching vehicles could be avoided during the transfer. Her car is then moved later from the murder scene to a public location within the same catchment.

The one character that do not know much history about is the husband before and after the murder. He seems to have moved on pretty quickly IMO, and no public appeals that I have seen.

In this scenario, the husband is taking a big risk telling Janice to go out late that evening. What if she shares her plans with anyone after her husband has left for France?
IIRC she told a friend she was staying home that weekend to work. Wouldn't she have also mentioned an innocent (and probably annoying) errand like having to run around getting a wheel changed on a Saturday night?

 

[tes1984]

Also you might wonder if his alibi was too good.

I don't think the police were convinced by Tony's alibi.

 

[davidt]

In this scenario, the husband is taking a big risk telling Janice to go out late that evening. What if she shares her plans with anyone after her husband has left for France?
IIRC she told a friend she was staying home that weekend to work. Wouldn't she have also mentioned an innocent (and probably annoying) errand like having to run around getting a wheel changed on a Saturday night?

And why would she take the keys to Clopton Manor and to a lesser extent the overnight bag with her? That said to a degree I'm on board with her being lured somewhere under false pretences. It does feel like she was enticed away from her flat.

 

[davidt]

I don't think the police were convinced by Tony's alibi.

It would certainly be interesting to hear the thoughts of the police at the time. You wonder what other information on her husband they may have had.

 

[tes1984]

I don’t think anyone ever came forward to say they had any contact with Janice after leaving the office. No friends, colleagues, relatives etc. We don't know why she left the flat or for sure where she was going or if she was alone. Were there any sightings of her at all until the lay by?

The police seem almost certain that Janice went back to her flat, after leaving the office.

 

[davidt]

The police seem almost certain that Janice went back to her flat, after leaving the office.

Yes that seems almost certain. In terms of confirmed sightings, are there any of Janice after being seen in her office?

 

[tes1984]

Yes that seems almost certain. In terms of confirmed sightings, are there any of Janice after being seen in her office?

I'm not sure if there are any confirmed sightings as such, but the way the flat was left seems to have suggested she was back there that evening.

 

[Melquiades]

The central problem here is that there are so many possibilities for what happened to cause the trip from London to Cambridge.

1. The victim just spur of the moment decided to head to her property there for the weekend for something to do.
2. The victim was contacted by her husband (or some other party) and told she needed to go to the property due to some sort of situation there and proceeded there alone.
3. The husband snuck home from France in his unaccounted for time and the two proceeded to Cambridge together.
4. A friend/acquaintance/lover came to her London flat and they decided to head to Cambridge together.
5. She was abducted from her flat and never left London of her own volition.

I think (5) is quite unlikely but of the other 4 options I have absolutely no idea. If there was any clarity on why she was headed there or whether she was headed there alone or with someone else the range of potential scenarios and suspects would be hugely narrowed.

 

[tes1984]

There are certainly loads of possibilities.

Did the killer buy the number plates himself, or did an accomplice buy them?

 

[davidt]

The central problem here is that there are so many possibilities for what happened to cause the trip from London to Cambridge.

1. The victim just spur of the moment decided to head to her property there for the weekend for something to do.
2. The victim was contacted by her husband (or some other party) and told she needed to go to the property due to some sort of situation there and proceeded there alone.
3. The husband snuck home from France in his unaccounted for time and the two proceeded to Cambridge together.
4. A friend/acquaintance/lover came to her London flat and they decided to head to Cambridge together.
5. She was abducted from her flat and never left London of her own volition.

I think (5) is quite unlikely but of the other 4 options I have absolutely no idea. If there was any clarity on why she was headed there or whether she was headed there alone or with someone else the range of potential scenarios and suspects would be hugely narrowed.

I think we do also have to consider whether she was actually heading to Clopton Manor at all. It certainly looks very likely but we shouldn't completely rule out she was going somewhere else.

I too wondered if she had just decided to go there for some pece and quiet whilst she worked on her book. Against that is the poor weather and why drink wine and not finish your meal first?

Because there are no confirmed sightings of her and mo evidence of anyone contacting her in any way we simply have no idea. It does still look to me as if she left in a hurry due to something unexpected cropping up.

 

[tes1984]

It seems a long round trip for one night of peace and quiet, to work on her book.
IIRC Janice was expected at work on the Monday so (if she travelled to Clopton on a whim) probably wasn't planning to spend more than one night at the country house.

 

[CSIAngus]

In this scenario, the husband is taking a big risk telling Janice to go out late that evening. What if she shares her plans with anyone after her husband has left for France?
IIRC she told a friend she was staying home that weekend to work. Wouldn't she have also mentioned an innocent (and probably annoying) errand like having to run around getting a wheel changed on a Saturday night?

Not necessarily. It wasn't that late. It was planned so why mention it to anyone else. She wasn't going far so is that not staying at home? She left her handbag after all. Staying at home often involves me travelling 3 miles for wine, but I wouldn't say I'd gone away. She didn't choose to have a tyre fixed, she was told it had to be done and that X would change it for her. X killed her, dumped her up the A1, and her husband set it up relying on his French alibi. IMO

 

[CSIAngus]

The central problem here is that there are so many possibilities for what happened to cause the trip from London to Cambridge.

1. The victim just spur of the moment decided to head to her property there for the weekend for something to do.
2. The victim was contacted by her husband (or some other party) and told she needed to go to the property due to some sort of situation there and proceeded there alone.
3. The husband snuck home from France in his unaccounted for time and the two proceeded to Cambridge together.
4. A friend/acquaintance/lover came to her London flat and they decided to head to Cambridge together.
5. She was abducted from her flat and never left London of her own volition.

I think (5) is quite unlikely but of the other 4 options I have absolutely no idea. If there was any clarity on why she was headed there or whether she was headed there alone or with someone else the range of potential scenarios and suspects would be hugely narrowed.

She was murdered in London IMO, by an associate of her husband. There is no evidence that she was alive at the layby, nor that her car ever left London.

 

[tes1984]

She was murdered in London IMO, by an associate of her husband. There is no evidence that she was alive at the layby, nor that her car ever left London.

The inquest concluded that Janice was bludgeoned to death in the ditch (near the lay by) where she was found.

If she's just popping out locally that evening, then why does she take an overnight bag and the keys to Clopton Manor?

If the husband engineers the murder, based on Janice getting the tyre fitted, then the crime can't really be planned a long time in advance.

 

[davidt]

The inquest concluded that Janice was bludgeoned to death in the ditch (near the lay by) where she was found.

If she's just popping out locally that evening, then why does she take an overnight bag and the keys to Clopton Manor?

If the husband engineers the murder, based on Janice getting the tyre fitted, then the crime can't really be planned a long time in advance.

For me it's just about possible she kept an overnight bag in tbe car but the keys are a real problem unless she picked them up out of habit. But I think it's a real stretch in all honesty. I also think the police and forensics would have a reasonable idea where she was killed. All that said I still have a nagging feeling there is another aspect to this. Its one of those cases where you always think there's something else going on.

 

[tes1984]

If Janice kept an overnight bag, then was it a type of OCD (she was described as extremely tidy and organised) or did she actually have regular overnight stays?

It could be business travel, as she was involved with several companies and organisations. Numerous other possibilities too I guess.

If Janice had any best friends she used to stay with, then none of them seem to have ever come forward.

 

[davidt]

If Janice kept an overnight bag, then was it a type of OCD (she was described as extremely tidy and organised) or did she actually have regular overnight stays?

It could be business travel, as she was involved with several companies and organisations. Numerous other possibilities too I guess.

If Janice had any best friends she used to stay with, then none of them seem to have ever come forward.

Tbh I have no idea. Doesn't seem to be much information on her or her husband in general. Also I've not seen anything that lists the contents of the bag either. I suppose again its the problem of having no witnesses. No real way of knowing when the bag was packed or when it was placed in the car. I think it's quite possible she did have overnight stays but who knows for sure?

 

[tes1984]

I wonder if the police thought TW was the killer, or if he paid a hitman.