Monica Renee Jones:1979, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Monica Renee Jones was born on July 31st, 1960 to Mr. and Mrs. Hilton Jones. She grew up in Philadelphia. Monica had 2 older brothers, Warren and Robert.
Monica graduated in 1978 from Girl’s High School in Philadelphia, which is a magnet school for gifted and talented students. Monica was a very bright and serious student who wanted to become a pediatrician or a child psychologist.
Monica came from a studious and very accomplished family. Her brother, Robert Jones, was an aide to Pennsylvania State Supreme Court Justice, Robert N.C. Nix.
In the Fall of 1978, She went off to college. Monica attended the University of Pittsburgh, which is also known as Pitt, planning to study for her career in medicine. Pitt was known to be an excellent school for science.
On Wednesday, January 3rd, 1979, at around 11 p.m. Monica went down to the laundry room. She had clothes in the dryer that she thought were probably dry by now.
Monica was back at school after the holidays. It was now the Spring Semester at Pitt. Monica likely knew her way around the dorm building pretty well by now. She was probably very comfortable there. (My first experience in a dorm; I was kind of nervous about going to other floors etc.) The laundry room in Monica’s dorm was in the basement. My college dorm had laundry facilities on each floor. Even then, you sometimes had to wait for an open washer and dryer. They were in high demand. It doesn’t seem unusual to me at all that she was getting things out of the dryer at 11 p.m. On a Saturday night around 11, many students might be out at a party or at work so the laundry room would be less busy.
The next morning, January 4th,1979, a janitor reported that the door to the trash room in the basement was blocked. He thought someone had entered and locked it or blocked the door somehow. He alerted campus security.
Security accessed the room and found the body of Monica Renee Jones. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. She was found without her clothing.
A young woman named Estelle Hill attended Pitt then too. She had also graduated from the esteemed Philadelphia High School for Girls. Estelle’s boyfriend was visiting her that week and staying with Estelle in the dorm. Sydney Rufus Brinkley was a graduate of Bok Vocational and Technical School. He was considered a good student there and well liked. His neighbors all said he was very personable and never in trouble.
Estelle Hill had met him in Philadelphia and the two had become close. They planned to marry but had not set a date. That weekend while out driving, Sidney had thrown a paper grocery bag out of the car window. An announcement came on the car radio that Monica’s body had been found. Sidney said nothing. Estelle would later find out that the paper bag had contained Monica’s clothes.
Sydney Rufus Brinkley worked construction but also worked at a car rental business. He was accused of stealing multiple cars from that business according to a 1979 article about the murders. Yes, sadly, there were more murders.
Sheila Hill was Estelle’s sister. 15 year old Sheila also attended Philadelphia High School for Girls. Sheila was a bright girl who was making the most of high school. She was involved in sports and cheerleading and keeping up with her academics as well. The summer of 1979 was nearly over. The new school year was coming up.
On Wednesday August 8th, 1979, Sheila did not make it home from a trip to the movies. She got very close though. She boarded a bus that would have dropped her off about ten feet from her front door. What happened in those last ten feet? Candy that she had purchased at the movies was scattered all over the sidewalk. Her barrettes were found nearby as well. But where was Sheila?
Her family and neighbors had been on edge because just a few days earlier, on August 1st, 1979, another woman, Kathryn Johns, had been abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered nearby. And just a few months back in January, Monica Renee Jones had been murdered in Estelle’s dorm building in Pittsburgh. The world seemed like an increasingly violent and dangerous place.
Most people had forgotten about the murder of Elaine Richardson from a nearby neighborhood. She had been murdered downtown in April when she was almost at the Greyhound terminal. She was a couple of weeks away from her college graduation. But, before she could board a Greyhound bus, she was abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered. Elaine had been left under a nearby bridge, naked and with massive head injuries caused by a large rock. Because it happened downtown, maybe they thought that it was just a random downtown crime.
They had likewise put the March 1979 murder of Nancy Ross out of their minds as well. Someone had been arrested in that case.
Sheila was found on Thursday morning, August 9th, 1979 in the bushes off U.S. 1. It was only a few blocks from her home near 76th and Malvern in Overbrook Park. That was also the spot where authorities had recovered Kathryn Johns on August 1st. Both victims had been sexually assaulted and murdered. Both had devastating head injuries and were found nude from the waist down. Their missing clothes were not located at the scene.
Through interviews, police began looking at Sidney Rufus Brinkley, Estelle Hill’s boyfriend. When they had visited Estelle, they noticed some items that looked similar to those missing from other murder victims. Estelle told them that these items had been presents from her boyfriend, Sidney.
On August 25th, Brinkley attacked Anne Marie Tate.
Sidney was questioned and arrested. Police said he looked like any other blue collar worker. He did not stand out as a stark raving murderer. He was able to blend right in. His girlfriend was a very intelligent, educated young woman and she did not fear him.
Brinkley confessed to several murders including the murders of Sheila Hill, Monica Renee Jones at Pitt, Kathryn Johns, and Nancy Ross. Another young man being held on the Nancy Ross murder was later released after Brinkley was officially charged.
Each of these women was either a college student or a young professional. Nancy Ross was an executive at Atlantic Richfield, Co. Kathryn Johns was a computer programmer and a former mathematics teacher.
He did not confess to the murder of Elaine Johnson. There were also murders of young women in Upper Darby in which victims were stabbed with a screwdriver.
While he was in jail, held without bond, he began talking about a white insect that he was having conversations with. He told his girlfriend, Estelle, that he was seeing things. He was evaluated for mental fitness. Soon it was declared that he was unfit to stand trial. But, he had been sane enough to get various jobs, work, travel to Pittsburgh and back, ride the buses and trains and stalk and kill women. That takes planning.
However, in June of 1980, he was found guilty of the murder of Kathryn Johns by a court of common pleas. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Kathryn Johns. He died in prison.
When we think of 1970’s era serial killers we often think of white men like Gacy, Bundy, Kemper and Ridgeway. But, African American serial killers seem to be more rare.
But, the data is incomplete. Many murders of African American and Hispanic women were never investigated and never solved. There may be more serial killers of color than we realize. There may be many more white serial killers as well. There are countless cold cases that we know about and countless others that one can only find in old newspapers.
There are many problems to solve in the United States today in 2026. Hopefully we will have leaders who want to take care of the most pressing needs of the people like food, housing, jobs and education. When we have made some headway there; hopefully they will address all the cold cases.
Currently when you hear about an old cold case that has been solved through DNA or genetic genealogy, funding for that has come from private sources. (Remember the “boy in the box”? A podcast funded the testing that gave Joseph Augustus Zarelli back his name.) If your house burns down, you don’t have to pay the fire department by yourself. Why do the podcast fans or the families of murder victims have to fund the testing themselves? Why aren’t we testing on a massive scale? Perhaps there could be government contracts, with negotiated pricing?
Monica Renee Jones wanted to be a pediatrician or a child psychologist. We will never know the impact her work may have had on our world. She should have had a long life and a long career.
In the weeks after her murder, the University of Pittsburgh tightened up security in their dorms. They made many changes including issuing dorm identification cards. Non-students were now prevented from entering the dorms. Other measures were implemented that made the campus safer as well.
Monica Renee Jones was possibly the first murder that Brinkley committed. Many people had seen him in the dorm that week. Several described him as a nuisance. If Monica's murder had been investigated more thoroughly, perhaps other victims would still be alive. But Monica was a young black woman and their murders still don't get the attention that they deserve.
I think we as a society can do much better.
Rest in Peace, Monica Renee Jones
Rest In Peace, Sheila Hill, Kathryn Johns, and Nancy Ross.
Comments
Post a Comment