AT SIDE OF M50?
minutes of making the emergency call.
A week later, a reconstruction was staged, where a young policewoman, Taryn Green, was asked to wear a similar outfit and stand at the same spot on the hard shoulder for two hours in the hopes of jogging motorists’ memories.
Police also halted traffic and asked drivers about their movements seven days earlier.
If they had information, they were asked to stop at service areas, where police teams were waiting to take statements.
Police began appealing for information about a man and a light-coloured car seen near the phone.
A grey saloon car was also seen near the spot where her body was found.
An e-fit was issued to the public, with a man described as “white, with thin sharp features, a prominent thin long nose, in his 20s, and of youngish appearance”.
Police added his most distinctive feature was his hair, believed to be cut in a modern style with a slight crew-cut look, believed to be blond with distinctive yellow or light orange highlights.
Seven days later former Welsh Guardsman Eddie Browning, 41, from Cwmparc in Rhondda, was arrested after a colleague reported he looked like the photofit that had been issued.
Mr Browning resembled the picture, had a history of violence, owned a butterfly knife and had driven from his home to Scotland in his silver Renault 25 after a row with his wife on the evening of the murder.
At his trial, Mr Browning maintained his innocence and said he had used the M4, Severn Bridge and M5 on the night, not the M50.
He was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Mr Browning spent six years behind bars before being released in May 1994 after the Court of Appeal decided his conviction was unsafe, because evidence was kept from his trial by the police.
He later received more £600,000 compensation.
It is understood he went to live on a farm in Ceredigion after being released from prison.
In 2005, he was cleared of unlaw- than fully carrying an illegal knife in a public place, but he admitted driving while three times the legal limit.
He successfully argued that he had good reason for having the knife as he used the three-inch blade on his cattle farm to cut bails of hay and had forgotten that it was in his pocket when he went out.
He said that friends had spiked his drinks without his knowledge.
It means no one has ever been brought to justice for the murder of Mrs Wilks.
Back in 1995 Mr Browning told the Echo that the actions of the unconvicted killer had ruined his life.
“I would like to meet the person who killed Marie Wilks,” said the former Welsh Guardsman, a dad of two.
“He has caused me and my family a huge amount of suffering.
Before I went to prison, I was a happy-go-lucky man. “That side of me has gone now.” In May, 63-year-old Mr Browning was found dead at his West Wales home.
At that time, police said that they were still investigating the murder of the young mum.
Detective chief inspector, Steve Tonks, of West Mercia Police, said: “This case has been subject to review a number of times.
“As recently as two years ago, further forensic work was commissioned, which did not reveal any additional evidence.
“The case remains on our list of unsolved cases.”