10th May 2018

Murdered Zsuzsanna Basenyei last seen alive

Hungarian national Zsuzsanna Basenyei was last seen alive on 10 May 2018. Six days later, her body was discovered at La Pulec, a remote Jersey bay, colloquially known as Stinky Bay. Her car had already been discovered at La Haule having not been seen on the road for several days. According to The Independent, she “was so decomposed that pathologists were unable to determine the cause of death and no evidence could be recovered from the car as a result of the water damage”.

Exactly how she had died was never established, but police concluded that the 37 year old had been murdered and, according to testimony given in court, hidden in the boot of her own car for three days. Having performed DNA tests on the remains, they arrested 54-year-old Jamie Lee Warn in St Helier.

The trial

Warn was tried for, and ultimately convicted of, her murder. Warn denied having murdered Zsuzsanna but was convicted by a majority verdict after jurors had deliberated the evidence for seven hours. After an eight day trial, he was jailed for life and told he would have to serve a minimum of 19 years before he could be considered for parole.

According to coverage of the case, Basenyei and Warn had met at Les Charrieres hotel, where she worked as a chambermaid and he was employed in maintenance. Although reports state that he initially denied any affair, he later told the police that they had been involved in an on-and-off sexual relationship before her death.

Zsuzsanna had left the hotel and, when she started her new job in finance, listed Warn as her emergency contact – a fact that his advocate had argued suggested Warn could have had no motive to kill her. His advocate also suggested that much of the evidence, which included CCTV footage and records of his phone connecting to various mobile masts as he moved around the island, was circumstantial.