Truck driver CONFESSES to killing woman in 2001 that he buried in a suitcase

A South Carolina truck driver confessed last month to killing a woman two decades ago, then led police to her body that he had left stuffed in a suitcase.  

Alabama police said that on March 27, 62-year-old Brian Jones traveled from South Carolina and – out of the blue – confessed to killing 41-year-old Janet Luxford in 2001. 

Luxford, a mother-of-three, was working in a Jacksonville hotel when she met Jones and the two began dating. 

Jones told Bessemer Police that on February 18, 2001 he got into an argument with Luxford while in a hotel in Bessemer after she indicated she needed money to return to California to see her parents. 

In a fit of rage, Jones told police he hit her in the throat with a golf club, causing her to collapse and die.

Jones told police that on February 18, 2001 he got into an argument in a hotel in Bessemer and hit Janet Luxford (pictured) in the throat with a golf club, killing her

Luxford has been reported missing since September 2001. Jones said after killing her he stuffed Luxford into a green suitcase and left it in a remote area

Jones said after killing her, he stuffed Luxford into a green suitcase and left it in a remote area where her body remained undiscovered until he led police to it in March. 

Jones, a South Carolina native, claimed that he came forward now because he didn’t want to disappoint his parents. They died last year. 

Bessemer Police Lt. Christian Clemons called the case a ‘once-in-a-career type situation’ and said that if Jones had not come forward, the case likely would have never been solved. 

‘It’s not a homicide that we even had on our radar,’ Lt. Clemons told WBRC. ‘It’s something that he committed here 21 years ago and nobody knew that it happened besides him.’

Police charged Jones with murder and abuse of a corpse.

Luxford’s daughter Amanda Luxford Fernandez (pictured together) said her mom was a stay-at-home mother who struggled with past drug use that resurfaced after meeting Jones 

For years, Fernandez said she assumed her mother abandoned her and was alive somewhere wrestling with drug issues or even caught up in the sex trade

‘She was always a great mom,’ Luxford’s daughter, Amanda said. ‘She never put anything before her children until this man came along’

According to her 33-year-old daughter Amanda Luxford Fernandez, who was 12 when her mom disappeared, Luxford was a stay-at-home mom before she began working at the hotel. She had struggled with past drug use that resurfaced after meeting Jones. 

‘She was always a great mom,’ she told AL.com ‘She never put anything before her children until this man came along.’

Fernandez, who also lived with her stepfather said that she met Jones during a visit to her mom’s. ‘I physically met this man. I have looked this man in the face,’ she said. ‘Brian told me he would take care of my mom.’ 

Fernandez said Jones had been violent toward her mother, sending her to the hospital on one occasion. 

‘She was in the hospital because they had wrestled with the knife my mom had used to try to hurt herself,’ Fernandez said. ‘She ended up slicing her right hand down to the bone, so she cut all the tendons in her right hand.’

After that incident, Fernandez said Jones convinced her mother to pack her life up and move to Alabama. Fernandez never saw her again. 

For years, Fernandez said she assumed her mother abandoned her, and was alive somewhere wrestling with drug issues or even caught up in the sex trade. 

‘This has hurt me as a person. I always questioned myself why I wasn’t good enough for my mom to come back for me, or why my mom didn’t love me enough to come back for me or why she chose a man over me,’ Fernandez said.