A fresh plea for information about the brutal murder of a nurse who was found gagged, handcuffed and beaten in her own home has been made by detectives ahead of the 25th anniversary of her death.
Mother-of-three Janet Brown was found with multiple fatal head injuries at her home at Hall Farm in Sprigs Holly Lane, Radnage, on April 11, 1995, by a builder and his teenage son.
The 51-year-old, a research nurse with Oxford University’s Public Health and Primary Care department, is believed to have been attacked at some point between 8.15pm and 10.15pm the evening before when she was home alone.
Nearly 25 years on from her death, her devastated family are still in the dark about who murdered the beloved mother and wife – prompting a fresh plea for information from Thames Valley Police detectives.
Just one day after Janet’s family marked another agonising Mother’s Day without her, Peter Beirne, head of the Major Crime Review Team at Thames Valley Police, urged anyone with “suspicions” about who her murderer could be to come forward.
He told the Bucks Free Press: “We are making this appeal to try and focus people’s minds and we ask them to think about if they have any suspicions about who the murderer could be, please, please, make contact.
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“All three children have gone on to get married and have children themselves without their mum there with them. They just want some justice for their mother.
“It’s every Mother’s Day, every birthday, every Christmas, every anniversary, that brings it all back to the forefront for them.
“Their mum was taken away at such an early age in a brutal attack. They want the person responsible to be brought forward so they can face the consequences of what they did.”
Detectives last made a major plea for information in April 2015 – the 20th anniversary of Janet’s death – when investigators said scientific advances resulted in them discovering fresh DNA which could lead them to the killer.
Three hundred potential suspects were eliminated from the investigation after having their DNA examined in 2015.
That total is now more than 700.
Mr Beirne added that if anyone had fresh information about who could be responsible for Janet’s brutal murder, they should come forward.
The investigation is still live and there is a small team working on Janet’s case.
He said: “If that person has been seen and swabbed, we can rule them out. If they haven’t we can try and find them. Twenty-five years is a long time – in that time, we recognise people may have died but we can still identify them by swabbing any living male relatives.
“There is a number of people that were mentioned in the original investigation that have still not been identified and we are working on that.
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“It is a possibility still that it could have been someone living in the village but we don’t know. The majority of people living there have been seen and swabbed. Enquiries are ongoing to locate some people still.
“We are urging anyone with suspicions – even slight – to make contact. You won’t be wasting our time.”
Janet, who worked at Oxford University, had been alone in the family’s large house on the evening of her murder.
Her husband, Grahaem, was away in Switzerland working at the time, while two of her children no longer lived at the property and her youngest daughter, Roxanne, was at a friend’s house.
It is believed the attack happened between 8pm and 10pm, before her naked body was discovered by a builder and his teenage son the following day.
Mr Beirne added: “It is unusual for a burglary to take place in the early evening on a Monday. She was alive at 8.15pm.
“Her daughter, who was 17 at the time, made a last-minute plan to go and have dinner and stay over with a friend so there could have been two people in the house at the time.
“There were two cars on the driveway. It would have been dark outside at that time so the lights would have been on in the house.
“A neighbour went past and heard the burglar alarm ringing at about 10.15pm. All else we can say for certain is that Janet was dead when a builder arrived the next day.”
A £20,000 reward - £10,000 from Thames Valley Police and £10,000 from Crimestoppers – is still on offer for anyone with information that could lead to the discovery of Janet’s killer.
Call Thames Valley Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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