Who killed Billie-Jo?

[Sidge]

Did anyone watch this?

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

@UglyModernWindows

On paper SJ looks like the obvious candidate but I can't see it either how he could have actually done it. Lois gives me big creeps, a real visceral reaction. I'm another one who thinks what the hell went behind closed doors .

@bottleofbeer I really enjoy reading your insights about the case!

I thought that about Lois as well, I don't know why but she really makes me feel uneasy.

@Horological He did go to a public school, just not as posh or expensive a one as he claimed.

I thought the part where they mentioned a friend saw him kicking Billie Jo because he thought she hurt her ankle on purpose was really chilling. Who does that?! Really horrible. Okay it doesn’t make him a murderer but that’s not someone who should be around children.

@Bagelsandbrie

I thought the part where they mentioned a friend saw him kicking Billie Jo because he thought she hurt her ankle on purpose was really chilling. Who does that?! Really horrible. Okay it doesn’t make him a murderer but that’s not someone who should be around children.

But that's the whole point, how do we know that is true?

Allegedly - i.e. in Sion's account, but quoting police reports - his friend's first statement was that Sion looked as if he had kicked something. Three days later, he'd seen him kick Billie-Jo. At that stage, he hadn't been able to make out any words. Years later, he could quote Billie-Jo defending herself.

Like all evidence of Sion's temper etc, it came only after he had been arrested, so you could certainly ask why wait to speak up ...

While watching this programme the lack of blood struck me as quite odd. So you arrive home to find your DD laying in a pool of blood, surely the first thing you'd do is kneel down to check for signs of life? At the very least that would result in blood on shoes and certainly trousers, shirt cuffs etc if you're checking for a pulse.... did he not do these things? If she was still showing any signs of life ( even the appearance of a blood bubble) would he not have attempted CPR and have more blood on him? It's all a bit odd.

Yes that's true surely you'd get right up close

He says that he had blood on his hands and washed it off. Also on his shoes as did others at the scene. She was lying on her front with catastrophic head injuries. He couldn't explain / recall why he didn't move her into recovery position but the neighbour who had some first aid training said she was too badly hurt to move.

Does anyone know what happened to “Mr B” long term…? I just wonder because it seems like “if” he attacked that girl in the park and then murdered BJ (going along with that theory) it seems very unlikely he would just stop after that. Was he arrested for something else or put away for something else? All very strange.

I remember him being interviewed a couple of years later, with his new partner. Richard and Judy doing the interview were pleasant, but seemed uneasy, and didn't do their usual handshake at the end.

I can’t believe how many people have been sucked in to the extremely unlikely scenario that some random intruder broke into the house and murdered a 13 year old Child for no apparent reason, in the 10 minutes while her entire family were out the house. What are the chances?
Are people really this naive? :/

Yet they are definitely somehow convinced it wasn’t her violent step dad, who billie had confided in to her friends that he had hit her, the man who had her blood found on his fleece, jeans and shoes. The man who acted extremely suspicious the entire way through, first by the odd 999 call - “ my daughter looks like she’s fell - she’s got head injuries” I mean really? It was a frigging blood bath out there, any sane person would know she hasn’t accidentally fell. FFS!!!!!
The odd convenient trip out for something he didn’t need, and didn’t take any money to buy, and took a rather peculiar route to get there?
All the circumstantial evidence we do have point to one suspect, and one suspect only.
Also rather strange how none of his daughters have anything to do with him now either. Think about that, their poor dad has been fitted up for a crime that they know he didn’t do, (their supposed evidence proves it) yet they move to Tasmania and none of them ever have any further contact with their own dad?

Odd.

I believe he did kill her on the balance of probability, there just wasn't the evidence to convict.

Agree, there was that small doubt that the blood might have got there by exhalation and that was enough to cause the smidgen of doubt so the jury couldn’t safely reach a verdict (note they didn’t find him not guilty either though)

There is simply not one shred of evidence of an intruder theory, no unknown dna, no finger prints, nothing that points to an intruder committing this murder. There is a lot (albeit circumstantial) that points to sion Jenkins though.

I don't think it's naive to believe that Sion Jenkins didn't kill her.

Every possibility is unlikely. Her father killed her in less than three minutes, leaving no trace? A random intruder killed her in ten, and vanished? Maybe least unlikely - if an intruder, they'd been watching and saw Sion and the others leave.

There's no evidence Sion did it, so picking his scenario out as more likely just isn't enough. It was an extraordinary case whatever happened.

The random trip could be a sign that he went off to create an alibi, but then he would surely have done a better job of the phone call.

His daughters were told that there was evidence - independent of their testimony - that he did it. Their mother says she was abused. The fact that they don't seem to be in touch with him isn't surprising, but they didn't witness the murder any more than anyone else.

@Kikixx

I can’t believe how many people have been sucked in to the extremely unlikely scenario that some random intruder broke into the house and murdered a 13 year old Child for no apparent reason, in the 10 minutes while her entire family were out the house. What are the chances? Are people really this naive? :/

Yet they are definitely somehow convinced it wasn’t her violent step dad, who billie had confided in to her friends that he had hit her, the man who had her blood found on his fleece, jeans and shoes. The man who acted extremely suspicious the entire way through, first by the odd 999 call - “ my daughter looks like she’s fell - she’s got head injuries” I mean really? It was a frigging blood bath out there, any sane person would know she hasn’t accidentally fell. FFS!!!!!
The odd convenient trip out for something he didn’t need, and didn’t take any money to buy, and took a rather peculiar route to get there?
All the circumstantial evidence we do have point to one suspect, and one suspect only.
Also rather strange how none of his daughters have anything to do with him now either. Think about that, their poor dad has been fitted up for a crime that they know he didn’t do, (their supposed evidence proves it) yet they move to Tasmania and none of them ever have any further contact with their own dad?

Odd.

I agree with you - BUT - these random attacks can and do take place. Robert Napper for example (Rachel Nikkels murderer) used to do these sorts of things. He broke into a woman’s house (Samantha Bisset) and killed her and her 4 year old daughter in the most horrendous of ways and then slipped out unnoticed. Who’s to say that if, for example, another person was in the house when Billie Jo was there that they wouldn’t have been attacked too?

I think it was probably Sion. And it does seem very telling that his other children never seem to want to have contact with him. But it doesn’t mean that completely random horrible things like this don’t happen due to stranger danger, as it were.

I agree @kikixx, it all points to SJ, except the plastic up her nose. Why would SJ do that? He barely had time to kill her let alone frame someone else. Someone mentioned the possibility up thread that he could have done it earlier, pre clarinet pick up, but I'm sure in the documentary his daughter wasadamenr she saw BJ alive before they left to collect the other daughter from clarinet lesson. I think it was SJ but not beyond reasonable doubt, he needed more time and a change of clothes

The plastic up the nose thing is so incredibly odd. That’s the only part that makes no sense that it was Sion.

@Bagelsandbrie

The plastic up the nose thing is so incredibly odd. That’s the only part that makes no sense that it was Sion.

Yes that is really weird. I mean he wouldn't have done that would he? Although I find it hard to imagine anyone doing it.

Yes @Bagelsandbrie. You’d have thought if Jenkins killed her in a rage, he’d be getting away sharpish from the scene knowing his DD’s were in the car outside, or in the house depending on the time it could have happened, and could have walked in on it at any moment.

That seems like someone killed her then surveyed their handiwork and decided to stick bits of plastic bag up her nose for god knows what reason. They may have been interrupted when the car pulled up so didn’t get a chance to put some in the other nostril.

I can’t find anything about that bit of plastic bag being analysed for DNA. The neighbour pulled it out of Billie-Jo’s nose but surely it could have been found in the immediate area? It was a fine, sunny day, not particularly windy.

Was the garden ever checked for traces of blood that could have transferred off the assailant’s hands. clothes, in areas where he or she could have exited it. Fence etc. Footprints indicating someone came over a fence? There must have been blood on the perpetrator’s hands if they got close enough to stick something up her nose after injuring her so badly?

Not sure if it was mentioned on the programme but I seem to remember him saying in an early interview that when he spoke to her about the painting job, she said something like "Aren't I doing it right?" and he said "Course you are" and put his arm round her, kissed her cheek and then went off. I did wonder at the time if he said that to clear himself if any dna of his was found on her body. The hug and kiss didn't sound in character.

I was at school at the same time as Billie-Jo. She was very confident and indeed at some point was gobby at me in the corridor at some point for reasons that I can no longer remember. I’m only mentioning it as it’s possible she was cheeky one too many times with Sion 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think at the time we all thought he had done it. I haven’t watched the documentary though. I’ve just asked my husband (who went to the school that Sion was deputy head at) and he said he was very cold, process orientated and career minded. Who knows. I guess the evidence wasn’t enough to keep him locked up. It was devastating for us all at the time as it’s a small town and not knowing who had committed such a horrible crime was bloody scary.

@Kikixx

I can’t believe how many people have been sucked in to the extremely unlikely scenario that some random intruder broke into the house and murdered a 13 year old Child for no apparent reason, in the 10 minutes while her entire family were out the house. What are the chances? Are people really this naive? :/

Yet they are definitely somehow convinced it wasn’t her violent step dad, who billie had confided in to her friends that he had hit her, the man who had her blood found on his fleece, jeans and shoes. The man who acted extremely suspicious the entire way through, first by the odd 999 call - “ my daughter looks like she’s fell - she’s got head injuries” I mean really? It was a frigging blood bath out there, any sane person would know she hasn’t accidentally fell. FFS!!!!!
The odd convenient trip out for something he didn’t need, and didn’t take any money to buy, and took a rather peculiar route to get there?
All the circumstantial evidence we do have point to one suspect, and one suspect only.
Also rather strange how none of his daughters have anything to do with him now either. Think about that, their poor dad has been fitted up for a crime that they know he didn’t do, (their supposed evidence proves it) yet they move to Tasmania and none of them ever have any further contact with their own dad?

Odd.

You call it a blood bath yet he had hardly any blood on his clothes. Tiny pin pricks worth. He had less than 3 minutes to kill her and with his daughters waiting outside? He drove a weird way to the shop and forgot money, yet made no attempt to make his 999call more convincing. I think both ideas are equally unlikely. And there wouldn't be enough evidence for me to convict either person. Allegations of hitting someone (none was proved and some even disproved- no hospital admissions) doesn't make you guilty of murder.

Was the garden ever checked for traces of blood that could have transferred off the assailant’s hands. clothes, in areas where he or she could have exited it. Fence etc. Footprints indicating someone came over a fence? There must have been blood on the perpetrator’s hands if they got close enough to stick something up her nose after injuring her so badly?

No - or not comprehensively. This was admitted at the second retrial. A couple of other things that came out at that retrial and are relevant to comments here - there was no or at most no more than routine examination of her nose during the post mortem. And reconstructions of the crime scene were based on incomplete photos.

I don't think we can say it would have been "out of character" for him to kiss and hug her either. Lots of hugging and kissing of various relatives in the book, looks pretty tactile in the limited number of photos online.

I'm sure he was calculating and career minded, what with the fake CV, but that just doesn't add up to murdering a cheeky teenager.

The thing is people can be very strange, cold and detached and even not very nice but it doesn’t make them a murderer. Some of the most prolific murderers have been the most charming - Ted Bundy, the BTK killer, even Fred West - people talk about them being chatty, friendly, flirty, maybe a little weird but people were really shocked they’d killed people. The opposite of this speculation with Sion Jenkins. With Dennis Raider (sorry if I’ve spelt the name wrong) the BTK killer his daughter always remembers him being a warm and loving dad who used to tell her to be ultra careful who she opened the door to as they’d had a spate of intruder murders - which unbeknownst to her, her dad had been doing. (I’ve actually just finished reading her book). There are some really frighteningly odd people out there but often it’s the ones you don’t suspect.

That doesn’t mean Sion didn’t do it but just that I don’t think the way he is proves anything.

We don't like Sion, we've heard he was a horrible, cold bully.

Well, kids he taught in a really rough school didn't feel that way. The general consensus was that he was really laid back.

Of course people can be Street angels and house devils but this is SO like the McCann case. He didn't act the way armchair psychologists thought he should (not that we know, we weren't privvy to his behaviour in private) so he is TOTALLY guilty.

There just isn't enough evidence. The tiny amount of forensics that they had did not correlate with him frenziedly beating her to death.

And if anyone says that correlation doesn't equal causation I'll scream 😄

I have zero vested interest in this, but SJ being her killer is so unlikely, it's laughable. Except it's not because his life was destroyed and Billie-Jo got no justice.