Age: 22
Sex: female
Date: 15 May 1980
Place: Beachy Head, Eastbourne
Jessie Earl was found dead at Beachy Head.
An open verdict was initially returned at her inquest in 1989 but a fresh inquest held in May 2022 recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.
She was found nine years after she disappeared.
She was found in undergrowth. In inquest in 2022 noted that Jessie Earl had probably been tied to a tree and possibly sexually assaulted.
However, her murder enquiry was shut down four weeks after it was opened in 1989 after the police were instructed not to treat her case as one of murder it being said that she had probably committed suicide due to the pressure of exams and depression over a number of allergies that she had suffered.
When she was found she was naked and a bra was found with her body that was tied in a knot and it was thought that she had probably been restrained with the bra. However, it was thought that the bra had later been disposed of by the police.
The Coroner said, 'A third party perpetrator used the brassiere to restrain Jessie by the wrists and had intentionally killed her by means unknown'.
Jessie Earl had been an art student.
