Billie Jo Jenkins unsolved murder

[Lwrenn]

Hi all I'm not sure if anyone remembers the case?

I've always assumed it was her foster father Sion Jenkins (same surname but not biologically connected, just coincidence) who was responsible for her murder but I recently saw a youtube comment saying they believed it was a levi bellfield attack, has anyone heard this theory before?
I personally believe levi bellfield is likely responsible for many more murders than we'll ever know.
I'm just wondering if anyone has any thoughts? I do particularly hate LB so it's possible I'd blame him for anything given the opportunity so I'm just curious if anyone has looked into this theory?

I'd love to see Billie Jo's birth family have closure and justice for her murder and if it was the Foster father, Sion, who I do think is most likely her killer, I hope he is found guilty one day.

Yes,that theory has been around for a while.

There was a recent documentary on channel 5 but I couldn't find it on catch up,I'll look again as it might be on there now.

@LoafofSellotape I'll have a look now, thanks 😊

Most people locally (i live in Hastings, my daughter was at the same school as Billie Jo, 2 years her junior, she knew her quite well) if asked then and most likely now thought Jenkins did it. There was a mystery man around but it still doesn't explain Jenkins erratic and weird behaviour, before or after.

There was a documentary called "Murder on the Patio: Who Killed Billie-Jo?" due to air on Channel 5 on October 29, 2024, I'm not sure it has actually aired yet though.

I think I've found the documentary on paramount, I'm trying to watch it whilst cleaning but my DC obviously need me immediately if I look busy.

I've spent most of my time working looking after mentally unwell men in secure units, supported living or residential settings before I moved to nursing home work (worse pay but I'm someone who enjoys the elderly to spend time with) Anyway, a solid 90% of the men with MH issues seem capable completely of really awful things, the way they approach young people or women and start waffling to them but the reality is they're just systemic failures who are neurodiverse, have intellectual or social issues and whilst many of these men may become violent it wouldnt be as a predisposed thing usually, it would more be a meltdown.
The local people who walk around chatting to themselves and whatnot need lots of support and often shouldn't be in the community unsupported, but honestly out of the 100s of men I've cared for who meet that lone oddball stereotype I've not met one who has the intellectual capability to commit a crime that would flummox a nosy child, let alone investigators.

Sion Jenkins seems a highly manipulative liar with no impulse control.
It was suggested on another comment I read, just a theory but someone thought he was engaging with poor Billie Jo in a relationship and we understand these days trauma, attachment and vulnerability so much more, children who need fostering are so more easy to manipulate into these situations. I do hope the poor wee thing wasn't a victim of that, but it does seem plausible. To commit such a violent murder you'd think a motive was needed. Hence why I thought levi bellfield was a potential, his MO was for very irratic and violent killings on young girls.
To just murder a child in her home with no sexual motive would have needed to have been committed by someone with means and that for me is sion.

I'm on the fence with it being him as over the years some things I have read or seen seem to strongly point that he did it and then I see or read something else and the evidence strongly suggests that he didn't do it.

I don't think it's Levi Belfield in this instance, I can't say why though, just a hunch!!

I think LB is such a rare monster, who enjoys brutal quick murders and he definitely would have had the potential to have been Billie Jo's killer, but I also don't think it was him.
Same as you really, no idea why, just a hunch.

I lean more towards Sion but the fact he wasn't convicted makes it seem the evidence wasn't strong enough to secure a guilty verdict? Although I need to read up properly on his arrest etc.

Poor Billie Jo, I was in primary school when she was killed and I remember watching the news thinking how pretty she was.

There's podcast by Naiomi channel called Real. She did a long set of episodes called 'who killed billie jo?.

It is very good but you won't come out of it any clearer. The random guy is interesting because he was fixated with putting plastic bags in various bodily openings. Billie Jo was found with a bit of plastic bag up her nose. The guy was deemed too ill to question so he was never properly outruled.

Sion was not a great guy either. His wife revealed he had a temper and had been violent to Billie Jo. She was a foster kid and could be challenging. He was also having an affair with a young girl. He also comes accross as a real narcissist and liar who lied about his qualifications to get his job.

His wife was also odd. She was a social worked but brought this vulnerable child into violent household.

Very confusing.

I read his book a while ago. I am not entirely sure if he did it or not, but I found his insistence that the police poisoned his wife's mind against him very strange. She left the country with her children. I really could not imagine my DH killing or even hurting anyone and no policeman would easily convince me differently. The fact that she seems to have quite easily and quickly accepted he could have done such a thing leads to me think she already believed he was capable of such violence - and I seem to recall there was evidence he'd previously been violent in the home.

I’ve just started watching the documentary and they’ve said the plastic up her nose was there because she was painting. So I’m presuming that was there to stop her inhaling paint fumes?
Very odd and definitely a convenient coincidence, but is explainable.

I'm finding also finding Lois Jenkins very odd. He does seem a particularly vile specimen and him being previously violent towards Billie Jo is awful. From the small amount I’ve read it seems the Jenkins foster family were asked by her birth family to not attend Billie Jo’s funeral and they ignored that request. To ignore her birth parents wishes shows some grandiose bullshit behaviour imo.

Definitely this man is a habitual liar, if not a complete fantasist. It makes believing anything he says difficult. He also comes across deeply unpleasant and a bit slimy and they’re obviously not things that point to murderer but something about him makes me think he’s got that capability. But lots of people are horrible liars, you’d never think they were cold blooded killers.

They don’t seem like a warm family at all, which isn’t something you’d imagine for a foster family.

Indeed = even in his own book he came across really badly. The urgent need to take the girls to buy white spirit seems really odd.

Remember opinions at the time strongly of the view Sion Jenkins did it...he was a controlling bully who flew into a rage if his dinner wasn't on the table ready. He probably just lost it. Poor girl.

Just remembered I was in a newsagents and overheard people talking about it, one of them had been a juror on the case and said there was no evidence!🤷‍♀️ think she meant against any person, Sion or anyone.
Very difficult case.

If it was a crime of opportunity to attack a young girl, then I'd automatically assume it would have a more obvious sexual motive. Not even attempted sexual assault but maybe her attack would have included asphyxiation.
Using a object to hand to attack someone in my little head makes me think its a temper attack.
The sad thing is, I imagine with the advancements in DNA, blood spatter experts and all other things that can prove so much more now than they could in the 90s, even more ring doorbell footage etc, more evidence to secure a conviction against her killer would have been available.
These days if in the afternoon our homes are victim to a killer, in daylight, we'd see that person clearly.
I only started the documentary earlier and haven't got far in at all but the 999 call Sion makes a point of saying Billie Jo had fallen, I find that odd. A fall doesn't look like a viscous attack with a weapon. Don't be a knobhead Sion.

I know there are killers like Levi Bellfield who would enjoy a brutal murder on a girl but those murderers are rare. (I believe LB is responsible for more murders than he's ever been charged with) I think Billie Jo's murder does seem like a crime of pure rage, not passion, just anger and Sion sounds an angry little man.

I'm not sure where I read this and I will look into it when I get the chance to make sure it's correct, but I am 80% sure I read they already had white spirit in the home. I read that a while back and I could be confusing it with something else though.

Yes - there was some already in the shed/garage. So he took the other girls the long way round to buy some then realised he forgot his wallet or somesuch then went home again. It looks like a desperate attempt to build an alibi really. Why didn't he leave the others at home? Why did he need white spirit that badly he had to go that instant?

The family liaison officer in that documentary was the one person that really stood out to me to know what was really going on in that home. I watched this some time back and I still remember him above anything or anyone else. Why would Jenkins decide to spend the night with his parents (or whoever it was) and leave the rest of his family there knowing there was some sort of prowler on the loose? The plastic up the nose was to ensure she had actually died.

...also the interview with Jenkins back in the day is a hard watch...loads of licking lips and smacking of lips, it's just so uncomfortable.

...also me again. He falsified documents so he could teach. Why? Either because he wanted to be around kids...or he just was an entitled narcissistic f*#k

Hello! Thank you, what you have said makes sense.
Abusers tend to try and get themselves into jobs where they have access to their ideal victims.
Not all but many. There is always in my local paper articles about teachers being caught in inappropriate relationships/child abuse images on devices. It's becoming a monthly occurrence and that's my local paper, nationally it must be constant.

If Sion wanted access to children so badly he'd lie would he have had any issues pursuing Billie Jo? Was that a motive? Maybe he was creepy with her or abusing her and she'd threatened to tell?
Because he's realistically the main suspect in this case. He's wanting to obviously be seen on video footage not at home if he's dicking about driving different routes, he had a small amount of time to commit the crime, but an intruder would have had less, if they had to break in unseen etc, the whole thing is just astonishing that Billie Jo's case is technically unsolved.

I live very near Hastings and remember the murder from when it happened. I haven't seen anything about it for years and hadn't realised that it was considered unsolved.

I thought that the foster father killed her because she was going to reveal that he had abused her. I genuinely thought he was currently in prison for it.

I must have followed the initial crime and the case against him but forgotten how it turned out.

I know I find it to be deeply upsetting. The poor girl deserves justice and I think if it had happened in this day and age it would have been solved with surveillance cameras, phone records, internet activity etc etc. I also observed the way his wife looked across at him in that press conference. I believe she knew in that moment. It was a messed up household and Billie-Jo deserved so much more and still deserves justice.

He was genuinely a teacher. He just exaggerated his qualifications - said he had been to UCL when he’d been to UEL, said he was a qualified English and drama teacher when his qualification was as a PE teacher. Increased his O levels from 3 to 10. Etc etc. Narcissist, trying to make himself sound more impressive than he really was. If his motive was solely to gain access to young girls’ bodies, he could probably have done that more effectively as a PE teacher.

There was a mentally ill guy wandering around covered in blood and obsessed with plastic - in his underwear in his ears in other orifices he was sectioned I think the day after the murder so they couldn't interview him Billie had plastic stuffed up her nose! The retired detectives said it was him

I think for me it was behaviour afterwards...as a parent if you genuinely believed there was a murderous prowler on the loose, would you really leave the rest of your family in the house the following night while you go off and stay at your parents?!? Wouldn't you be staying away, at the very least stay with your family to protect them, generally just terrified of something happening again?

I thought of this podcast too. I think Naomi is a very sensitive, genuine and empathetic podcast host.

Agreed that it doesn't reach any conclusions, but does provide some interesting details. The prolonged trip to the DIY shop was very interesting if I recall.