Man Confesses to Murdering Fiancée, Dumping Body in Suitcase 21 Years Ago, Al Authorities Report

A man boarded a bus to Alabama to tell police that he murdered his fiancée more than 20 years ago, packed her body in a bag, and abandoned it, according to authorities. Brian Edwards Jones, 65, has been sentenced to 21 years in jail for murder in the death of Janet Luxford, according to court documents obtained by AL.com.

McClatchy News was unable to locate his attorney’s records on October 8. Jones and Luxford, 41, argued that it “got out of hand” at a motel in Bessemer on February 18, 2001, before he fatally beat her in the throat with a club, according to Bessemer Police Lt. Christian Clemons in 2022.

According to authorities, he placed her body in a green suitcase and disposed of it in a forested area, claiming that her death was accidental.

Luxford’s daughter reported her mother missing in 2002 from Napa, California, after not seeing her in a while, according to charlotteobserver.

The missing person case remained unsolved until March 2022, when it was turned into a homicide inquiry.

“He took a bus from South Carolina to (the) Birmingham area and sat outside of our station until he finally got up the nerve to call us,” Clemons told the radio station WBRC.

Jones then directed them to the location of her remains, according to police reports.

Luxford’s daughter, Amanda Luxford Fernandez, told AL.com in 2022 that her mother “loved with everything she had.”

“She was a great woman,” Fernandez remarked. “She was nice, had a Southern drawl, and enjoyed country music. Reba McEntire has always been her idol.”

Jones, of Ladson, South Carolina, was charged with murder and abuse of a corpse. Still, prosecutors dropped the second allegation after he pled guilty to murder on October 7, according to Jefferson County records.

Bessemer is a suburb in Birmingham.