July 23rd 1983
23/7/1983
Diane Jones – Coggeshall
"Dr. Robert Jones could hardly have reckoned on the consequences when he had a row with his wife Diane, 35, in the Woolpack public house, Coggeshall, Essex.
When Diane stormed out of the pub and failed to return home police questioned the doctor on and off for an astonishing 55 hours, until his solicitors were granted a write of habeas corpus to prevent further questioning.
The pub row happened on Saturday, July 23rd, 1983. Things hadn’t been going well between the doctor and his wife and he said they were on the point of splitting up. On August 2nd he reported her missing, but it wasn’t until October 21st that her body was found by a shooting party in woods at Brightwell, Suffolk.
Dr. Jones was told that the papers in the case would be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, but in April, 1984, the DPP announced that no charges would be brought against him.
In March, 1990, a new witness came forward, causing the investigation to be re-opened.
But no progress was made and no charges have ever been preferred.
http://www.truecrimelibrary.com/crime_series_show.php?series_number=11&id=1403
Do an AA route map search for a route from Coggeshall, where James Bell lived, to Billingford, Depwade, Norfolk, where James Bell killed himself and his wife in 1986 and the result is an interesting one.
The Colchester Road runs up to Ipswich, where Diane Jones' body was found and the Norwich Road runs from Ipswich to Norwich, to within just 16 miles of Billingford.
Augusta presumably lived with her parents in Norfolk prior to her marriage to James Bell? Where did Augusta and James meet, I wonder? In Norfolk? They married during 1983. Was James travelling from Coggeshall to Norwich or the Billingford area around the time of Diane Jones' murder?