UK - Julia James, 53, murdered, Snowdown, Kent, 27 April 2021 *ARREST*

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It’s also worth mentioning that the DNA found on the towels did not match that of Michael Stone, who has spent almost 24 years in prison for the murders.
I wonder if it matched Levi Bellfield..? I don't suppose we'll ever get to know. He was thought to have actually murdered them, and Michael Stone was fitted up for it. Plus, the one witness account of a man driving a car near the scene, the woman describes Bellfield and not Stone. There are plenty of websites about the case if anyone is interested.
Anyway, I've digressed. Sorry.
 
All this report really says is that a car was poorly parked at a location near Julia’s house a few hours before she was attacked. I’m not sure it tells us much.

Exactly the kind of thing the police will be collating but hardly a basis for a whole article.

BBM "I will be reporting this to the police" - says it all! So it seems she contacted the DM first, they do pay for this sort of thing apparently.
 
I wonder if it matched Levi Bellfield..? I don't suppose we'll ever get to know. He was thought to have actually murdered them, and Michael Stone was fitted up for it. Plus, the one witness account of a man driving a car near the scene, the woman describes Bellfield and not Stone. There are plenty of websites about the case if anyone is interested.
Anyway, I've digressed. Sorry.
Don’t be sorry. The conviction of Michael Stone will likely turn out to be a huge miscarriage of justice. It’s astonishing that he remains in prison. Bellfield is an interesting potential suspect, although personally I’m not 100% convinced it was him.
 
Exactly the kind of thing the police will be collating but hardly a basis for a whole article.

BBM "I will be reporting this to the police" - says it all! So it seems she contacted the DM first, they do pay for this sort of thing apparently.

Yes, I thought that to, pretty shady really to be talking to the press rather than the police in the first instance even if it turns out to be of no relevance.

Being fair to the press though, there is some outrage among the public that this case isn't get the attention of some other murders however it is pretty difficult to put on the front page when hardly anything new has been revealed from the police so I guess the best they can do is find some loosely related witnesses and update us on the searches. The press would be all over it if they could use sensational headlines like "hammer horror", "Snowdown serial snatcher", "police prowler" etc but they haven't got anything to go with.

I'm glad it is still getting some press coverage, it is worrying that progress has been so slow and the best evidence will come from the public so it does need something to keep the story current and in peoples minds outside of the community.

The perpetrator was out of their house at the time of the murder without explanation and may be exhibiting different behaviours before and afterwards that somebody close might notice retrospectively so the public really are a good source for information - but then again may well be a loner without social connections that would notice their absence or behaviours.
 
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Mrs Tanton said: 'I didn't really pay much attention at the time but I know it was a black estate car. It looked pretty new as it was lovely and gleaming.

'It stuck in my memory because of how stupidly it was parked on a blind bend on double yellow lines.

'I thought someone might go into the back of it on the corner on the bridge over the railway line. It didn't have hazard lights on and there was no one in the car.



I would imagine other people would also have noticed this car.
Think Mrs Stanton could just be wanting her name in print!
 
I guess she was being watched by someone over a period of months. Her run in January and February were along Holt Rd (Colliery) and up towards Nonington.

Years ago I decided not to use Strava to record my bike rides (I use an app that stores my data locally only) because of general privacy concerns (rather than personal security) - just doesn't sit right with me sharing that sort of information. I gather now you can set it not to report the data from immediately round your home, and also that you can set it so that others can't see it, but it seems the default setting (which JJ obviously had) is to let the whole world see where you live, where you go and when. A goldmine for stalkers!
 
Let’s be sure not to name someone a suspect who isn’t, not yet. It wouldn’t be right.

Also who polishes their own car these days?


Me ... I do. I have an electric rotary buffer thingy and polish recommended by my fellow Mazda owners. Will this make me a suspect for any local crimes? *wink wink*
 
Don’t be sorry. The conviction of Michael Stone will likely turn out to be a huge miscarriage of justice. It’s astonishing that he remains in prison. Bellfield is an interesting potential suspect, although personally I’m not 100% convinced it was him.
Bellfield was celebrating his wife/gf birthday on that day and she is definitely sure he was there with her that afternoon. Anyway the DNA found on the towel wouldnt be his. Bellfield was careful with leaving his prints and probably wore gloves for each crime
 
The dog walking world is one of familiarity, I see the same people on my walks in our woods most days. Bumped into the same lovely bloke 4 times this week around a ‘general time’ and have stopped for a quick chat. Even if we vary and do our ‘other’ walks, there is usually a familiar face or two.

Living where Julia did, sounds like she may have frequented these woods daily or at a minimum a couple of times a week - not hard at all for someone to notice a pattern and lay in wait for her, even if it meant trying a few times.

Strangely enough, I’m getting a couple of Delphi vibes here (a world away from each other in victimology etc) but most notably, a well used public walking trail. With a very high possibility of coming into contact with other people,.. brazen to me. Walking in our own relatively small woods, you can be on one path and miss other people completely due to the lay out of paths, trees and foliage.... not sure what to think, but I’m feeling random at the moment.
 
The colliery is a lot closer to the hamlet than I expected. Just a 5 minutes walk.

In fact the hamlet of Snowdown is really only a main rural lane with 3 short streets of houses coming off that. I would say approx. 25 semi-detached houses are there.

So maybe the person who parked the black estate car near the colliery, might not have parked there to explore the disused colliery itself? He could've parked there for a little look around the houses and footpaths and fields?? Plan an escape route, etc.

If he had parked in one of the 3 residential streets, it may have been more obvious if he was trying to stay undercover. These people who live in hamlets tend to know everyone and are what we British call 'curtain twitchers'......always nosey about others.

MOO.
 
I couldn't find very much but have messaged Fernandes to ask if he has anymore recent drone footage of the area. A person walking on the wasteland with possibly their car parked nearby but nothing else interesting on the drone footage which was probably taken about a Month ago.
I still think that the black car parked near the Colliery a few weeks before is a bit out of place unless the person dressed in black was walking a dog.
 
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