Discovery

At about 5 pm on 30 June 2003, Jones left her home, informing her family she was going to see Mitchell. Her body was found several hours later on the route she invariably took to meet her boyfriend; she had been bound and murdered.[8]

Jones’s body was located in a wooded area behind a high wall along Roan’s Dyke Path. She had been killed with a knife.[9] The injuries sustained by Jones closely resembled those of actress Elizabeth Short, who was murdered in 1947 and was popularly referred to by media as the Black Dahlia.[10][11] The initials LM and JJ had been carved into a tree near the crime scene.[12] Mitchell’s dog, which was being trained to track, allegedly stopped at a “V”-shaped notch in the wall, where Mitchell climbed through,[13] locating her body at 10.30 pm,[14] while members of her family, also out searching for her, remained on the other side. The ease in which Mitchell was able to find the body was later used in court to suggest guilt.[15] The Jones family made it known that Mitchell was not welcome at the funeral.