Kriti Mehrotra
With BritBox’s ‘Murder in the Village: Who Killed the Doctor’s Wife?’ revisiting the enigmatic 1983 disappearance and death of English woman Diane Jones, we get a crime drama unlike any other. That’s because this original chronicles not only all the investigations into this horrific ordeal but also the way it had become arguably the oldest unsolved homicide case in Essex-Suffolk history. The truth is there has simply never been enough concrete evidence against a particular suspect to apprehend them for good, which is why nothing ever became of the two arrests that were made over the past four decades.
Diane Jones Was Found Dead Three Months After She Went Missing
At the age of 35, Diane Jones was reportedly leading a cozy, happy, stable life on a private farmland on Colchester Road when everything turned upside down for her. According to reports, the former social worker had gone to a local pub by the name of Woolpack Inn in her hometown of Coggeshall, Essex, on July 23, 1983, only to never make it back home. Robert did tell authorities they had made it safely back that same night before midnight, but he had left her at the gates of their Lees Farm while he parked up and was dealing with their dog.
As per Robert’s account to the police, his wife Diane was nowhere to be found when he returned, yet he still waited nine days before officially filing a missing person’s report. Hence came the intense search and rescue for the 35-year-old, but it sadly led nowhere. On October 22, 1983 – three months after her disappearance – her body was discovered in a deeply wooded area around 30 miles away in a copse in Brightwell near Suffolk. As per her autopsy, she had been bludgeoned to death by a weapon similar to a slater’s hammer, with a long spike on one side and a square hammer. She actually suffered at least four skull fractures, and it was determined that she had taken them shortly after she was last seen alive since her body had been at the location since late July.
Diane Jones’ Murder Remains Unsolved to This Day
Although investigators didn’t have much to go off on at first considering Diane’s disappearance, they were suspicious of her husband from the get-go owing to the fact he hadn’t reported her missing for nine days. Therefore, in November of the same year, not long after her body was ultimately recovered, Robert was arrested to be further questioned but soon released without charge owing to a lack of clear evidence. The officials then followed up on every piece of information they had as well as on other possible leads, only to return to their original suspect in 1990. In fact, he was the only named person of interest in this case.
That’s because this is when some fresh evidence was unearthed despite the case having been cold for over seven years, but again, Robert was released from custody without charge. However, it wasn’t until years later, in 2013, that it became public knowledge that witnesses at the Woolpack pub on that fateful night clearly remembered the couple, yet not for the reasons one might assume. According to them, it was actually Diane who was drunk that night, and it was to such an extent she had to be helped up after she fell backward from a stool and created a fuss when it was closing time.
However, what Diane said was the most eyebrow-raising aspect. As per witness statements, Diane was refusing to leave the public house with her husband because she was afraid he might beat her up – she allegedly said something along the lines of, “I’m not going home with you. You’ll beat me up.” That’s when he reportedly put his dog and his wife’s brown handbag in his car before returning and physically carrying her to the same by putting her over his shoulder. What happened between the couple next is unclear to this day; all we know for sure is that Diane was found dead three months later.
Primary Suspect Robert Jones Passed Away in 2023
According to records, a cold case unit has been looking into Diane’s case for the past few years by reviewing forensic exhibits, following up on new leads, and interviewing old witnesses. This included further questioning of her then-husband Robert, only for them to learn he had eventually relocated to France and was settled there for good. Nevertheless, they went ahead with their inquiries and even put forth a formal search in that nation for a possible murder weapon, yet it led nowhere before the doctor passed away. He actually died of a suspected heart attack at his home in France on March 7, 2023. He was 80 at the time and was never once charged with the murder of his third wife, Diane.
Since Robert was the only named person of interest in this whole ordeal throughout the decades of investigations, the Major Crime Review and Unsolved Case Team’s manager has actually come forward to state that it is unlikely Diane’s case will ever be solved now. “We had been making some positive progress in the case of Diane’s murder and are unearthing new information, even after all this time,” Andy Guy stated. “The death of the suspect in this inquiry means it is unlikely we will be able to progress much further now, as we are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this crime.” Nevertheless, he asserted this case would remain with the team, and they will continue looking into it to the best of their abilities.
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