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On the night of January 6, 1969, Jane Britton, a graduate student in the anthropology department at Harvard University went to dinner with her boyfriend, James Humphries and a few friends. After dinner, Jane and James went ice skating and returned to Jane’s apartment, located a couple blocks from Harvard Square around 10:30 p.m.
Around 12:30 a.m., Jane went to her neighbor’s apartment for a late-night drink.
This was the last time Jane Britton is seen alive.
The following morning, January 7, 1969, Jane failed to show up at Harvard University to take her graduate exams. This was extremely unusual for the punctual, reliable graduate student.
Jane’s boyfriend, James, is immediately worried about her and heads to her apartment around noon. Once at Jane’s apartment, he discovers her lifeless body. Jane was discovered lying face down on her bed with her nightgown pulled up over her head. There was a rug and fur coat covering the upper half of her body.
Jane Britton had been murdered.
The medical examiner determined that prior to her death, Jane had been sexually assaulted by her killer. Police theorized she was killed about 10 hours before her boyfriend discovered her body. The cause of death was blunt force trauma from some sort of point object.
A search of Jane’s apartment discovered unknown fingerprints that didn’t belong to Jane, or anyone that had been inside her apartment. This was the first big clue police didn’t to find Jane’s killer.
Investigators discovered a reddish-brown powder all over the apartment. The powder was found on Jane’s body, all over the floor, the walls, and even on the ceiling they detected this powder. The powder was later identified as red ochre or iron oxide. Later on, this discovery would become a red-herring in the investigation and wasn’t linked to Jane’s murder at all.
One month after Jane’s murder, another woman was found murdered inside her Cambridge apartment. The apartment was located just 1 mile from Jane’s. This second murder made police suspect they may be somehow related. This theory would become another red-herring in the case.
With no solid leads in Jane’s murder over the next couple years, it turned into a cold case. Boston police had no suspects or persons of interest in Jane’s brutal murder.
Jane’s murder occurred in the late 1960’s, when our ability to conduct forensic and DNA testing was extremely limited. However, Boston police collected a semen sample from Jane’s body in hopes that with the advancements in forensic testing, her killer could be identified from the sample.
DNA testing really started to become widely available in criminal investigations beginning in the late 1980’s, nearly 20 years after Jane’s murder. The semen sample was tested in the 1980’s, but didn’t come back as a match to any known offenders.
The semen sample was tested again in 2006, almost 40 years after Jane’s murder, and still didn’t come back as a match.
By the early 2000’s, it seemed as though Jane’s case would never be solved. That it would remain a cold case forever.
In 2017, the semen sample was tested for the third time in hopes of finding a match. Scientists performed a Y-STR analysis on the sample, similar to paternity and genealogical DNA tests. Y-STR analysis specifically tests the male Y-chromosome.
After performing the Y-STR analysis on the semen sample, the sample came back as a “soft hit”.
The “soft hit” was identified as Michael Sumpter.
Almost 50 years, 5 long decades, after Jane’s murder, police finally have a name. A possible suspect in the murder, Michael Sumpter.
Michael Sumpter had a length criminal record including two previous rape convictions.
In a November 2018 press conference, Middlesex County district attorney, Marian Ryan, announced the official results of the Harvard murder investigation, the murder of Jane Britton.
Ryan announced “Michael Sumpter has been identified as the person responsible for the 1969 murder of Jane Britton. I am confident that the mystery of who killed Jane Britton has been finally solved and this case is officially closed”
Michael Sumpter died in 2001, several years before he was identified as Jane’s murder.
Episode Sources:
Murder of Jane Britton Wiki
Boston 52 News Article dated November 28, 2018
ABC News article dated November 20, 2018
Washington Post article dated November 26, 2018
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