Someone, somewhere by Pat Davis

In May 1980, 22-year-old Jessie Earl disappeared. Her flat in Eastbourne was left as if she'd just popped out for a moment. She became a 'missing person' until 9 years later when her body was discovered hidden in dense undergrowth on Beachy Head. This is the true story of those nine years of searching by her parents, Valerie and John; the nine years of waiting for Jessie to be found so her spirit could rest.

This new semi-staged play mixes Jessie's evocative diaries, interviews with John and Valerie Earl and poetic monologues based on Jessie's other writings to create a moving portrait of the experience of loss and survival. United by integrity and courage, John and Valerie show how they transcended the tragedy of losing their only daughter, of learning to cope with the loss of all the possibilities that the future would have held for her.

The radio production written by Pat Davis won the Sony Silver Award for 'Best Feature'.

Statement From John & Valerie Earl

The news that the play, Someone, Somewhere by Pat Davis, is to be produced again in Eastbourne and this time in Lewes too, will give a tremendous boost to the campaign that is demanding a new inquest into the death of Jessie Earl.

Jessie disappeared in May 1980, when she was 22, a student at the Eastbourne art college.  Her fate remained a complete mystery until 1989 when, as a result of a father attempting to rescue a child’s lost kite, skeletal remains were found, concealed in dense undergrowth on the heath above Beachy Head.  Not a scrap of clothing was found, not so much as a button or a zip, with the single exception of an intact brassiere which had been so tightly knotted that it needed a steel instrument to untie it. This garment was positively identified by her mother as the one Jessie would have been wearing at the time.

The police investigation of the discovery site was meticulous.  Anyone who saw the evidence could have been in little doubt that Jessie had met a violent end, stripped naked, her clothing destroyed or carried away and her body hidden.  It was, nevertheless decided at senior level that the police would not treat it, or refer to it, as a murder case. 

The inquest, to the astonishment and despair of Jessie’s parents, returned an open verdict. As a direct result, all further police investigation ceased.  

Jessie parents were angry but accepted what they had been (incorrectly) told, that there was no way of challenging a coroner’s finding.  But an open verdict suggested that the cause of death was unknowable.  This defied the evidence that had been presented.  It was clearly not a suicide, neither was it a natural death. What reasonable explanation could there be other than ‘unlawful killing’?

Eleven years later, in 2000, the police at some level clearly had doubts and, at their own initiative actually reopened the investigation as a ‘cold case’.  Unfortunately, by this time, the physical evidence gathered in 1989 had been lost or destroyed.

An investigative journalist, ex-detective Mark Williams-Thomas has taken a close personal interest in the case and is working with a highly skilled legal team who are firmly convinced that the inquest finding can and should be quashed and a new inquest set up.  Only in this way can justice be properly done for Jessie.

The Green Room Productions Theatre Company, actors, technicians and venues are giving their services free so that the whole of the ticket income can be dedicated to the cause.

Note on the Play 

Someone, Somewhere was written by Pat Davis as a radio play which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2001 and repeated recently. It was also played on BBC World Service.  It won a Sony Silver Award in 2001 for Best Feature. This summer it will have its second run as a stage play.  The first stage production in Eastbourne Lamb theatre in 2019 was an instant sell-out for The Green Room Productions.

The play is not an account of Jessie’s murder. It is about her as a person.  Pat became intimately engaged with Jessie’s journal and other writings (Jess was a prolific writer) and uses many of her words in the play, interspersed with a haunting ‘out of time’ voice. 

The play and the players brought Jessie into new life on the stage.

Jessie’s parents, Val and John, sincerely thank everyone involved in the play and in the crowd fund-raising.  And they say ‘We are deeply aware that the legal team is unselfishly committed to achieving justice for Jessie and ourselves’.