The article I linked in my previous post throws up some interesting points about media reporting right from the very beginning.
14-year-old girl found murdered
Published: 01:00Updated: 15:20Tuesday 01 July 2003
A MURDER hunt is under way in the Lothians after the body of a 14-year-old girl was found in woods behind a school.
The schoolgirl’s badly beaten body was discovered close to a path running between Newbattle Community High School and Newbattle Road, Dalkeith, late last night.
The dead girl is believed to be local girl Jodi Jones who has been reported missing by her family.
A full-scale murder inquiry has been launched into what police have described as a brutal killing. Detectives are investigating the possibility that the murder may have been sexually motivated.
So, right from the very beginning, a sexually motivated attack was high on the police possibility list.
An incident team has been set up at Dalkeith Police Station. The alarm was raised after Jodi, who lived in the former mining village of Easthouses, on the edge of Dalkeith, failed to turn up to an arranged meeting with her boyfriend. When she failed to show up, the boyfriend contacted her family.
Where did this come from, just 15 ½ hours after Jodi’s body was found? And why is Luke referred to as “the boyfriend” rather than “her boyfriend? It wasn’t known Jodi was missing until 10.38pm that evening, when a member of Jodi’s family contacted Luke, not the other way around. And the alarm was raised when she failed to return home at her curfew time of 10 o’clock (although it took another 40 minutes after that for her mother to contact Luke).
They began looking for their missing daughter, who is a pupil at St David’s RC High School, in Dalkeith, and called the police.
Members of Jodi’s family and police officers were desperately searching for her, when the body was discovered just before midnight.
It is understood the discovery was made by a friend of the Jones family who had joined the search.
No, they didn’t. Her mother called the police and then the grandmother, sister and sister’s boyfriend set out to look for her. “The boyfriend” had already left to check the path around 15 minutes earlier. Police officers were not “desperately searching for her” – they were trying to find Luke and the path.
The path near where her body was found is used by members of the public as a shortcut from Easthouses to nearby Newbattle Road, and by people walking their dogs. It runs through Campbell Park and Talbot Park.
Officers from Lothian and Borders Police were this morning scouring the scene for vital clues as to how the girl died.
Newbattle Community High School and part of the field the path runs through were cordoned off as officers carried out their investigations.
Wrong again. Newbattle High School wasn’t cordoned off – the kids attended school as usual that day – it was only the underpass at the very back of the school that was cordoned off.
A full post mortem is being carried out today to establish the cause and time of the schoolgirl’s death. Police are then expected to officially confirm that the dead girl is missing Jodi.
It is not known how long the girl’s body had lain in the woods before she was discovered, although Jodi had left home at 5.30pm and was had been due back at 10pm.
She left home at 5.30pm? Who told the media that? Notice the typo – “and was had been due back at 10pm” – this contradicts the earlier claim that the alarm was raised by Luke contacting the family when Jodi failed to show up earlier in the evening. Sloppy reporting, or the beginning of the drip feeding of the media that was to become such a hallmark of this case?
The post mortem was being carried out to establish the cause and time of death – what went wrong?
Police say it is imperative to speak to anyone who may have been in the park or the woods last night.
A police spokesman said: "It is requested that anybody who used this path, or was within the vicinity between 5pm and 10pm on Monday please contact Dalkeith Police Station."
This is July 1st – Ferris and Dickie knew they were on the path between 5pm and 10pm on Monday. What “park” are they talking about?
The teenager’s death has left the Easthouses community in shock. Bobby Trotter, 65, regularly uses the area when walking his dog.
He said: "It is the last thing you expect to hear. I don’t often walk down that path, and I don’t ever walk down it at night."
The rear of the school is only 15 metres from the path near to which the girl was found.
The path is also just a five-minute walk from Jodi Jones’ house.
No-one from Newbattle Community High School was available for comment, but the school was still open this morning and pupils were attending as usual.
Not cordoned off, then? Notice Jodi’s home is only a “five minute walk” – it doesn’t say in which direction.
A police spokesman said: "Inquiries are at a very early stage and we are calling in specialist resources to help conduct the investigation.
"We will be consulting the Procurator Fiscal and the pathologist, but at this stage we are very anxious to have people come forward who might have been in the vicinity.
"It is a well-used path and it is almost certain there were some people around that evening.
"At this stage there is a great deal of concern about how this tragic death might have happened."
They’d already consulted with the PF and the pathologist, some 9 hours earlier.
The murder investigation is being headed up by Det Chief Super Craig Dobbie.
Speaking from the scene today, he said: "We are appealing for people to come forward to help us with investigations into this young girl’s murder.
‘The path near where the body was found is used by members of the public as a short cut from Easthouses to Newbattle Road, Dalkeith.
"It is also commonly used by people walking their dogs and we would in particular appeal to anyone who was in or near the area between the hours of 5pm and 10pm last night."
There is nothing to link the murder with any other incident, say police.
That’s at least 3 appeals for anyone in the vicinity to come forward, but Ferris and Dickie didn’t. How on earth did the police know, within 15 ½ hours of the finding of Jodi’s body that there was “nothing to link the murder with any other incident” – how could they possibly have known that so quickly?
https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/14-year-old-girl-found-murdered-1-885078
