Fresh hope DNA could finally solve murder of mum brutally beaten to death 30 years ago

Detectives investigating the murder of a mother-of-three who was battered to death in her own home 30 years ago believe could crack the .

, 51, was found naked, gagged with her arms cuffed behind her back at the foot of the stairs of her detached family home in Radnage, near Chinnor, Buckinghamshire. Her body had lain in a pool of blood for up to 12 hours before it was discovered by a builder and his son who heard an alarm bell on the morning of April 11, 1995. She had been repeatedly over the head with a blunt weapon.

Police believe Janet may have gone downstairs after the raider used a glass cutter to enter the house despite being aware someone was at home. She was alone after her 17-year-old daughter Roxanne made a last minute decision to stay with a friend.

READ MORE:

Janet's scientist husband Grahaem was away working in Switzerland while her two other children Benedict, then 21, and Zara, 23, had left home. Appealing for information about her mother's murder, Zara said on Thursday: "She was alone that night and defenceless and that's why it's so hard to try to understand why somebody, her killer or killers, felt the need to handcuff her and be so violent and brutal towards her.

"She was bludgeoned to death which is a horrible thought. It's baffling why somebody would target our home or target my mum. I can't think of any motive."

Zara added: "Somebody must know something because there would have been a lot of blood. It doesn’t matter if a person didn’t come forward at the time. It’s not too late." Janet, the founder of the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme, had reportedly previously been the victim of a break-in.

There was no sign of a sexual assault or theft, leaving detectives baffled as to why the former midwife was killed. and so far more than 1,000 potential suspects have been eliminated.

Peter Beirne, lead investigator for ’s cold case team, said: "Nothing was stolen from the house, there was no sexual motive. Quite why she was murdered is unclear." Mr Beirne revealed that Janet had been restrained and the house had been searched by the killer. The case is itself extremely unusual and quite perplexing in terms of what happened. Most burglaries take place when the house is unoccupied.

"There were two cars on the drive, it was a Monday evening, it was just getting dark. It would have been obvious to anybody that the house was occupied. Quite what the motive was we don't know. It could have been a burglar, it could have been someone who knew Janet, we just don't know."

A post-mortem examination showed Janet had died from a blow to the head, believed to have been inflicted with a blunt weapon like a metal bar. The weapon has never been found. When she was killed, Janet and Grahaem, a senior research scientist with drugs giant Ciba-Geigy, were preparing to sell their home.

The attack came some time after she took a phone call at 8.30pm from a friend of Roxanne's, who had left the house at 3.30 that afternoon. Detectives said that whomever the attacker was had brought the hand-cuffs and tape used to restrain Janet along with them.

Former journalist Howard Sounes, now an author and TV producer, said: "This was a very unusual case to cover for the Mirror in 1995. The Browns were affluent people, living in a quiet, beautiful and what felt like a very safe part of England, where murder would not be expected. It was a total mystery."

Howard added: "There was no obvious motive for the killing of Mrs Brown at the time, and it is amazing to think that the case remains unsolved thirty years later."

Zara said her mum, a part time medical researcher at Oxford's John Radcliffe hospital, was "always there for us" caring for her children while Grahaem was working abroad. She said: "Her family was everything to her and she was a really good mum."

Talking about the fact Roxanne made a last minute decision to go out, Zara added: "Thank goodness in many ways because I dread to think what would have happened if she'd been there as well. It was a very young age to lose her mum but I was happy to have her come and live with me of course and she was commuting back to school to finish her A-levels."

The murder left Zara "very paranoid" about their own security and they put grills on their windows. She said: "You just don't sleep easily, every noise you hear at night you think is that somebody trying to break in."

Appealing for information Zara added: "You just don't imagine that someone could get away with something that was so horrendous. There would have been a lot of blood and the time of day was just strange, it was in the late evening, it wasn't the middle of the night so there's lots of things about it that are very baffling. If anybody knows anything at all..we would ask please come forward to the police. It's not too late. The police just need a name to find a match [with the DNA].

"Ultimately her killer of killers have so far got away with it and we want to see them prosecuted and not to have somebody who is extremely dangerous still be out there on the loose who would commit other crimes against other women or other people. We just want to stop it happening again." Mr Beirne said a reward of £20,000 was on offer to anyone with information that solved the case.

He added: “I still believe there are people who have information or suspicions about this vicious murder. I would urge anyone with names of people they think could be linked to Janet’s murder or anyone with information to make contact with the police or Crimestoppers.

“With the DNA evidence we have we can easily implicate or eliminate people from our investigation. Therefore, if you have any suspicions about individuals please contact us and give us their names."

If you have information call 101, quoting reference 695 (4/8) or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111