A teenage girl vanished after a night at the fair. Nearly 50 years later, police charged a suspect, but the trial never happened.

In this episode of Dee-Brief, Dee explores one of Birmingham's most heartbreaking unsolved murders.

On the evening of 18 August 1961, fifteen-year-old Jacqueline Thomas went to a travelling funfair in Ward End with friends. It should have been an ordinary summer night. Instead, it was the last time she was ever seen alive.

A week later, Jacqueline's body was discovered on nearby allotment land. Despite a major police investigation, appeals for witnesses, and multiple suspects being questioned, nobody was charged and the case gradually grew cold.

Then, almost half a century later, everything changed.

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If you have any information relating to the murder of Jacqueline Thomas, however small it may seem, West Midlands Police continue to regard the case as unsolved. After more than sixty years, investigators still hope someone may hold the missing piece of the puzzle.

Sources

• Burney, Ian & Pemberton, Neil. Murder and the Making of English CSI

• West Midlands Police – Unsolved Murders

• Birmingham Mail archives

• BBC News archives

• The Independent archives

• The Guardian archives