Marie Patricia Wilks (30 March 1966 – 18 June 1988) was a 22-year-old seven-months-pregnant woman who was abducted from the hard shoulder of the M50 motorway and murdered in June 1988. Her body was found two days later dumped three miles up the road, after a witness described having seen a silver-grey Renault 25 car parked there. In 1989, Eddie Browning was convicted of the murder by unanimous jury decision. Browning, who had previous convictions for assault and was recently released for aggravated burglary, had stormed out of his home that day after a violent row with his seven-months-pregnant wife. Dozens of witnesses reported seeing a blond man in a silver-grey C-registered Renault 25 parking by Wilks and both the descriptions of the man and the car matched Browning and his vehicle. He was the only driver of C-registered silver-grey Renault 25s nationwide who could not be eliminated as a suspect, indicating that only he could be responsible. A tyre expert also testified at trial that a skid mark matched a wheel on Browning's car.
Having failed in an initial appeal in which he argued the judge should have allowed a conviction of manslaughter and not murder, Browning was controversially freed in 1994 on a technicality. A police officer who had felt guilty at having apparently driven past the killer's vehicle had undergone hypnosis to try to remember more of the numberplate, but the video of this had not been disclosed to the defence (or prosecution). It was determined that this was an "irregularity" as he had given a numberplate different from Browning's, even though he still maintained it was a C-registered vehicle. The prosecution maintained the video had only not been disclosed as the man had unintentionally made up the evidence in an effort to be helpful, highlighting how he had immediately apologised and told police to ignore it. However, the judges ruled they could not be certain the jury would still have convicted Browning and so ordered his release, although did not declare him innocent.
Browning was given compensation, as were all individuals freed on appeal at this point regardless of confirmation of innocence. Browning was subsequently convicted twice of carrying a knife in public (the same believed used in the murder) and also for drunk driving and attempting to evade arrest, whilst also being arrested for allegedly attacking his wife with a chainsaw and for causing a car accident. In 2000, one of those who had called police saying he matched the artist's impression in the Wilks case testified on oath at a trial that Browning had admitted to murdering the woman the day before he was arrested. Re-investigations of the case failed to identify any suspects other than Browning. He died in 2018 aged 63; police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
Background Marie Wilks was pregnant and heading home to Worcester after visiting her husband Adrian at a Territorial Army camp. She was driving accompanied by her 11-year-old sister, Georgina Gough, and her 13-month-old son Mark. She was attacked while calling for assistance after her car had broken down, and her body was later found on the side of the M50 motorway.
Search and discovery
By 8.10 pm, a police helicopter had been scrambled to search with heat-seeking imagery; however, it was unsuccessful due to the hot June weather. At 8.20pm, tracker dogs began to aid the large police search. At dawn, the following day, some blood was discovered around the emergency phone area. A witness came forward to report seeing a silver Renault 25 parked three miles further up the road in a reversed position behind the crash barrier at the side of the road, and when this witness led police to the spot on 20 June, the body of Wilks was discovered at the bottom of the embankment, near the Bushley area in Hereford and Worcester. Wilks had been stabbed in the side of her neck, severing her carotid artery, and struck on the side of the head. It was later disclosed that Wilks had tried to use her Red Cross training to stem the blood from her punctured artery with her hand, which had successfully helped reduce her blood loss and might have saved her, before the killer had punched her three or four times in the face and broken her jaw, knocking her out and finally killing her. The attack, murder and dumping of Wilks' body would only have taken about 10 minutes in total.
Further evidence was found at the site that a car had been reversed behind the crash barrier.
Investigation and arrest West Mercia Constabulary set up interview areas in nearby service stations and also detained motorists in their search for witnesses. On 24 June, an artist's impression of a possible suspect was released, with further witness descriptions of a blond man seen at the crime scene. He was described as "of young appearances, in his 20s", blond crew cut hair, with possible yellow or orange highlights. He had pale skin and a long sharp nose. This man had been seen driving his silver-grey car onto the hard shoulder next to Wilks's car, and a similarly described man had been seen by witnesses near Wilks at the emergency telephone. Several witnesses corroborated the sighting.
Experts attempted to examine an automatic tape machine by the site of the phone box, believing that it may have recorded the attack. On 25 June, a reconstruction was filmed on the M50, with WPC Taryn Green dressed in a pink and white maternity dress similar to the one Marie had worn. On 28 June, following an identity parade, Edward Owen Browning was charged with the abduction and murder of Marie Wilks.
Evidence against Eddie Browning
"Eddie" Browning was a former Welsh Guardsman who had been rejected by the SAS and who worked as a night club bouncer in a South Wales social club. He lived in Cwmparc, in the Rhondda Valley area of South Wales, and was said to live off his 'hard man' reputation as a bouncer. He was married, and expecting a baby with his wife, Julie, although he was also cheating on her at the time. This was his second marriage, with his first marriage notably having broken up because of Browning's violence. He had a reputation for mindless, random violence and had a criminal record, including two convictions for assault. He had only recently been released from prison in 1986, having served a seven-year sentence for aggravated burglary. At the time, police had found a revolver, which he used to threaten victims, buried in his garden. He had also once chased two policemen with a samurai sword. He was considerably stressed at the time of the murder because he had recently developed the life-changing condition diabetes.
Police had become interested in Browning after several calls identifying him from the artist's impression, which bore a remarkable likeness to him. One of the 14 calls identifying Browning had come from Browning's own close friend and fellow night club bouncer Kenneth Latten, who said he matched the description and also reported that he became edgy and unstable as soon as the artist's impression came on TV while they were at a club together. On the day of the murder he left his house to drive to Scotland after a violent row with his wife, who, like Wilks, was seven months pregnant at the time. The row had begun after Browning insisted his wife make breakfast for him, which she did not want to do as she had just returned from work. For some hours he went out to several clubs and pubs and drank a considerable amount, and witnesses recounted him being in a foul and reckless mood. Browning then came home, only to soon storm out again after his wife became angered at him ignoring her and a violent argument ensued about his womanizing; he had indeed been cheating with a mistress at the time. His first wife would later tell the press that Browning was a violent and unfaithful man who cheated on her constantly, even on the day before their wedding, and also used to hit her when she complained, including when she was pregnant. It later materialised that Browning's second wife had herself been cheating behind her husband's back at the time of the murder; it is not known whether Browning knew about this, but the man with whom the wife was having an affair told the press that Browning "would kill us if he found out" since he was "a maniac and would gladly kill any man who went with his wife". It was said that Browning had on multiple occasions assaulted local men he thought had been having affairs with his wife.
Browning declared that he was going to drive away to a friend's house in Scotland after the second row, with his wife not knowing how long he would be away. After the murder, it was revealed, Browning had called his mistress to tell her about the violent row with his wife, saying: "Bev, I had to go then because if I had stayed I would have killed her". It was later argued that this showed he had "murder on his mind". When Browning's wife heard that he had been arrested for the murder she reportedly collapsed. Three "vital" calls were received by police from an anonymous man in Scotland; it was not known if this evidence was related to the friend in Scotland Browning drove to see on the day of the murder.
It was believed that Browning had seen the vulnerable Wilks at the side of the motorway on his journey and, still filled with rage, had stopped to attack her. When he had seen that she was heavily pregnant, it may have reminded him of the tempestuous relationship he had with his own heavily pregnant wife and reignited his anger which led to him stabbing her. The amount he had drunk likely would have also worsened his state of mind.
Witnesses had seen a silver Renault 25 car parked at the spot where the body was later found dumped, and dozens of witnesses had come forward to report seeing this silver-grey C-registered Renault driving erratically on the stretch of the motorway near the murder site, with the blond-haired driver speeding at speeds of up to 120 miles per hour. Browning had been driving a C-registered silver-grey Renault 25 that day. An off-duty police officer had seen Browning park his silver-grey car by Wilks as she was on the emergency telephone, but assumed that he was offering to help her and so drove on. Several witnesses corroborated this account, reporting that they had seen the silver Renault perform a U-turn across the central reservation before parking up next to Wilks. One woman reported seeing the man getting out and touching Wilks. All these witnesses reported the man who had parked near Wilks and got out to speak to her as being blond. Another officer also saw Browning's car parked by the embankment where Wilks was dumped, but did not know at that early stage that it was connected to Wilks' murder. Crucially, a motorist had also identified the first two letters of the car's numberplate, which matched Browning's numberplate. Police were able to eliminate all the 479 other drivers of silver/grey Renault cars in the country with the same first two letters on their numberplates, meaning Browning was further incriminated by a process of elimination and indicating only he could have been responsible. The only driver of such a vehicle across the country whose movements could not be accounted for on the day of the murder was Browning. Police later said that even if his name had not been given to the police by tip-offs they would have eventually interviewed Browning anyway because of these descriptions of the type of Renault car which Browning was driving and the numberplate, with his car one of the 480 in the country that matched the descriptions.
It was known by witnesses that Browning owned a butterfly knife whose blade matched the one used in the murder, and which he carried with him. Several people had seen him practicing opening it. He was a martial arts enthusiast and had boasted about his speed with a knife.
Trial