Originally published @ 11:11 am, Fri 31st Dec 2010
The media have focussed heavily on the murder of Joanne Yeates in Bristol, a 25 year-old landscape architect.
It’s clear that the police didn’t know who it was, and needed the help of the media to flush out possible suspects, which at the time of writing seems most likely to be Joanna’s landlord, though interesting to hear a Lib Dem Councillor and a headteacher express their astonishment. Time and the legal system will no doubt tell.
It’s obvious that the police have supplied information at the pace that they want to maximise their chances of a successful convictioon and who would quibble. It’s reported that 90% of murders in the UK are known to their victims. Not of course is it anything like the genre of crime writing which often struggles to get beyond murder as a plot and is much more about puzzle setting and puzzle solving. Tempting to think that in an age of DNA and forensics whether characters like Lt. Columbo would ever have a role.
Much less national media attention was given to two murders in Shropshire on the same day a week or so earlier.
One on the estate opposite to where I grew up in the Hanwoodbank part of Great Hanwood; the other in my Mum’s home town of Oswestry. The reason for the lack of coverage is that the suspects were very quickly arrested, charged and committed at court (this rather than the murders taking part in a low-profile part of the country).
A boyfriend is believed to have murdered Jane Edwards in Hanwoodbank, and the partner of Jill Nevitt in Oswestry is believed to have been murder by her live-in partner.
Domestic Violence kills. http://www.womensaid.org.uk/
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