Seventeen-year-old Jodine Brown was a former student at Dame Elizabeth Cadbury School in Birmingham, England. Though she was known as something of a loner, the few friends she did have called her an “angel” who was never in any trouble. She had an older boyfriend named Phil Luckman who she was planning to marry.
In July of 1997, Jodine’s mother Eileen went away for a few days to help her older daughter move into a new apartment. When she returned home on July 18th, Eileen was shocked to find Jodine’s lifeless, partially decomposed body in her bedroom, covered with a duvet. The teenager had been wearing a blue silk nightgown when she was killed.
A post-mortem examination found bruising on the flesh and wounds that suggested she’d been beaten in the head. A toxicology report demonstrated that the victim had a large amount of cold medicine in her system; it wouldn’t have been enough to kill her, but combined with the head trauma may have rendered her unconscious. It was theorized that the killer had then strangled her to death using a chain or some type of thin cord. Jodine had likely been dead for at least four days when her body was found by her mother.
Authorities worked diligently to find the teenager’s murderer, but they hit a wall fairly early on in the case. Jodine’s boyfriend was never considered a suspect, as he was in jail at the time of the slaying.
The case is reviewed from time to time, but remains unsolved as of August 2024.
Crime Immemorial 