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

[INSP MORSE]

My theory evolves around the man seen visiting janice a day or two before she travelled. I believe this man has links to the husband. I believe janice has confidence in this man to trust him. We dont know who this man is but we know a neighbour saw him visiting janice. We dont know if he ever came forward to the police but I think we'd know if he had. I believe he had links with Tony Weston and under some type of ruse janice had trust in this person to travel there for the night. I believe the person was let into janice property when she was in the middle of her meal. Otherwise if she was asked over the phone then the perpetrator ran the risk of janice phoning friends and telling them what she was doing and had changed her plans of staying in london. By being present the perpetrator asked to travel and they both immediately left janice property with janice taking food for the night.

The bottom line, some sort if ruse. Maybe isues with the property that needed imediate attention.

Does your theory involve Janice going willingly to Clopton, or being persuaded to go there, or being forced there?

 

[tes1984]

The bottom line, some sort if ruse. Maybe isues with the property that needed imediate attention.

I can't imagine her rushing to Clopton because of an issue with the property, but you never know. It was Saturday night, miserable conditions, she had been drinking etc...

 

[davidt]

I can't imagine her rushing to Clopton because of an issue with the property, but you never know. It was Saturday night, miserable conditions, she had been drinking etc...

I'm firmly of the opinion she had no intention of going out that night. Everything points to her having settled in for the night. I think something unexpected happened. Something that required great urgency. She was looking at a good couple of hours drive if not more. What could be so urgent that she had to rush out in those weather conditions to undertake such a trip? Or perhaps more importantly who could have persuaded her to do so? Husband or someone else close to her.

The fact she took food, wine, overnight bag and her book manuscript suggests she wasn't anticipating returning quickly. Perhaps she took the manuscript as something to pass the time. Its the whole "rushed" part of it that puzzles me. Why not a bit more time, after all you can't just dash 80 miles, so why the hurry? I wonder if someone did turn up at the flat telling her "we have to go right now" or something like that. Basically someone else was taking control? That she had no choice.

 

[davidt]

It's a shame the missing wheel was never found. If it was we'd at least know if it was damaged or not. As it is we assume Janice needed to change it because of a problem. It's possible she was persuaded to pull in by someone else on the pretext there was a problem. Some have speculated it's a but odd to suffer two punctures in a little over seven days. Without the wheel we can't be certain.

I've also seen speculation the wheel may have been changed somewhere else. Nothing of substance though. One idea was that the original intention may have been for Janice to go all the way to Clopton. That perhaps she got suspicious or some sort of altercation took place resulting in pulling in to the lay by. We can't even be sure she was the one driving.

 

[CSIAngus]

My theory evolves around the man seen visiting janice a day or two before she travelled. I believe this man has links to the husband. I believe janice has confidence in this man to trust him. We dont know who this man is but we know a neighbour saw him visiting janice. We dont know if he ever came forward to the police but I think we'd know if he had. I believe he had links with Tony Weston and under some type of ruse janice had trust in this person to travel there for the night. I believe the person was let into janice property when she was in the middle of her meal. Otherwise if she was asked over the phone then the perpetrator ran the risk of janice phoning friends and telling them what she was doing and had changed her plans of staying in london. By being present the perpetrator asked to travel and they both immediately left janice property with janice taking food for the night.

The bottom line, some sort if ruse. Maybe isues with the property that needed imediate attention.

The ruse is obviously the tyre change for me. Whoever changed the tyre that day for JW was trusted by her and that person murdered her. Her car never left London. Her body was taken up the A1 in a different vehicle to be dumped in a convenient layby. Her property development further on is not material to the crime. An arranged killing by someone intimately close who had an airtight alibi by virtue of being out of the country. The number plate is a red herring. It's a murder but also a conspiracy to murder.

 

[INSP MORSE]

The ruse is obviously the tyre change for me. Whoever changed the tyre that day for JW was trusted by her and that person murdered her. Her car never left London. Her body was taken up the A1 in a different vehicle to be dumped in a convenient layby. Her property development further on is not material to the crime. An arranged killing by someone intimately close who had an airtight alibi by virtue of being out of the country. The number plate is a red herring. It's a murder but also a conspiracy to murder.

The only problem I have with her being murdered in london but transfered to the layby is that there was blood inside the car on the windscreen.

 

[davidt]

The only problem I have with her being murdered in London but transferred to the layby is that there was blood inside the car on the windscreen.

There's also the food, wine, manuscript, bag and purse found in the car. Also there were witnesses saying they saw a man changing a wheel in the layby on a car matching the description of Janice's.

 

[ctaylor]

Having a look through newspaper archives and found this from the Daily Mirror and found this article from August 1994 which mentions Alan Conner as a suspect. He murdered one woman and raped another before committing suicide one mile from where Janice Weston was found. It's a tenuous link but it seems he was definitely looked into but I can't find anything about him after this.

 

[ctaylor]

One thing that has struck me is that after the murder there is no request by Tony Weston in the media to find his wife's killer. You only read about him making a complaint about how he was interviewed. If he loved his wife. Why didn't he use some of the money to keep awareness about the case open until his final days, to find the perpetrator? Thats a big red flag for me.

It does look like Tony Weston did make an appeal however it is rather perfunctory. From the Worcester News of 5 October 1983 but doesn't look like it appears anywhere else or in any national press.

 

[tes1984]

There's also the food, wine, manuscript, bag and purse found in the car. Also there were witnesses saying they saw a man changing a wheel in the layby on a car matching the description of Janice's.

The police were confident that Janice was murdered in the lay by, and also that the wheel was changed there. I'm not sure if they were basing this on forensics though.

 

[tes1984]

Having a look through newspaper archives and found this from the Daily Mirror and found this article from August 1994 which mentions Alan Conner as a suspect.

The Brampton link might just be a coincidence, but AC was definitely treated as a serious suspect.

 

[INSP MORSE]

Having a look through newspaper archives and found this from the Daily Mirror and found this article from August 1994 which mentions Alan Conner as a suspect. He murdered one woman and raped another before committing suicide one mile from where Janice Weston was found. It's a tenuous link but it seems he was definitely looked into but I can't find anything about him after this.

Whats also interesting here is that the article claimed the car was found with false number plates? Ive not read anywhere that the licence plates had been changed? We know someone bought number plates replicating the originals.

Maybe the article is wrong or its a piece of information thst the press have let slip out. However if true it would make sense if the plates that were bought were different registration so as throw police of the scent and allow the perpetrator to drive to london by replacing the original number plates with ones that are slightly different.

 

[tes1984]

The published press photos show Janice's car found with KMR769X plates on it.

AFAIK the original plates were still on the car when it was found. Not the replacement plates in the same number the man bought in Royston, and not false plates in a different number.

Who knows though? If you look at the photos of Janet's car, the driver's door looks silver in the BBC photo, but the door looks white in the photo from The Times.

Is that a weird trick of the light? A photo from a reconstruction being presented as Janice's actual car? Or something else?

 

[ctaylor]

Whats also interesting here is that the article claimed the car was found with false number plates? Ive not read anywhere that the licence plates had been changed? We know someone bought number plates replicating the originals.

Maybe the article is wrong or its a piece of information thst the press have let slip out. However if true it would make sense if the plates that were bought were different registration so as throw police of the scent and allow the perpetrator to drive to london by replacing the original number plates with ones that are slightly different.

Yeah, I think that was an error in the article. As @tes1984 says, the published picture here from the day after the car was found shows the correct registration

 

[INSP MORSE]

Yeah, I think that was an error in the article. As @tes1984 says, the published picture here from the day after the car was found shows the correct registration

I remember watching something on you tube regarding the case and they said that it's not sure if the number plates that were made up were the correct registration or deliberately slightly different.

 

[CSIAngus]

The only problem I have with her being murdered in london but transfered to the layby is that there was blood inside the car on the windscreen.

In my scenario, JW is dispatched during the wheel changing ruse, which could deposit her blood on or in the car depending on how the blows were delivered and the position of the door and/or side window.

 

[tes1984]

I remember watching something on you tube regarding the case and they said that it's not sure if the number plates that were made up were the correct registration or deliberately slightly different.

AFAIK the man in the shop kept records of the registration numbers of plates he made for customers, and the request was for KMR769X plates.

 

[davidt]

I think at the time the police were of the opinion Janice was probably killed by someone she knew. That may well explain why they were so interested in her husband. When you start looking at other suspects you go back to the problem of explaining why Janice was on the road in the first place. Did she just decide to rush out and drive somewhere and then happen to have a tyre problem and then be unfortunate enough to pull into a layby where a would be killer was waiting? Seems extremely unlikely to me.

 

[rvlvr]

I think at the time the police were of the opinion Janice was probably killed by someone she knew. That may well explain why they were so interested in her husband. When you start looking at other suspects you go back to the problem of explaining why Janice was on the road in the first place. Did she just decide to rush out and drive somewhere and then happen to have a tyre problem and then be unfortunate enough to pull into a layby where a would be killer was waiting? Seems extremely unlikely to me.

I agree. The hitchhiker theory has never made much sense to me on this basis either, given Janice was travelling north yet her car wound up back in London. I suppose it’s possible in this scenario that the hitchhiker was making some sort of round trip, or that they were pretending to be heading north but in reality were just looking for a victim. But that seems unlikely to me. Especially when you factor in the supposedly foul weather that evening, it doesn’t seem likely that Janice’s killer was hanging around in the dark and the rain on the off chance. We might also have had witness sightings of someone thumbing a lift that night, but if there were any they’ve not been made public.

And as you rightly say, we’re still left with the issue of why she was on the road in the first place, given everything pointed to Janice spending a quiet night alone at her home. Something came up, but what?

 

[davidt]

I agree. The hitchhiker theory has never made much sense to me on this basis either, given Janice was travelling north yet her car wound up back in London. I suppose it’s possible in this scenario that the hitchhiker was making some sort of round trip, or that they were pretending to be heading north but in reality were just looking for a victim. But that seems unlikely to me. Especially when you factor in the supposedly foul weather that evening, it doesn’t seem likely that Janice’s killer was hanging around in the dark and the rain on the off chance. We might also have had witness sightings of someone thumbing a lift that night, but if there were any they’ve not been made public.

And as you rightly say, we’re still left with the issue of why she was on the road in the first place, given everything pointed to Janice spending a quiet night alone at her home. Something came up, but what?

All appearances are that she left in a hurry. She was known to be staunchly anti drink driving yet she had started some wine at home. Trying to think why she rushed out I can only think of two things. Either she received a call or visit about something of great urgency or possibly Janice herself suddenly remembered something she was supposed to be doing. I could add it's debatable whether she rushed out of her own accord, or whether someone rushed her out?

The fact she left her handbag behind but did take the keys to Clopton really does point towards that being the destination. Unless anyone thinks it's possible items were just planted in her car?