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It was immediately clear that something was not right when Jane Britton, a 23-year-old, dedicated graduate student of anthropology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, didn’t arrive to take a scheduled exam. Sadly, Jane was later found battered to death in the bedroom of the apartment where she lived alone. But it wasn’t until nearly fifty years later that her case was finally solved, thanks to advancements in forensic DNA technology.
On the morning of Tuesday, January 7, 1969, Jane’s 27-year-old boyfriend, James, was immediately concerned when Jane was a no-show to their exam. As soon as class ended, James headed over to her apartment to check on her, hoping there was a reasonable explanation as to why she hadn’t come to class that day. This led to the discovery of the young woman dead in her bed as a result of a violent attack.
Jane grew up in Needham, about 15 miles or 24 kilometers away from Harvard. She was close with her family which included her mom, dad & younger brother & often came home to see them. Jane was described as a talented, well-rounded woman who had a zest for life. She adored painting & cooking & was a lover of fine literature as well as classical music, her favorite being Bach. She played the organ & was said to be truly multi-dimensional in her interests. Oftentimes, Jane would invite friends over for a dinner party where she would prepare French, Greek or Russian-inspired meals.
Jane went on to earn her undergraduate degree at Radcliffe College in June 1967 where her father, J.Boyd Britton, worked as vice president. From there, she started graduate school at Harvard where she studied anthropology with a primary focus in the Neolithic period from 5000-6000 B.C. which was a time when the earliest villages were forming & animals were domesticated for agricultural use. During the summer before her murder, James & Jane went to Iran for an excavation project. James was from Toronto & he had just come back to the university after spending Christmas break with his family.
Jane was a very focused girl who wasn’t into partying & had no interest in drugs. Despite this, she did maintain a healthy social life & those that came across her path felt she was friendly & kind.
In 1969, Jane was living on the top floor of a four story apartment building at 6 University Road in Cambridge that was owned by the university. Each floor contained three apartments which were mostly occupied by students & staff from the university. Jane’s apartment door for unit 8B was painted in gold leaf & she had the place to herself other than her cat Fuzzwort & her pet turtle.
The evening of Monday, January 6, 1969 was a frigid New England night & Jane went to dinner at the Acropolis Restaurant in Cambridge with James, who she had been dating for several months, as well as two other classmates. After, she & James headed back to her apartment so she could change her clothes before going ice skating at the Cambridge Common. Afterwards, they headed to Charley’s Pub for a quick beer across the street from Jane’s apartment.
Since James & Jane had classes the next day, they were back to her apartment by 10:30 pm & discussed their exam that was scheduled for the next day. The couple sipped on some hot cocoa to warm themselves from their night out before James left to go back to his own home. At about 11:45 pm, he said good night & this was the last time he saw Jane alive.
Before heading to bed, Jane stopped by her friends’ apartment just across the hall where Don & Jill Mitchell lived. Police reports indicate that the Mitchells were also Harvard students who were close friends with Jane. According to a later article written by Don, they were frequently in & out of each other’s units since Jane had a newer, much larger refrigerator where the Mitchells often stored their own food. When Don & Jill’s cat had kittens, Jane adopted one & that night, they had been keeping an eye on the cat while she was out, so she stopped by to gather her. Before returning to her apartment at 12:30 am, they chatted over glasses of sherry as Jane spoke of the exam she was getting ready to take the next morning. They later described her demeanor as cheerful that night. Once home, Jane changed into her light blue nightgown as she crawled into bed & turned out the light.
Despite the fact that Jane’s exam was scheduled for Tuesday morning, she never made it to class. As the test began, James nervously glanced around the room, confused & concerned by her absence since she was such a reliable, punctual person.
After class, James first tried calling Jane, but because there was no answer, he decided to head over to her apartment, arriving at about 12:20 pm. After knocking several times, there was no answer, but James knew that Jane had the habit of leaving her door unlocked so he turned the knob & found that the door was closed but unlocked.
As James moved further into the unit in the direction of Jane’s bedroom, he found her lying face down in her bed with her legs stretched out, touching the floor. Part of her legs & her buttocks were exposed & clothing covered the rest of her body. There was a fur coat draped over her head, she wore a light blue nightgown & the lower half of her body was covered with two blankets & a sheet. James initially questioned if maybe Jane was sick & still asleep, so he went over to the Mitchell’s unit & asked Donald & Jill if they could come back to Jane’s apartment to assess the situation with him.
When the trio went back into her bedroom, Jill removed the clothing from the upper portion of Jane’s body. When the fur coat was pulled away from Jane’s head, they were horrified to see that she was covered in blood, blood spattered across her mattress & she appeared to be dead. They quickly moved the coat down her body, covering her legs as they ran from the unit to call the police.
By 12:40 pm, Lt. Leo Davenport of the Cambridge Police Department responded to 6 University Place, accompanied by Officer Lyons. Davenport’s police report indicates that he met James, Donald & Jill, who led them into Jane’s apartment. It was clear that Jane had been the victim of a violent attack so Davenport contacted the station, requesting detectives to the scene.
Officer Beni Cappello questioned Don & Jill in order to establish a timeline of events leading to her murder. They indicated that they had visited with her just the night before & had last seen her about twelve hours earlier at 12:30 am when she left their apartment after a quick drink. The Mitchells went on to say that they had not heard anything concerning or out of the ordinary that night.
Jane’s body was removed from her apartment & transported to the Watson Funeral Home to await an autopsy & toxicology screening. Associate Medical Examiner Arthur McGovern & forensic pathologist George Katsas conducted the autopsy & discovered that Jane died as a result of multiple blunt force injuries to her head that crushed her skull, resulting in contusions & lacerations of the brain from a sharp instrument. She sustained a massive blow to the left side of her head behind her ear & based on the shape of the wound, it was likely that she had been facing her attacker when struck. She had also been struck in the face twice.
The blue nightgown Jane wore to bed that night was found in disarray & caught up at the waist. The autopsy revealed that she had been sexually assaulted. There were no signs of struggle or robbery within Jane’s apartment or defense wounds on her body which indicated that Jane had more than likely been asleep upon her attack or that she’d known her killer.
Jane’s blood alcohol content was negative though the contents of her stomach came back with an alcohol content of 0.08% meaning that the sherry she drank while chatting with her neighbors hadn’t even had the chance to metabolize & enter her bloodstream. This told detectives that Jane was likely murdered shortly after leaving the Mitchell’s home & climbing into her own bed. It was estimated that she had been dead about 12 hours before her body was discovered at 12:40 pm on Tuesday.
A set of unidentified fingerprints were found in Jane’s apartment & seemed to be the best clue investigators initially had which were sent to the State Police as well as the FBI for possible identification. As police continued to comb through Jane’s apartment in search of any clues, they came across a diary in her living room that also served as a telephone book. The book contained the names of more than one hundred men & women which Jane was friendly with, but few, if any, listed last names. Police began to speak with those close to Jane in order to obtain the last names of those listed in the diary.
Detectives had no motive, no murder weapon or suspect at the time & moved on to interview each name within the book. James Humpries, Jane’s boyfriend, as well as & Don & Jill Mitchell, voluntarily took polygraph tests which they passed with no issues. Police suspected that the murderer utilized a hand hatchet, a cleaver or a pick-head hammer which would typically be used by an archeologist. A sharp rock was also not out of the question which the Mitchells had given Jane as a souvenir from an archeological expedition, although this was later ruled out.
After Jane’s murder, students as well as residents of Jane’s building were living in fear, knowing that a killer was on the loose. An investigation into the building that sat three blocks from Harvard Square, was conducted & found that the five doors that led to the outside, were all unlocked. The building was owned by the university & managed by real estate firm, R.M. Bradley & Co, Inc which was in charge of its maintenance. Because of the very poor security measures, blame was being tossed around as the management company indicated that locks were in place though residents chose not to utilize them. A Bradley official indicated that it was the worst building that Harvard owned & they typically would not have purchased the four-story, brick, gothic-style building, but chose to because of its prime location.
Several witness accounts were given on the day Jane’s body was found & a neighbor reported hearing someone on the fire escape that connected to Jane’s apartment on the night of her murder. A second witness saw a man running down the street near Jane’s apartment at about 1:30 am in the early morning hours of her attack. They indicated that the man was about 6’0” & 170#.
Investigators went on to film Jane’s funeral in case her killer showed up & somehow gave himself away, but found nothing noteworthy.
Investigators found mysterious red stains & powder on both Jane’s bed & body as well as the walls & ceilings of her bedroom, which appeared to be an iodine oxide powder which they believed to be red ochre, a natural clay earth pigment that’s been used for thousands of years for painting cave walls to canvasses to bodies. A university professor indicated that the powder is also used as a Persian burial ritual & suggested the killer could have a deep knowledge of ancient civilizations. Because it’s a mineral, it doesn’t wash away or decay.
The stains appeared to be fresh & investigators wondered if some sort of strange funeral rite had been performed after her murder. However, at the same time, Jane was a talented painter so it was possible that some of the stains could have been simply related to her hobby. In the end, it’s likely that the powder was already in her apartment & was likely dispersed during a struggle.
The idea of a serial killer was not out of the question since about a month after Jane was murdered, another woman, Ada Bean, was also bludgeoned to death in a nearby apartment. Four years earlier, Beverly Samans, a 23-year-old graduate student, like Jane, was murdered in the same apartment complex. The Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, claimed that Beverly was one of his victims, but this proved to be false as he was in prison at the time she was killed. Prosecutors did not speculate with the public if they believed these three murders were linked.
Jane’s case ended up being extremely challenging as investigators followed up on many leads & found several ‘red herrings’ which included the red ochre that ended up having nothing to do with the murder.
Nearly a half century passed & Jane’s parents passed away, never knowing who was responsible for their daughter’s death. Her brother began to doubt that his sister’s killer would ever be caught & still, no one could understand why they hadn’t heard any commotion or screams at the time of Jane’s murder or what the motive was, if only sexual in nature. Despite the national attention Jane’s case initially drew, police never named a suspect or made any arrests & the case grew cold & all but forgotten.
Jane’s neighbor, Don Mitchell, indicated that the police didn’t properly seal off the crime scene & residents had continued access to the building. One of Jane’s classmates indicated that he wasn’t questioned until he wrote to investigators about his ideas in the case & that, by this time, it was years later. With the Britton family’s permission, Don Mitchell said he took a sample of the rug that was found piled on Jane’s body & cut a half-moon blood stain which he held onto for more than forty years.
As of 2017, Don Mitchell was living in Hawaii & began working on a novel that was loosely related to Jane’s case & indicated that despite the passage of time, he still often thinks about Jane.
Nearly fifty years after Jane’s murder, three outside researchers began looking into the case in hopes that maybe they could help by providing a fresh set of eyes, but they were met with nothing but resistance. They expected prosecutors to welcome their assistance, but soon found that at least five formal requests to obtain the case records were rejected. Each time they were told that despite the passage of 48 years, the case was still active & by releasing the records, they could potentially jeopardize any potential prosecution.
This raised the question, at what point should law enforcement agencies give other investigators a chance to put fresh eyes on the evidence when they haven’t been able to solve the case on their own? An official charged with administering the state’s public records law has continuously ordered the district attorney’s office to release parts of the documents or at least give a better reason as to why they won’t. Many self-proclaimed sleuths who have been denied access to Jane’s records complain that Massachusetts is known for hiding public records behind exaggerated exemptions.
As in all cases, the more years that go by, the more witnesses die & memories fade, making it increasingly difficult for investigators to follow up on leads. Despite the passage of nearly a half century, investigators continued to hold out hope that there might be a DNA match to a partial profile that was taken from Jane’s apartment that would lead to finding her killer as improvements in DNA technology continued.
Lacking any new information, a team of experienced investigators started to review the case & determine if some information could be released in order to allow a fresh set of eyes to go over the case files. This included consulting with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab to determine if there were new advances in forensic DNA technology that could finally yield a more comprehensive evidence profile.
Those involved decided to perform additional DNA testing with the most up-to-date technology on the remaining evidence samples. This time, in October 2017, the crime lab was able to obtain a Y-STR or male-specific profile, from the original swabs.
In July 2018, 49.5 years after Jane was murdered, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab notified the investigators that they finally had a match. The evidence sample from Jane’s case was a match to Michael Sumpter, whose sample was in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
Michael Sumpter had died of cancer in 2001, 17 years earlier, while he was serving time for the rape of a Boston woman in 1975, six years after Jane’s murder. They discovered that he had ties to the Cambridge area & lived there when he was a child during which he had several run-ins with police. His crimes started with threat & gradually escalated to rape & murder. His first recorded crime happened when he was 19-years-old in November 1965 when he was arrested for purse snatching.
Investigators learned that he had a girlfriend who lived there in the area in the late 1960s. In 1967, two years before Jane was murdered, he worked less than a mile from her apartment on Arrow Street.
Sumpter has since been linked to five sexual assault cases in the area, three of which resulted in death, including Jane’s. None of the victims were believed to know or have any connection to Sumpter before their attacks, but Jane’s murder is his first known serious crime.
In 2010, eight years before Sumpter was a match in Jane’s case, the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office was informed that Sumpter’s DNA was a match from a sample taken in the 1972 murder & rape of 23-year-old Ellen Rutchick in her Beacon Street apartment. Ellen was a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota & had been working as a secretary at the Colonnade Hotel. On the night of January 5, 1972, Sumpter came into her apartment & strangled her with the cord from a stereo speaker.
Two years later, in 2012, a second CODIS match was made to Sumpter in the 1973 rape & murder of 24-year-old Mary Lee McClain in her Mount Vernon Street apartment. On December 12, 1973, he entered Mary’s apartment through her fire escape & despite the fact that she had two roommates & a male friend who was visiting at the time, no one heard a thing.
Sumpter was in prison at the time of his death after he had been convicted of the rape of a Boston woman in her apartment in 1975. He died at age 54 on August 10, 2001.
In 2002, one year after his death, Sumpter was a match to a 1985 rape of a Boston woman that happened after he escaped from work release.
Investigators were able to locate Sumpter’s brother & obtain a DNA sample & further testing confirmed that he was the sole person responsible for Jane’s death. Investigators can now conclude that Sumpter was the man who entered Jane’s apartment through her window, assaulted & murdered her while she was in bed & then fled the apartment.
Those that knew & loved Jane now have closure despite the passage of nearly a half a decade. Jane’s case was the oldest resolved case within the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.
Don Mitchell went on to write a book about Jane’s murder which was published in 2020, titled Shibai: Remembering Jane Britton’s Murder.
Jane is survived by her brother, Reverend Boyd Britton, vicar of Anglican Church of Our Savior in Santa Barbara, California. He indicated that finding forgiveness for his sister’s murder remains a challenge. He went on to say, A half century of mystery & speculation has clouded the brutal crime that shattered Jane’s promising young life & our family. As the surviving Britton, I wish to thank all those – friends, public officials & press – who persevered in keeping this investigation active, most especially State Police Sergeant Peter Sennott. The DNA evidence match may be all we ever have as a conclusion. Learning to understand & forgive remains a challenge.
Investigators found a hand-written note in Jane’s apartment that she’d written to someone in 1966 that read: By the time you get back, the picture in your mind of me may be quite fuzzy round the edges; that’s alright. Remember me any way you like, but remember me.
References:
- Dark Downeast: The murder of Jane Britton (Massachusetts)
- Boston Globe, 14 January 1969: Medical report may reveal slaying motive
- Boston Globe 12 January 1969: Police sift 100 names in slain girl’s diary
- Boston Globe 10 January 1969: Harvard to probe no locks on doors
- Boston Globe 8 January 1969: Harvard girl brutally slain in apartment
- Transcript – Telegram, 8 Jan 1969: Hunt for weapon in girl’s slaying
- Live Science: Ochre: The world’s first red paint
- The Berkshire Eagle: Boyfriend seen out in coed’s slaying; death linked to ancient funeral rites
- Boston Globe, 10 Jan 1969: Police examine ochre found near slaying victim
- Boston.com: Half century later, murder evidence still under wraps
- ABC News: How investigators cracked unsolved murder of Harvard graduate student nearly 50 years later
- Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office: DNA used to identify man responsible for 1969 murder of Jane Britton
- Bookshop.org: Shibai: Remembering Jane Britton’s Murder by Don Mitchell
- Shibai: Remembering Jane Britton’s Murder
- Wikipedia: Michael Sumpter
