Man reportedly confesses 21 years later to killing girlfriend with golf club, leaving body in suitcase

BESSEMER, Ala. (TCD) -- A 62-year-old man reportedly came forward to police that he killed a woman in 2001 and hid her body in a suitcase in a rural area.

According to WVTM-TV, on March 27, Brian Jones reportedly went to the Bessemer Police Department and confessed to killing his girlfriend at the time, 41-year-old Janet Luxford.

WVTM reports Bessemer Police said in a statement, "Detectives confirmed that Janet Luxford was listed as missing and endangered from Napa, California, in 2002. Detectives would later discover that Luxford was listed missing by a daughter in September 2002 after not seeing her mother in a long while."

Bessemer Police Lt. Christian Clemons told WBRC-TV Jones "took a bus from South Carolina to Birmingham area and he sat outside of our station until he finally got up the nerve to give us a call."

In February 2001, Jones reportedly worked in Bessemer and was dating Luxford at the time. Clemons said Luxford wanted to go home to California to see her family, but then she and Jones got into an argument.

Jones reportedly told Clemons the fight "got out of hand and he ended up hitting her with a club in the throat."

He then allegedly put her body in a suitcase and left it in a rural wooded area. Jones reportedly took investigators to Harmer Street and Valley Creek, where police found the suitcase.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office is working on identifying the remains.

Luxford’s daughter Amanda Luxford Fernandez reported her missing in September 2002. Fernandez told AL.com, "She just disappeared off the face of the earth and there were no answers."

Jones was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on charges of murder and abuse of a corpse. His bond is set at $765,000.

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