Police have revealed a disturbing 999 call that set off a race against time to rescue a woman in peril – just before her partner suggested he couldn’t recall the incident due to ‘brain fog’.
In an upcoming segment of 24 Hours In Police Custody on Channel 4, Bedfordshire Police discloses an initial anonymous call from a woman that abruptly disconnects.
Frantically trying to trace the caller’s location, they are soon alerted by another distress call seven minutes later, this time from a man reporting his ‘girlfriend’ as ‘blue in the face’ and ‘unconscious’.
After locating both calls to the same address in Luton, police raced against time in an attempt to save the woman.
Upon arrival, neither caller could be found at the address – but 29 minutes after the first emergency call, they burst into a nearby flat to find a man lying on top of a woman, who was unconscious and not breathing.
While the woman was taken to hospital in a coma, the man only responded that he had ‘really bad brain fog’ and was ‘completely lost’ due to having diabetes.
What’s more, neither party had any local ties in the UK, leaving police with a baffling mystery to solve based on ‘absolutely nothing’.
The episode features the shocking moment police first received a call alerting them to the emergency.
At 4.35am, a female voice could be heard saying ‘Leave now or else I will call them.’
Seven minutes later, a second call came through – this time from a man. He said he ‘needed police and an ambulance’, before saying: ‘She kept threatening me. I’m safe, she’s not. Oh god, she’s blue in the face.’
Police arrested the man for murder, and after initial investigations found out that his name was Jorge Blanco, who was originally from Mexico but had been living in Nevada.
The woman, who he said was his ‘girlfriend’, was identified and her family were found, though in the programme she is only referred to as ‘Jane Doe’.
At just 26 years old, the only information known about her was that she was an ‘overseas student’.
When police arrived, Jorge appeared confused, asking: ‘What time is it?’ and repeating only that he needed his medication for diabetes.
Later, when he was taken into custody, he told officers: ‘I have really bad brain fog, I’m diabetic, I’m completely lost’, adding that he didn’t know why he’d been arrested.
In police interviews Jorge appeared to fall asleep and became ‘dizzy’ in his cell, saying he needed to visit the nurse. But officers soon began to wonder if he was just ‘manipulating’ them in the hope of escaping a formal charge.
Little by little, they began to piece together the baffling case. After receiving both parties’ phones, they could tell Jane Doe had hit the SOS button on her phone five times at 4am.
Meanwhile Jorge had marks on his body consistent with being scratched by someone attempting to fend off an attacker.
Texts between the couple sent five weeks prior to the attack revealed valuable insights about their relationship, showing it had been one of coercion and control on Jorge’s part.
Messages from Jorge had read: ‘I miss you’ and ‘I’m getting a flight’, while replies from Jane had read: ‘I never asked you to come’ and ‘You’ve done things I can’t forgive.’
SOCO pictures taken of Jane in hospital showed a mark on her neck, suggesting the suspect had been holding something around her neck. And when they revisited the crime scene again, police came across a handbag with a strap, close to where police had found them after the initial 999 call.
Then police uncovered shocking bodycam footage that changed everything.
A rambling Jorge had confessed everything to police when he was arrested. He said he’d been heading out and tried to grab Jane’s phone. When she refused, he ended up holding her down and strangling her.
He then issued his bombshell confession, admitting: ‘I should have just let her threaten me. I did it, I did it. I was pleading and I didn’t know I was that tight on her. I was laying on her.’
Tragically, the results of Jane’s CT scan showed a large bleed on her brain and extensive swelling.
This meant doctors were forced to conclude her injuries were an end of life event due to the severe brain trauma.
A pathology report determined Jorge Blanco may have strangled his victim for up to five minutes after she fell unconscious. She died with her family at her bedside a week after the incident.
It appeared Jorge and the victim had known each other for around two years, with a judge describing him as ‘a controlling, manipulative, jealous man with narcissistic characteristics’.
They added that the murder was motivated by him feeling like he could no longer control his victim.
Jorge Blanco was found guilty of murder and sentenced to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison.
DC Suzanne Seagrove from Bedfordshire police major crime unit said: ‘She was a bright woman with a bright future in front of her. And she nearly got away.’
24 Hours In Police Custody: The Murder Of Jane Doe airs Monday 9 December at 9pm on Channel 4.
