GUILTY UK - Jodi Jones, 14, Dalkeith, Scotland, 30 June 2003

[rvlvr]

Very reminiscent of the Satanic panic stuff in the States, it’s beyond embarrassing it was able to play any role in a murder case in the UK in the 21st century.

The stuff about Luke finding Jodi’s body and it being considered suspicious is utterly infuriating too. From The Herald:

Whilst searching the area with the rest of the [search] party, Luke Mitchell claimed that his German shepherd – partially trained to track by a professional handler - alerted him by jumping up against the wall, which Jones was found behind.

This claim was initially corroborated by the family members of the search party. Files show that these statements were changed approximately one month after the event. The original statements, which supported Mitchell’s claim, were put to the witnesses by his defence QC Donald Findlay but they said they were unable to remember or it was not what they meant.

The circumstantial evidence that convicted Luke Mitchell

Luke Mitchell was convicted on wholly circumstantial evidence.

www.heraldscotland.com

I couldn’t say I’m convinced of his innocence but there’s much about his conviction that seems unsatisfactory to me.

 

[mrC]

what icant understand is why the search party was searching for her in the woods i mean why would a teenage girl be hanging around in the woods on her own in the dark if she was alive and at the time they had no reason she wasnt alive

 

[Seanmaccadave]

what icant understand is why the search party was searching for her in the woods i mean why would a teenage girl be hanging around in the woods on her own in the dark if she was alive and at the time they had no reason she wasnt alive

This was the route she normally took to meet Luke. So I'm assuming the family were retracing her steps.

 

[mrC]

if your daughter was late home wouldent the normal thing to do be to phone her friends they dont seem to have donethatseem to have gone straght to the woods bearing in mind she had been late home before it wasnt that unusaul for her to be late home andshe was only 40 minutes late

 

[sloof83]

is there any way of finding out what forensic work was done? i seen a different case where a forensic botanist was used to determine if the place a victims body was found was the same place they were killed. i remember in the case the forensic botanist was able to pin point with reasonable accuracy a patch of ground the victim had been assaulted then later dragged to the site where she was found. the forensic botanist was able to use pollen found in the victims hair and compared it to plants and vegetation around where she was found and then later to confirm the area where she had been killed.

 

[mrC]

i think i might be ale to find somthing but it may take a wihile the origanal pahogolgist did say the body had been moved wich is why couldent give a time of death

 

[sloof83]

i think i might be ale to find somthing but it may take a will the origanal pahogolgist did say the body had been moved wich is why couldent give a time of death

i'm just curious if that would help. it does seem there are lots of unexplored avenues in this case. was there any official confirmation on jodie's brothers mental state at the time of her murder? there is a video posted earlier in this thread, where luke's former solicitor stated that jodies brother had previously attacked her and was suffering from mental health difficulties and was sectioned a month prior to the murder.

 

[sloof83]

no updates?

 

[mrC]

not at any that i can really post under the rules im still looking for the orginal patolgists evdence