A KEY clue in the unsolved murder of a pregnant mum who had her throat slashed after her car broke down has been revealed.
Marie Wilks, 22, was driving along the M50 in Herefordshire on her way back from visiting husband Adrian at a barracks on June 18, 1988.
She was seven months pregnant at the time and with her 11-year-old sister Georgia and 13-month-old son Mark when her car broke down on the motorway.
A nervous Marie, who had only recently passed her test, was forced to leave the car and find an emergency telephone to call for help.
But she never returned to the car.
Instead she was later found with throat slashed on an embankment three miles away.
Former soldier Eddie Browning was jailed for her murder the following year.
But the conviction was overturned five-and-a-half years later when a judge found police had kept evidence from the trial.
But a key clue in Marie’s murder were tyre marks found at the scene.
An expert gave evidence at trial that a skid mark found close to where Marie’s body was discovered matched a wheel on Browning’s car – a silver-grey Renault 25s.
The expert said he was certain the mark had been made by Browning’s front nearside wheel as it had been left heavily worn and without tread.
The former soldier died in May 2018.
Browning’s death came nearly 20 years after the discovery of Marie’s body on the side of the M50.
She had been making a return journey from a Territorial Army camp in the village of Symonds Yat
The trip was her first significant drive since passing her test, but she became lost upon her return home to Wandon.
Due to her inexperience on the roads, Marie was reluctant to use motorways and preferred sticking to country roads.
But she was left with no choice after becoming confused on the country roads and had to take a route she knew would get her home.
It was early in the evening when her car broke down and she pulled into the hard shoulder with her younger sister and baby son.
She told them both to remain in the car while she walked along the motorway to the nearest emergency phone.
Upon finally finding one as light started to fade, Marie contacted to police and explained she was heavily pregnant and was in the company of two children.
Police tried to contact her family, but the only other car they owned was being used by her dad, who was away on a fishing trip.
When the 999 operator returned to the line, Marie failed to respond.
All that could be heard was the sound of cars speeding past.
At around the same time, an officer driving along the M50 on patrol spotted the haunting sight of an 11-year-old girl, Marie’s younger sister, carrying her baby along the hard shoulder in search for her.
A short time later, police found an abandoned car.
Officers then made the chilling discovery of a the emergency phone used by Marie hanging from its cord.
The following morning, a large search was launched for Marie, with blood found splattered around the phone box.
The search went on for 24 hours before her body was finally discovered lying on an embankment three miles from where her car broke down.
A murder probe was subsequently opened, with police later releasing an e-fit of a suspect based on an account provided by a witness who claimed to have seen a man walking down the hard shoulder near the time of Marie’s death.
Browning, then 32, was arrested following a tip-off from a colleague who worked with the ex-soldier at a nightclub in South Wales.
He was unknown to Marie.
Browning had been travelling north to Scotland on the night, potentially placing him on the same stretch of the M50 as Marie.
He claimed during trial to have taken a different route, but his car was not spotted by any camera on any other road.
On the day of Marie’s murder, Browning had a disagreement with his own pregnant wife.
He was alleged to have taken his rage out on a random, solitary woman when the chance arose.
Browning was convicted of murder in 2989 and jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years.
But the conviction was quashed five-and-a-half years into his sentence.
Judges found the conviction was unsafe because police had kept back evidence from the trial.
An off-duty police officer had claimed to have seen a suspicious vehicle – the same make as Browning’s – at the scene of the crime, but it was later revealed that the number plates didn’t match Browning’s.
As a result, the conviction was overturned.
