The inquest into her death was criticised and attracted considerable controversy in the long term after it was concluded that there was "insufficient evidence" to determine whether she had been murdered, despite the fact that she had been found with her bra tied around her wrists and without any of her other clothes or belongings.

Serial killer and sex offender Peter Tobin, who lived in the area at the time, has been a suspect in Earl's murder and the case was investigated as part of Operation Anagram, which had been set up in the late 2000s to investigate links between Tobin and unsolved murders.

[2] After three weeks, Sussex police flew a helicopter over the South Downs, using a thermal scanner in the hope of finding something.

[2] Jessie's parents continued to campaign and made appearances on the BBC's Wogan chat show and on Crimewatch to appeal for information.

[2][4] The kite got caught in an overgrown thicket, and when the child's father waded into the shrubland to retrieve it, he discovered a skeleton, which was Earl's remains.

[8] Officers cleared an area of 20 square metres around where she had been found, and this was then excavated and the soil minutely examined for evidence.

[8] A volunteer team of metal detectors led by an archaeologist searched the cliffs and found items such as jewellery and belt buckles, although they didn't help the investigation.

[12] A police report in 1980 had previously concluded that Earl must have committed suicide due to "pressure of exams" and "depression over a number of allergies she suffered", and a second inquest in 2022 would later highlight this as being a reason why the case had not been seriously investigated.

[14] Tobin had killed 23-year-old Angelika Kluk in Glasgow in 2006, but was subsequently linked to two missing persons cases from 1991 after police suspected he was responsible for numerous other murders.

[17][18] In the 2022 inquest into her death it was discovered that one of her last conversations with her mother had been about meeting this man on Beachy Head, when she also commented "I wish men would be prepared to be just friends.

[1] Shortly after the discovery of Earl's body became public knowledge in 1989, Tobin hurriedly moved with his wife and child a great distance to Bathgate, Scotland, without prior informing his wife of these plans, which suggested he had an underlying reason to suddenly leave the area.

[8] In Mark Williams-Thomas's book Hunting Killers, he stated that although Tobin buried his known murder victims, he also carried out merely opportunistic crimes like Earl's case appeared to be.

[12] In 1994 he trapped two neighbouring 14-year-old girls in his flat before turning on the gas taps and leaving them for dead, indicating he carried out disorganised, random attacks and could have done so on Earl as he walked past her on Beachy Head.

[4][15] Not only had both young women last been seen in Eastbourne, but Kay's last known location was also at Beachy Head, where Earl's remains would be found only a year later.

[4] As with Earl, Operation Anagram established that Tobin was also living in the area at the time of Kay's disappearance, and it was discovered that he was working in a hotel in Eastbourne.

[4] Kay had also met an unknown Scottish man in Eastbourne a few days before she vanished, who had given her money to buy petrol.

[4] In criminologist David Wilson's 2012 episode of Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story that centred on Tobin's involvement in Earl's murder, Kay was also briefly brought up.

[1] Operation Anagram's lead officer, Detective Superintendent David Swindle, told Williams-Thomas in the 2018 The Investigator documentary that he believes Tobin murdered Kay.

[7] In 2022, police gathered DNA from Earl's parents and checked it against "trophies" and other evidence collected by David Fuller, a double killer who had recently been convicted of killing two women in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.

The Rt Hon Michael Ellis QC MP said "I have concluded the initial investigation was insufficient and further lines of inquiry should have been pursued.

[21] The coroner, James Healey-Pratt, criticised the original police investigation and highlighted a number of flaws, pointing to the fact that a police report made when she disappeared in 1980 concluded she must have committed suicide due to "pressure of exams" and "depression over a number of allergies" she suffered.

[10] Jessie Earl's death is investigated in a 2012 episode of criminologist David Wilson's Killers Behind Bars: The Untold Story.