The enigmatic murder of a wealthy woman by her duplicitous playboy boyfriend remains unresolved, as police have yet to recover her body two decades after the crime.
Wealthy Janet Brown fell victim to her mercenary lover Donald Graham who took her life for financial gain and then craftily convinced detectives she was still alive five years on – resulting in a delayed missing person investigation.
Eventually, justice caught up with Graham when he received a life sentence for the murder of Janet, marking Northumbria Police’s rare conviction without a corpse. Despite his incarceration, Graham maintains his innocence, professing ignorance regarding her manner of death and the location of her remains.
Saturday commemorated 20 years since independent and adventurous Janet, who cherished her freedom, animals, and globetrotting, disappeared inexplicably.
Marie McCourt, an 81 year old campaigner whose daughter’s demise in Merseyside spurred on her advocacy for “Helen’s Law”, spoke to Chronicle Live saying: “My heart goes out to Janet who, 20 years after being murdered, has still not been laid to rest. To take a life is heinous enough. But to then hide the body of a murder victim is such a cruel, callous, deliberate act that causes untold pain and distress to families,” reports the Mirror.
“It was for this very reason that I fought so hard for Helen’s Law, which was introduced in 2021. I’d urge Janet’s killer to do the right thing. Tell police what you did with her so that she can be found, brought home and given the funeral she and her loved ones deserve.”
Janet hailed from an affluent family, had her own property development firm, and dabbled in television work as an extra and a mystery shopper. The avid traveller relished her time abroad, often jetting off alone to explore new places.
Before her mysterious disappearance, Janet had been covertly involved with a married man named Graham for a stretched period, whilst residing with her aging parents Olive and Eric Brown, at their Plane Trees Farm tucked away near Hexham.
The alarm around Janet’s absence wasn’t raised until 2005, but it wasn’t until 2010 that her vanishing came to light thanks to a vigilant bank employee who noticed dodgy signatures on her banking papers.
Acting on their suspicions, the sharp-eyed bank staffer contacted the authorities when they observed discrepancies in the signatures linked to Janet’s financial accounts. A fraud inquiry was commenced and subsequently escalated to Northumbria Police’s homicide team after hitting a dead end in locating Janet.
Investigations into Janet’s banking activities unearthed that a hefty sum had been wired to Graham just before she last made contact on June 15, 2005, not long before they were scheduled to embark on a holiday together in France.
The last known contact anyone had with Janet was on June 15 when she spoke to a mate who had agreed to look after her dog while she was away.
Detectives reckon Janet was murdered sometime between 15 and 18 June, but it would be a while before anyone realised she was dead. When Janet didn’t show up for work on 28 June, the police were asked to check on her at home, as detectives previously told the Chronicle.
Her parents informed officers they thought she had extended her holiday. With Janet gone, Graham continued to raid her bank accounts, all the while pretending she was still alive.
He even penned letters to her elderly parents, posing as Janet and claiming she had landed a new job overseas. However, when her parents passed away in 2007 and 2008, Janet didn’t attend the funerals, despite Graham being present at both.
Graham, then aged 60, was finally arrested in April 2010.
Police conducted thorough searches of Janet’s parent’s house and Graham’s property in an attempt to locate her remains. Specially trained Cadaver dogs, search experts, and ground penetrating radar equipment were utilised.
Yet, to this day, the circumstances of Janet’s death and the location of her body remain unknown.
Graham denied murder but was found guilty following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court in 2014. The jury heard how, after killing Janet, Ferrari-driving Graham set about defrauding his victim and her family to the tune of more than £500,000 to fund his flashy lifestyle.
During the trial, it was revealed how he was eventually arrested. Janet’s parents had intended their estates to go to Guide Dogs for the Blind if their only daughter predeceased them, the court was told.
It was explained that Graham was caught out when a Skipton Building Society clerk noticed a signature that didn’t match that of Janet’s father.
Graham was impersonating Mr Brown, a retired accountant, and was attempting to move money when the employee became suspicious and alerted the society’s national fraud department, who began writing to their customer who was now, unbeknownst to them, deceased.
The police were called in, and what began as a fraud investigation in 2009 turned into a murder hunt when officers became worried about Janet’s disappearance.
It was suggested in court that Janet’s body may have been discarded in a deep pit or mine shaft by Graham, who had previously worked as a JCB digger driver.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 32 years, meaning he will be in his 90s before he can apply for parole. In 2021, after years of campaigning by Marie, whose daughter Helen was murdered on Merseyside in 1988, new legislation was introduced meaning that murderers and paedophiles who withhold information about their victims could face longer prison sentences.
The Prisoners Disclosure of Information About Victims Act, more commonly known as ‘Helen’s Law’, puts a statutory obligation on the Parole Board to weigh up the torment inflicted by murderers who won’t disclose where a victim’s body lies when mulling their release. The legislation implies Graham might end his days in prison if he keeps mum about where Janet’s remains are located.
Det Chief Insp Paul Woods, from the Northumbria Police squad investigating Janet’s murder, has before remarked on how unusual the case is. “These cases are extremely rare. My understanding is this is the only case Northumbria Police has had of somebody being convicted of murder when a body has not been found.
“It could have been the perfect murder, that no one would know had taken place.”
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