Unsolved Murder of 16 Year Old Harun Jama, 2018, UK.
Harun Jama. Described as happy lad who wanted to grow up to be an engineer.
As I recently said in the case of Samuel Guidera sudden violence on cold dark streets is a hard thing to investigate. In the case of the unsolved murder of 16 year old Harun Jama, the cops seemed to get close to solving the case but it came to nothing in the end.
Brief Circumstances
Mr Jama was described as your average football loving lad. He lived in Birmingham but on the evening of 3rd January 2018 he was in the city of Oxford.
He was found stabbed on a footpath at Friars Wharf, this is on the banks of The River Thames. A group of runners attempted to save him, but ultimately they failed. In one account a man on his way home came across the scene. He described a large amount of blood and believed the victim had multiple stab wounds to the chest. He said the runners had no idea what had happened and they had just found the young man collapsed on the floor.
The Investigation
The cops have made several arrests in this case and prepared a file to prosecute one individual. The case was withdrawn prior to the court date because of a lack of evidence. At one point a man was arrested in the city of Liverpool which is 130 miles away.
In the enquiry 700 witnesses were interviewed and CCTV was looked at from 90 buses. A staggering 1100 items were seized and mobile phone data was checked. The case is subject to periodic review at the time of writing.
My Take
I came across an article in the Oxford Mail that was published in January 2018. It does not mention the murder, but rather describes the area. Far from the TV version of Oxford this part of the city is described as particularly dodgy. Locals that commented seemed to support the contents of the article. Drug dealing and alcoholism are mentioned. One contributor said they avoided the place after dark.
At the time such murders were pretty common across the UK. Mr Jama was living in Birmingham which is 55 miles away but I don’t know the reason he was visiting the city. In fact I can’t find one reference to the reason he was there in the eight accounts I read.
Why is that important? If we look at any unsolved murder the details that form the overall picture are the reason people might come forward. If Mr Jama was a tourist, maybe an informant knows of a mugger who targets them. If he was visiting a girl then maybe an informant knows that his friend was steaming about a girl he believed was cheating on him. To not mention why a young lad was in a different city, at 8pm on a January night, leaves out a big part of that overall picture.
I don’t doubt that Mr Jama was a good guy. His family say so and the police gave no hint he wasn’t. In any case he was a young lad and he was brutally killed. That is enough for me. It does come across as if details are deliberately placed in shadow on this one.
I do sense sometimes that the cops are in the know on cases. The difference between knowing who did what and proving it is reality. I hope there is someone wringing their hands and wondering if they should make a call to the cops about something they know. I hope they do and the information is enough to get the case over the line.
If you come across an account on this one that gives more detail let me know please.
Take Care
Tim
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-44481480
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/18063664.harun-jama-investigation-dropped-police-release-suspect/
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/18137711.two-years-since-harun-jamas-murder/
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-46758329
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/murder-suspect-arrested-liverpool-after-17348445
