Uncle of murdered PCSO Julia James pleads for the public to help catch her killer

The uncle of murdered PCSO Julia James yesterday urged the public to help the hunt for her killer, saying: ‘Let’s find this monster before he can cause more grief to another family.’

The 53-year-old grandmother was bludgeoned to death while out walking her Jack Russell terrier on a path through woodland close to her home in the Kent hamlet of Snowdown, near Canterbury.

Dozens of officers have combed the woods and surrounding fields since Tuesday afternoon when her body was found but they have yet to find a murder weapon or a significant clue to her attacker’s identity.

Julia James on her wedding day, with her son Patrick (left) and daughter Bethan (right)

Heartbroken uncle Michael Turnbull, from Canterbury, appealed on social media for the public’s help to catch the killer. 

‘Julia has been taken from us by some worthless, cowardly excuse for a human being for no other reason than his own sense of self-gratification to justify what he did, leaving behind a family full of broken hearts and sadness,’ he said.

He told how she was a mother to two children, Bethan and Patrick, and a grandmother to Jaxxon. ‘Julia was funny, kind, caring, always saw the good in people and, most of all, was full of love.

‘Please share this and let us find this monster before he can cause more grief to another family.’

The body of PCSO Julia James, pictured, was found on Tuesday afternoon near her home in the Kent hamlet of Snowdown, near Canterbury

His moving appeal came as the police community support officer’s daughter Bethan Coles, son-in-law Chase and grandson Jaxxon paid a visit to a makeshift memorial to read the heartfelt messages left with dozens of floral tributes.

Mrs James had been working from home when she took her dog Toby for an afternoon walk. She was seen leaving at around 3pm before her body was found an hour later on a country path with her loyal Jack Russell waiting by her side. 

Kent Police investigators described a potential sexual motive for the murder as ‘an important line of inquiry’. They declined to disclose whether her body was found fully clothed.

Detectives have also not ruled out a link to Mrs James’s work as a PCSO with the Kent force, most recently as a member of its domestic violence unit. National Crime Agency officers are also helping the investigation.

Floral tributes have been left near the scene were PCSO James was murdered. Police are still searching the area looking for the murder weapon or evidence linking the killer to the crime

Local residents have voiced their fears over the killer still being at large. One female dog walker reported a man in a van exposing himself to her two weeks ago, a mile from the scene of the murder.

The killing occurred just two miles from where Lin Russell, 45, and daughter Megan, six, were bludgeoned to death in 1996. Nine-year-old daughter Josie was left close to death but recovered.

Mrs James’s husband Paul, 57, a hypnotherapist she married four years ago, has so far been too upset to speak of his loss. Her son Patrick Davis, 23, has said he is devastated by his mother’s death.

Police colleagues have also been paying tribute to the PCSO, who served for 15 years, by leaving flowers by the village of Aylesham’s mining memorial not far from her home.