Just before midnight, they discovered her body lying beneath the children's slide of a local playground just a few hundred metres from her home.

[2][3][4] Edwin Hopkins, 19, was found guilty of the murder in January 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years.

Smith left her home at approximately 9.45pm during the same evening to post a letter to a catalogue company for her mother Catherine.

She was also wearing a bomber-style jacket with the words Chicago Fire Department on the front and BACKDRAFT written on the back.

Shortly before midnight as they drove into the car park of the local recreation ground, Smith's body was discovered underneath the children's slide of the playground.

[2] A post mortem examination carried out later revealed that she had been sexually assaulted, her throat had been cut and her body had been mutilated.

[10] Detective Superintendent Tony Bayliss said: "I believe that it is right and proper to reveal the extent of Naomi's injuries, so that those who may have mixed loyalties about whether to come forward with information do so."

[11][12] Early in the investigation, Police focused on witness statements from people who had been in the area at the time Smith went missing.

After passing the post box, the young witness said that she saw Smith pause at the entrance to an alley way, known locally as "the jitty", before walking down the alleyway and out of sight.

[16] A month after the murder in October 1995, Detective Superintendent Tony Bayliss announced that a DNA profile of the killer had been obtained.

In conjunction with forensic psychologist Paul Britton, an offender profile of around 800 local men, aged between 15 and 28 had been produced for DNA mass screening.

As a result of these arrests, one of the men, 19-year-old Edwin Hopkins was charged with the murder of Naomi Smith on the evening of 18 November 1995.

On the evening of 21 September a memorial event was held in the recreation ground close to where Naomi's body had been found.

Hopkins maintained that on the evening of the murder he had been at his sisters house in Ansley Common playing Trivial Pursuit.

Edwin Hopkins was found guilty of the murder of Naomi Smith on 30 January 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In sentencing to life imprisonment, the judge made the recommendation that the minimum tariff was set to 20 years, which would keep him in prison until at least November 2015 and the age of 39.

In summing up the verdict, the judge, Mr Justice Tucker, said: "You have been convicted of murdering a young innocent schoolgirl.

In 2010, solicitors representing Edwin Hopkins made an application under section 276 and paragraph 3 of Schedule 22 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to have his minimum term reviewed, even though he was just now three years short of his earliest possible parole date.

[26] At the time of the murder and the subsequent trial the case was widely reported in the UK national media, including in newspapers, television and radio.

[27] The case was also featured in a five-part series called Detective Stories hosted by John Stalker in the same year.

In 2001, the case was featured in a five-week run of documentary films produced by the BBC called, Catching the Killers.

Solicitor, criminal Barrister and author, James Morton wrote a companion book of the same title to accompany the series.

[28] In 2004, ITV Central television commissioned four, half-hour documentary films covering significant cases in the Midlands region.

In 2019, the Crime+Investigation Channel commissioned a second series of its production called Murdertown, which involved the close up investigation of a murder's impact on local communities.