A NUMBER of reviews into a 30-year-old unsolved murder case of a pregnant woman found on the M50, have failed to reveal any additional evidence, say police.

The body of Marie Wilks, 22, of Worcester, was found at the bottom of an embankment on the M50 near Bushley, Tewkesbury, in June 1988.

Nightclub bouncer Eddie Browning was arrested and jailed for life the following October, but later acquitted on appeal in April 1994.

Det Chief Supt David Cole, head of West Mercia CID at time later said he would be “very interested if West Mercia was to re-open the case” due to advances in forensics now available.

However, current Detective Chief Inspector Steve Tonks has told the Worcester News this week that “further forensic work was commissioned, which did not reveal any additional evidence”.

He said: “This case has been subject to review a number of times since Eddie Browning’s acquittal by the Major Crime Review Unit.”

He said as recently as two years ago, work was commissioned on the case.

“The case remains on our list of unsolved cases that would be subject to periodic reviews,” he added.

Mrs Wilks was seven months pregnant with her second child when she was stabbed to death on the M50 motorway, on her way home from visiting her husband on Territorial Army exercise in Wales.

The Morris Mariana car she was driving had broken down and, leaving her baby son and 11-year-old sister inside, she walked to a motorway phone to call for help.

Mrs Wilks’ conversation with the police was suddenly interrupted and when they tried to ring back there was no reply.

A patrol despatched to the scene found the car and the children, but no sign of Mrs Wilks, though the hand piece was left hanging on its cord.

Two days later the young mother’s body was discovered in thick undergrowth, about three miles from where her car had stuttered to a halt.

A post mortem revealed she had died from a stab wound in the neck, which caused fatal loss of blood. She also had a broken jaw and severe facial bruising.

Within four days, police had arrested Browning outside a club in the Rhondda Valley, Mid-Glamorgan.

During the second appeal, Mr Browning’s QC Michael Mansfield argued that police failure to release a witness video interview to the defence could have affected the outcome of the original case.

This involved the testimony of an off duty West Mercia police inspector who happened to be on the M50 at the time of the abduction had seen a similar silver Renault car to that of Mr Browning.

However, his subsequent recollection of its number plate differed from that of the defendant’s vehicle.

This contributed to Lord Chief Justice Lord Taylor saying they could not be sure the jury would have inevitably reached the same decision had material irregularities, involving non-disclosure, not occurred.

Eddie Browning walked free and picked up more than £600,000 in compensation.