The murder of Danielle Jones (16 October 1985 – c. 18 June 2001) was an English murder case where no body was found and the conviction relied upon forensic authorship analysis of text messages sent on the victim's mobile phone. Danielle Sarah Jones was last seen alive on 18 June 2001. Jones's uncle, Stuart Campbell, a builder, was

convicted In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is con ...

of abduction and murder on 19 December 2002. Campbell was sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed te ...

for murder as well as 10 years for abduction. After the trial, controversy arose when it was revealed Campbell had prior convictions for indecent assault on other girls of similar ages. The use of forensic authorship analysis of text messages in the case provoked research into its use in other cases.

Disappearance and investigation

15-year-old Danielle Jones was last seen near her home in

East Tilbury East Tilbury is a village and former civil parish in the unitary authority of Thurrock borough, Essex, England, and one of the traditional Church of England parishes in Thurrock. In 1931 the parish had a population of 353. History In Saxon ti ...

, Essex, on the morning of 18 June 2001, while walking to a bus stop. Suspicion fell on Campbell almost immediately and he was first arrested on 23 June 2001, five days after Jones went missing. Detectives had delayed his arrest while weighing the possibility of endangering Jones's life, on the presumption she was still alive and being held against her will, against the possibility of Campbell leading the police to her. During police interviews Campbell was described as "uncooperative". The investigation included several appeals to the public for information, including a reconstruction on the BBC television programme ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was o ...

''. During the investigation, over 900 police officers and support staff searched over 1500 locations for Jones's body, as within two months of her disappearance police working on the case were convinced that she was dead.

Murder trial

On 17 August 2001 police re-arrested Campbell on suspicion of murder, after finding "significant evidence" which appeared to support their theory that Danielle Jones was now dead. A police superintendent said to the

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that Campbell "developed a relationship with Danielle that was certainly inappropriate and probably unlawful." Jones apparently tried to disengage, but Campbell resisted. By 14 November 2001, the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal ad ...

decided that the police had enough evidence to charge Campbell with murder – even though her body had not been found. On 14 October 2002, Campbell went on trial for abduction and murder, having spent 11 months on remand. The Crown's case rested upon several pieces of evidence. Jones had disappeared without contacting her parents and had been seen talking to a man in a blue

Ford Transit The Ford Transit is a family of light commercial vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1965, primarily as a cargo van, but also available in other configurations including a large passenger van (marketed as the Ford Tourneo i ...

van resembling Campbell's on the morning of her disappearance. The testing of blood-stained stockings discovered in the loft of Campbell's house found DNA matching both himself and his niece; lip gloss used by Jones was also found in Campbell's home. A diary kept by Campbell revealed an obsession with teenage girls, with testimonies that Campbell had manipulated young girls into posing for topless photographs. Mobile Switching Centre records demonstrated that Campbell's

alibi An alibi (from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person, who is a possible perpetrator of a crime, of where they were at the time a particular offence was committed, which is somewhere other than where the crim ...

of being at a D-I-Y store half an hour away in

Rayleigh Rayleigh may refer to: Science *Rayleigh scattering *Rayleigh–Jeans law *Rayleigh waves *Rayleigh (unit), a unit of photon flux named after the 4th Baron Rayleigh *Rayl, rayl or Rayleigh, two units of specific acoustic impedance and characte ...

was false and that Campbell's and Jones's mobile phones had been within the range of a single mobile phone mast at the time that a text message had allegedly been sent by Jones to Campbell. This, along with forensic authorship analysis, indicated that Campbell had written the message, not Jones, implying that Campbell had sent the message to himself using Jones's phone to make it appear that she was still alive. Campbell was found guilty of both charges on 19 December 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder to run concurrently with a 10-year sentence for abduction. The High Court later ruled that Campbell should serve a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole, meaning that he is set to remain imprisoned until at least November 2022 at the age of 63.

Aftermath of the trial

After his trial, it was revealed that in 1989, Campbell had received a 12-month

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

for forcibly detaining a 14-year-old girl in his house and taking indecent photographs of her. The use of text-message evidence in the trial led a group of researchers at the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_la ...

to begin studying text-messaging styles under the hypothesis that forensic research into the authorship analysis of such messages might help in future criminal cases. In 2004, Campbell was granted leave to appeal against his conviction on the grounds that evidence of his obsession with Jones, and of his interest in schoolgirls, should have been excluded at his trial and on the further grounds that one of the jurors, the next-door neighbour of a police officer involved in the case, should have been discharged. The appeal was dismissed in 2005 by the Court of Appeal. On 28 July 2005, an

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a co ...

by the coroner was held into Danielle Jones's disappearance, returning a verdict of

unlawful killing In English law, unlawful killing is a verdict that can be returned by an inquest in England and Wales when someone has been killed by one or more unknown persons. The verdict means that the killing was done without lawful excuse and in breach ...

. Police interviews with Campbell in prison reported that Campbell had still refused to tell them where he had disposed of his victim's body. In May 2017,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and Kent Police forces began searching a garage block in Stifford Clays,

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The ...

, after receiving new information, and "did not rule out" looking for a body. It was reported that similar information regarding suspicious activity around the garages had been received at the time Danielle Jones disappeared, but had not been followed up in the initial investigation. A

spokesperson A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

for Essex Police said the force was "working to ascertain why these were not searched as part of the original investigation." It was subsequently announced that no discovery had been made. Campbell was denied parole in 2023.

Disappearance and investigation

Murder trial

Aftermath of the trial

See also

References

Further reading