FOR those on the front line of the forensic fight against crime, no clue can be overlooked.

When frail Monica Jepson was found stripped and strangled in a burned-out room at her private Edgbaston nursing home, detectives had little to go on.

Most of the evidence had been destroyed in the heat of the blaze and police were initially left stumped by the mystery. But there was one tiny and unsavoury piece of evidence that might have been overlooked had it not been for a painstaking fingertip search near the home.

A forensics officer had noticed what he believed to be human faeces on a fire escape and they quickly became a key part of the investigation.

Tests quickly showed it was indeed that of a human and detectives were convinced that it had been left there by the killer.

But, crucially, analysis could not extract a DNA profile.

The setback did not diminish the will of officers in the case and such was the brutality of the murder of the 66-year-old victim that they were determined to bring the killer to justice.

Mrs Jepson suffered from crippling arthritis among a number of conditions which handicapped her quite severely. She had been moved in to the Grange Nursing Home in Hagley Road four years before her death because she was in a poor physical and mental state and effectively needed round- the-clock care.

The home should have been safe haven, but instead it was where her life was snuffed out in cold blood.

At about 2.30am on July 14 1995, staff at the home found smoke billowing out of Mrs Jepson’s room. Firefighters were called but had difficulty getting in because the door had been callously barricaded to prevent any rescue.