Who killed Billie-Jo?

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Did anyone watch this?

I remember this awful event. The documentary last night was very interesting.

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Whatever you believe there simply wasn't enough evidence against him.

I thought it was a very interesting documentary. It does seem quite compelling that Sion Jenkins did it (not just from what was covered in the programme).

One thing I did pick up from the programme about the plastic was that the plastic found in Billie-Jo's nose and the plastic in the garden beside her was black. Earlier in the programme they said that the plastic found on the mentally-disturbed man who was in the vicinity was blue.

A very, very sad case.

I don't like the man but I've studied blood spatter analysis and what was found on him really is more consistent with exhalation than him being the attacker. Head wounds bleed massively, he should have been saturated.

Not saying it exonerates him, but it's just...unlikely.

You hear about foster parents only doing it for the money / so they can go onto abuse.

Have the girls said what it was like to live there? Where they expected to do lots of things around the house? Were they really doing it for pocket money? Were they forced to paint?

Yes I know it's far fetched having four children just to mistreat but it does happen.

I'm only seen half of the documentary.

@bottleofbeer even with bits of skin or bone in the blood? I can’t remember what exactly was found during testing. It’s really interesting

I do think he did it, but I'm left wondering more than anything what the hell his wife was thinking taking in a foster child when her husband was a bully who physically disciplined their children?

Poor Billie, what a travesty she never got justice 💔

@LoseLooseLucy

I do think he did it, but I'm left wondering more than anything what the hell his wife was thinking taking in a foster child when her husband was a bully who physically disciplined their children?

Poor Billie, what a travesty she never got justice 💔

She might not have had a choice.

They both admitted it was Lois' idea to foster.

@LoseLooseLucy

They both admitted it was Lois' idea to foster.

Sorry, I missed that. Perhaps she thought it might stop the abuse from him especially if authorities were involved?

Possibly. I just find it bizarre, and if he was as violent towards her and the children that she claimed, why she would take in a vulnerable child? Him even shouting aggressively should be a bar to fostering imho.

I can't imagine the dynamics in the household were exactly normal

Yes, the bone and brain matter would have been in the exhalation spray. To be blunt, her head trauma was massive. Totally unsurvivable. The brain itself doesn't bleed a lot but the head wounds would have. It's totally known that it was a blood bath.

Parts of bone and brain matter were found in her nasal cavity.

Imagine this: he's right handed, he swings the tent peg several times with a total of nine blows. The blood loss is massive, it would have been all over the peg (it was) as he swings the spatter should have been landing on the left hand upper side of his back. There was no blood found on his back at all. There should have been.

Do I like the man? Not from what I've seen. Do I think he did it? Nowhere near beyond reasonable doubt.

Do I like the man? Not from what I've seen. Do I think he did it? Nowhere near beyond reasonable doubt

Exactly what I thought too

Whilst I do agree the lack of blood is odd, the police officer explained in the documentary that the tent peg was too heavy to swing backwards over his shoulder.

Well I suppose we'd have to know the exact weight of the tent peg to be sure of that and while I don't deny it must have been weighty, he was a grown man.

We are being asked to believe he absolutely battered her around the head with an implement he's seen and picked up due to her being a bit of a smart mouth. A backhander in pure anger I get (don't agree with or condone) but I see how it happens. But he was SO utterly incensed he's picked an object up and beaten her to death with it. Then, somehow managed to dodge the huge amounts of blood, and be back in the car with his daughters within about three minutes, he's also calmed down enough that they notice nothing odd about him.

It doesn't stack up, no matter how much of an arrogant arse he is.

But that's assuming he committed this in that 3 minute window. I think there's a possibility she was already gravely assaulted before they ever set out to pick up from the clarinet lesson. There's evidence that the daughter washing the car was not allowed to enter the house in this time. Stopped by her father.

Also, we know there had been tensions in the house that day. Fairly normal family stuff from what I make of it, he may well have been feeling peevish. But from all accounts that day it was actually Lois who lost her rag more than once. Obviously it wasn't her, she was in London but his own daughters said that it was their mother they had almost all argued with that day. Not Sion.

Possibly, Lizzie, but he (and the same daughter) had both said that there were tensions between Billie and the daughter as she had wanted to paint and Billie was being smug and annoying about the fact she was doing it so he kept them apart. Plausible.

Everything apart from the blood spatter is circumstantial. The blood spatter is imo, more consistent with his explanation of events than him doing it. That's literally the only scientific/forensic evidence in the whole case and it doesn’t add up to him being guilty.

@bottleofbeer

Yes, the bone and brain matter would have been in the exhalation spray. To be blunt, her head trauma was massive. Totally unsurvivable. The brain itself doesn't bleed a lot but the head wounds would have. It's totally known that it was a blood bath.

Parts of bone and brain matter were found in her nasal cavity.

Imagine this: he's right handed, he swings the tent peg several times with a total of nine blows. The blood loss is massive, it would have been all over the peg (it was) as he swings the spatter should have been landing on the left hand upper side of his back. There was no blood found on his back at all. There should have been.

Do I like the man? Not from what I've seen. Do I think he did it? Nowhere near beyond reasonable doubt.

I haven’t see the forensics beyond what was said in the Documentary but surely it’s possible to kill someone either by accident or design with one “lucky” blow?

She was hit nine times.

I agree there's not enough evidence for a conviction. I think he did it, but it wouldn't blow me over if he was innocent. Such a sad case.

I think he's arrogant, I think he probably was abusive (although his daughters categorically denied it and never wavered on that) I think he was a snob, I think he was unlikeable. I think his wife wanted out.

I think he was very, very unlucky. Mr B with the plastic bag obsession was discounted far too quickly imo. For no other reason than they homed in on SJ from the outset. Because he wasn't acting like they thought he should. Because he didn't want to take his fleece off, because he did things that are totally explainable for people in shock.

And what a shock that must have been. Did the police have a rule book for how someone should act after finding what he did?

The plastic bag part is the thing that most sways me. Why on earth would he do that? (Obviously why would he bludgeon her, the plastic bag part is just utterly bizarre).
And agreed, someone's reaction to a shocking event shouldn't necessarily be used against them.

It's been suggested that SJ somehow knew about Mr B's plastic bag obsession so did it to throw the scent away from himself. Unlikely. Or that Mr B stumbled across a dying Billie-Jo and did it. Unlikely.

The Jenkins family had reported a prowler on more than one occasion, in fact they acquired a staffie as a guard dog on the very back of this. SJ was by no means the only candidate for being the killer.

I know people raise an eyebrow at this but he says that many years later when he was studying the case files he noticed there was no mention of a suited man in the police records of the immediate aftermath of her murder. Sion had never questioned this before as he had assumed it was a detective. He says a man was in the house after the emergency services were called so he assumed this man was with the police and never questioned it again. Until he read the files. There was no detective in the house at that point. He believes this is the man thar did it and he had been in the house all along.

Some might well (and understandably think) this is putting potential suspects in the frame well after the fact. But that this only occurred to him when he was already free from jail makes me think it's a possibility.