The horrific, cold-blooded murder of Hastings teenager Billie-Jo Jenkins shocked the nation in February 1997 – and resulted in her foster father Sion Jenkins being jailed for murder, then eventually acquitted. He has vowed to find her killer but the passage of time appears to be against him…
Suddenly there was a scream. Billie-Jo was lying on the patio facing away from the house with her legs straight out. The left side of her face rested on the concrete surrounded by a puddle of thick blood. Her right hand was streaked with paint, and she had the corner of a bin liner stuffed up her left nostril.
Sion Jenkins gathered the younger girls into the playroom before phoning an ambulance. His voice was controlled. “My daughter’s had a fall and there’s blood everywhere. I don’t know what’s happened. She’s got head injuries. There’s blood everywhere. I haven’t felt for a pulse.”
He then rang a neighbour who rushed in and said she thought Billie-Jo might still be alive because her body was warm.
But paramedics found her dead when they arrived minutes later, and the house was soon swarming with police and technicians…