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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Today we're going to be

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covering the disappearance of Jill Brown from
Essex in nineteen seventy eight when she was

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just nineteen years old. Her family
have never stopped looking for her and they

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still want to know what happened to
their daughter and sister and why she disappeared.

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This episode is about a missing person
and so does not contain any descriptions

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of violence. However, listen to
discretion is always advised. Dovercourt is a

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seaside town which is located in the
County of Essex. It's described as a

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small town which has shops and cafes
along the front which the local and any

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tourists that came to the town use. During the nineteen seventies, the Brown

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family lived in Dovercourt and were a
large part of the community. Will and

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Edna Brown were well known to the
locals in the town as they ran a

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local shop and cafe called the devon
Calf on Oakley Road in Dovercourt. This

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has been described as being close to
the local pub called the Devonshire Arms,

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and therefore was a local spot where
many people would go in and pass through

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it regularly. The Brown family lived
in Dovercourt with their three daughters, Janet,

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Jill, and Elizabeth. They were
a religious Catholic family and attended church

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at Our Lady Queen of Heaven in
the town. The Brown family therefore were

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well established and this continued as the
three sisters grew up. Jill Brown was

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the middle child of the three,
and her sisters have described her as very

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quiet and a homely person. While
she enjoyed spending time with her friends,

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she loved nothing more than being at
home and was very content with this.

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Her family have said that she was
not someone who was always going out and

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she was an early riser in the
home. She would always be downstairs before

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anyone else, making herself breakfast,
and this was something she loved to do.

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She loved being with her family and
just enjoyed her own space and being

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a homebody. Elizabeth described Jill as
someone that she looked up to, and

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she stated on the Missing podcast that
she would take her around over Court and

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spend time with her friends. They
had a close relationship despite the ten year

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difference between them. Jill was a
warm person who loved her family and also

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loved animals. Elizabeth explained on the
Missing podcast that she would often bring home

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animals and remembered that she once tried
to smuggle kittens home in her coat.

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By nineteen seventy eight, Jill was
nineteen years old and still living at home

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with her parents and Elizabeth. Their
older sister, Janet, had got married

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and moved out of the house.
Jill worked at a local laundry, which

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was located on Brooklyn Road in Dover
Court. The Christmas holidays of nineteen seventy

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seven had come to an end,
and by January third, nineteen seventy eight,

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people were beginning to start back at
work. Her family have recently confirmed

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that the third of January was in
fact the first day back at work for

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Jill, and that morning she'd set
out from the family home as she normally

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did. That day was known to
have been an extremely foggy one, and

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Jill always walked to work. Her
family stated that along the way she would

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often meet a friend and then they
would continue on to their job. This

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was Jill's normal routine and there was
no reason why this should not have been

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the case. On January third,
nineteen seventy eight. This day, however,

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was different. Elizabeth later told the
Missing podcast about the day that Jill

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went missing. She had left the
house like any normal day. Elizabeth stated

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that there was nothing unusual, the
only thing being that she remembered how foggy

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that morning had been. She recounted
that when Jill finished work, she would

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normally get on the bus home and
would return to the bus stop near their

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home at around five thirty pm.
You could usually time Jill to the minute

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to when she would normally get off
the bus. Elizabeth said that her parents

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would normally drive her to the bus
stop so she could meet Jill after work.

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Her dad would cross her over the
road and she would stand and wait.

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When Jill's bus pulled into the bus
stop that day and the doors opened,

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Jill did not get off. This
was a surprise and it was certainly

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odd. Jill was normally a person
of habit and she would get on the

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same bus each night. Elizabeth told
her parents that Jill had not got off

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the bus, and they didn't seem
immediately concerned, telling her that perhaps she'd

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missed it or was laid out of
work that day. They returned to the

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bus stop for the next bus arriving. However, Jill was not on that

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one either. When eight pm rolled
around, that was when Jill's parents began

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to get concerned that she had not
arrived home. Elizabeth remembered that her dad

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asked her if she knew who the
woman was that Jill worked with and usually

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met on her way to the laundry. Elizabeth did know where this woman lived,

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as she'd been there before. The
family went to the woman's house and

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asked her if she'd seen Jill that
day. This woman told them that she

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had not actually been in that day
and had called in sick with the flu,

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and so had not seen Jill at
all. She therefore couldn't help them.

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She did point them in the direction
of another woman who worked with them

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that might be able to help.
The family then went to this other woman's

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home and asked her if they had
seen Jill or might know where she is.

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This woman told them something that they
were not expecting. Jill had not

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been at work that day, and
it appeared that she had never arrived after

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setting off from home that morning.
This was immediately a worry, and Jill's

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parents were eager to try and find
her as quickly as possible. They reported

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her disappearance to the local police.
However, they didn't seem as eager to

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try and track her down as they
were. They were told they would have

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to wait twenty four hours to report
Jill missing, and the opinion was at

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the time that as she was nineteen, she was still a teenager and was

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probably off somewhere with her friends and
would return. Jill's family, however,

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knew that this was not likely and
was not something that Jill would be doing.

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Elizabeth recalled that her father decided to
spend all that night driving around and

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searching for Jill in the local areas
of Dovercourt and Harwich and looking in all

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the places he could imagine she might
go. Her mother spent all night ringing

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around people like her friends and their
family and asking if Jill had been in

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contact with them or they had seen
her. Nobody had, and her father

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was unable to find her. He
decided to return to the police station at

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four point thirty the next morning,
and he didn't take no for an answer.

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The police eventually decided to open a
missing person's report for Jill. Elizabeth

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recounted on the Missing podcast that the
police came to speak to the family in

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their home, and they also took
fingerprints of her parents and her to try

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and figure out which were Jill's fingerprints
and items in her room. They also

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searched the home, inquiring about attic
space which had been screwed shot by the

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previous owner. Elizabeth said that they
gave her parents a hard time, even

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suggesting that they may have had something
to do with Jill's disappearance. This was

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hard for the family to hear.
The other theories suggested by police was all

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so difficult to hear. They suggested
that Jill could have taken her own life.

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This was something that the family did
not believe. There had been no

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indications that anything was wrong in the
weeks and months prior to her disappearance,

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and her family didn't believe that there
was any reason why she would have wanted

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to do that. Her family since
confirmed on an appeal by Essex Police that

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Jill took none of her belongings with
her that day. All of her things

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were still in the home, including
a rice, which Jill had specifically asked

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for from her parents that Christmas.
These were things that her family believed that

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she would have wanted to take with
her that day if she were perhaps choosing

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to leave her life behind. There
were no real indications as to what could

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have happened to her that day,
and police were left with attempting to track

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down people who may have seen her
on her walk to work that morning.

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Police did speak to a few people
who had seen things that morning, However,

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there were not many people that had
witnessed anything at all. They spoke

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to a workman who had shouted down
to Jill that morning as she was walking

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by. He didn't have much to
add to the investigation, however, he

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was looked into. Another man,
a cold delivery man who knew Jill from

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delivering to the family shop, also
saw Jill that morning. He stated that

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he saw her walking on her usual
route to work and that this didn't seem

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out of the ordinary. Through these
inquiries, not much was gleaned. However,

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they did establish that Jill had not
got to work that morning, and

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that her journey had either changed or
been interrupted along the way. The question

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was how and why. The police
investigation at the time was not rigorous and

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was hampered by the lack of resources. During the nineteen seventies, many missing

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person investigations relied on witness sightings and
little else. There wasn't much noted at

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the time, and the media coverage
of Jill's disappearance was few and far between.

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Her description at the time that she
disappeared was that she was five foot

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two inches tall with shoulder length brown
hair. She was last seen wearing a

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blue mark. On the day that
she disappeared. It was hoped that someone

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would know something. However, time
began to pass without anyone giving any irrelevant

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information. Jill's family were left devastated
by her disappearance, and Elizabeth explained that

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her childhood had been forever changed by
it. She stated that her parents became

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quite strict and into her teenage years, wanted her to be home by eight

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pm and wanted to know where she
was at all times. This, she

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knew was understandable after what had happened. Her family continued to try and find

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out what had happened to Jill over
the years, and always did everything they

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could to figure it out. They
hoped that someday she would return home and

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explain where she'd been and what had
happened. In nineteen ninety nine, an

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age progression image was made of Jill
showing what she would have looked like at

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age forty. This, they hoped
might drum up some information and that someone

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might recognize her. Just last year, the sisters, alongside Essex Police,

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made an appeal for information in Jill's
disappearance. They explained that Jill had missed

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so much in their family, father's
days, mother's days, the birth of

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her nieces and nephews, and that
this is something that devastates them the most.

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They appealed directly to Jill and told
her that if she was watching,

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they just wanted to know that she
was safe, and that was all that

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mattered to them after forty five years
of not knowing where she is. They

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said that this mattered all the more
now that their father had sadly passed away.

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He had always hoped that Jill would
return. They said that their mother,

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Edna, was now ninety one years
old, and they hoped that they

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would find out some information before she
also passed away. On the Missing Podcast,

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Elizabeth stated that she had always hoped
that Jill was out there and that

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she would come home to them eventually. She said it was only recently that

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she had begun to consider the possibility
that foul play had been involved in her

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disappearance and that someone else was the
reason why Jill had not returned. She

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said her sister Janet had said there
was a third possibility that they would never

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find out where she was. This
is the one that they really hope is

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not true. It's clear Jill's family
are desperate for answers and they hope that

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someone can remember something despite the time
that has elapsed. This is something I

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always say on this podcast. You
just never know who's listening and who might

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know something. Essex Police made a
statement on the appeal video from Detective Inspector

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Lydia George, who said that they
care very much about Jill's case and they

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want to solve it for her family. They have stated that the case is

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still open and that they would welcome
any information, no matter how small it

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is, that may be able to
help the investigation. If you know anything

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about the disappearance of Jill Brown from
Dovercourt in nineteen seventy eight, please contact

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Essex Police on one oh one or
through the Major Investigation Portal link which will

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be in the show notes. Thank
you for listening to this episode and if

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you want to hear from Elizabeth directly. Then please go and listen to the

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missing podcast episode, which you can
find on All podcast players are in the

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link in the show notes. If
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subscribe on YouTube and follow us on
social media as our ways. I'm Caprice

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and this has been unseen the sh