340: Jo Pearson & Teohna Grant

On Christmas Day 2024, families across Britain gathered in homes decorated with twinkling lights and wreaths, settling in for an evening of festive films and leftover turkey. Along Santa Cruz Avenue in Bletchley, the sounds of celebration drifted through thin walls. But just after 5PM, those sounds were shattered by something else entirely. Screaming pierced through the cheerful facade. Then a woman emerged on a balcony. She was covered in blood as she screamed: “I can’t breathe!”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Well, I remember jo Anne getting stabbed out and losing
her life, and I remember looking myself in the bathroom.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
For those familiar with British history, the name Blatchley stars
echoes of wartime secrecy. Once home to the famed Blatchley,
this quiet district of Milton Keynes played a decisive role
in World War Two. It was here, behind closed doors
at Station Ex that Alan Turing and his team cracked
German codes, tipping the balance of the war. For decades,
their triumphs remained a closely guarded secret, their brilliance unrecognized

(01:17):
outside a select circle. In the decades that followed, Bletchley
was absorbed into the newly designed town of Milton Keynes,
a nineteen sixties experiment in modern urban planning. Today it's
a place where history and suburbia sits side by side.
Victorian railway buildings stand as reminders of the past, while
post war estates and modest apartment blocks make up the

(01:39):
fabric of everyday life. Santa Cruz Avenue is one such strait,
lined with unassuming three story flats. The buildings themselves are ordinary, functional,
rather than beautiful, but on Christmas they take on a
softer glue, twinkling ferry lights, frame windows and balconies inflatable
sanders sway gently in the wind, and the faint sound

(01:59):
of Carol stripped from open windows. Inside, families lingered in
the warmth of the holiday. Children sat cross legged on
the carpet, still in pajamas, absorbed in new toys. Adults
reclimbed on sofas, nursing full stomachs from Christmas dinner. The
television playing the same festive specials it did year after year.

(02:20):
But as dusk turned to night on the twenty fifth
of December twenty twenty four, the comfort of the season shattered.
A sound cut through the stillness. Screams echoed through the estate.
Neighbors paused, glancing from behind curtains and stepping on the balconies,
and one balcony woman stood, her clothing soaked in blood.

(02:43):
She clutched the railing as though it was the only
thing holding her up. She then screamed, I can't breathe.

(03:04):
One of the flats along Santa Cruz Avenue belonged to
thirty eight year old Joe Pearson. She shared the flat
with her forty nine year old partner, Joswell Braun. The
couple had been together for years, but Braun had a
son from a previous relationship, Seventeen year old Jake, was
a familiar presence at the flat, drifting in and out
with the casualties of somebody who belonged there. They also

(03:26):
had a dog, Tilly, a white Staffordshire bull Terrier, who
occupied a central place in Joe's life. To those who
knew her, Joe would described Tilly as her rock. She
was a companion who provided steadfast support through whatever challenges
life presented, and life for Joe had presented plenty of challenges.
Jaswell Braun had a lengthy criminal history. He had send

(03:49):
convictions for fifteen offenses dating back to nineteen ninety four.
These included damaging property and one offense of battering Jake's
mother in two thousand and nine. Both he and Joe
were long term users of class A drugs, predominantly crack Okain.
Neighbors had become accustomed to the songs that emanated from
Flat number eight, raised voices that carried through walls and

(04:11):
echoed in the stairwell, the kind of arguments that made
you turn up the television or suddenly remember you needed
to check the post. They were the sound track of
a relationship that was held together by habit and history
and the shared understanding that came from weathering the same storms.
Love might have existed there once, perhaps it still did
in some twisted, unrecognizable form, but it lived alongside anger, addiction,

(04:37):
and a volatility that could ignite without warning. Joe's family
saw something different when they looked at her. They saw
the girl she'd been before drugs had rewritten her story.
They saw moments of the woman she could still be,
the woman who asked about your day and actually listened
to the answer. Her family described her as somebody who
fundamentally cared about others, and they weren't wrong. But caring

(05:00):
about others can be complicated when you can't quite care
for yourself, when your days are structured around a chemical
dependency that overrides every other priority. This was the fragile
ecosystem of Flat number eight on Santa Cruz Avenue. A
middle aged couple with matching addictions and a history of violence.
A teenage boy trying to maintain a connection with his

(05:21):
father despite everything, a dog who loved unconditionally, and beneath
it all, the invisible pressure building slow steady, inevitable, like
a timer counting down to Christmas Day, it was called.

(05:44):
On Christmas Day of twenty twenty four, all along Santa
Cruz Avenue, the trappings of holiday tradition were on full display.
Wreaths hung on doors, their pine scent mixing with the
cold winter air. Strings of fairy lights trace the outlines
of windows, casting colorful patterns on to frost touched glass.

(06:04):
Inside those warm, glowing homes, families gathered around trees adorned
with ornaments collected over lifetimes, and wrapping presents and posing
for photographs that would be shared on social media. It
was close to five p m. On Christmas Day when
Jake Brawn made his way to his father and Joe's flat.
He had presents tucked under one arm. The winter sun

(06:27):
was already sinking below the horizon. Jake climbed the stairs
to Flat number eight. He knocked on the door and
his father answered and welcomed him. Inside, Joe was playing
Christmas music and presents were exchanged amongst the three of them.
But while other families across the country were settling on
to sofas with full stomachs and remote controls, a different

(06:49):
kind of evening was taking shape. In Flat eight, Joe
and Jaswell Brawn moved to the kitchen. The Christmas music
continued in the background, a jarring corn to point to
what happened next, they began smoking crack cocaine. The drug
quickly worked its black magic, filling their brains with dopamine,

(07:09):
creating that brief euphoria that attic's chase, and for a
while they felt good. But crack cocaine is a jealous drug.
It demands everything and gives back nothing but the promise
of the next high, and on that particular evening, it
decided to extract the price that would shatter what remained

(07:30):
of a broken family. At some point during their session,
Joe refused to hand the crack pipe back to Braun.
She said she didn't feel comfortable smoking around Jake. The
atmosphere quickly changed. Braun's hand reached for the counter. He
grabbed a screwdriver and then a kitchen knife. He then

(07:50):
approached Joe. She asked him what he was doing and
started to walk into the other room. Without saying a word,
Braun lunged at Joe and stabbed her over over. She
began screaming and frantically putting her hands up to try
and protect herself. Jake sat frozen, his eyes, struggling to
process what he was saying. But shock is a temporary paralysis,

(08:13):
and survival instinct is powerful. Jake launched himself at his father,
grabbing at him and trying to pull him off Joe.
His fingers clawed at his arms, and for a moment,
he thought he could stop what was happening. This was
his father, after all, and he thought that he would
recognize him and regather his humanity. But Jake was tragically wrong.

(08:36):
Brown then turned on his own teenage son. He stabbed
him once in the chest. Jake stumbled backwards, his hands
distinctively moving to protect himself from the next blow. The
knife came down again, and Jake raised his hand to
block it. Metal met flesh and bone, and suddenly one
of his fingers was severed. Pain and adrenaline were surging

(08:59):
through each other because he fought his own father for
his life. He managed to push him away, grabbed his
phone from the table, and ran into the bathroom. He
slammed the door behind him and locked it. In the kitchen,
he could hear Tilly barking frantically. She had watched her
beloved owner fall and was trying to ward off danger
she couldn't understand. And then the barking changed. It became wimpering.

(09:26):
Braun had turned the knife on Tilly. I don't mean
to get ahead of the story, but I want everybody
to know that Tilly survived. Jake desperately called nine niney
nine from the safety of the bathroom. He told the
operator what had happened, pleading for police and paramedics to
be sent immediately. In the background of that call, Joke
could be heard wimpering, Jazz, No, you're killing me. Tell

(09:50):
my children I love them. The screaming men fell silent,
but the silence didn't last for long. Braun's footsteps approached
the bathroom door. Jake heard the sound of his father
retrieving something from elsewhere in the flat. He then heard
the distinct sound of wood against wood. Braun had grabbed

(10:10):
a baseball bat and was hitting it with full force
against the bathroom door. He begged for his father to stop,
but it fell on deaf ears. Jake backed up against
the far wall, still on the phone to the nine
nine nine operator. The door finally gave way. Wood splintering inwards,

(10:30):
Braun filled the doorway like something from a nightmare. He
then began beating his own son, Jake, with the baseball
bat until he collapsed to the tile floor, and then,
as suddenly as it had started, the attack stopped, but
only for Joe, Tilly and Jake. Number seven, twenty four

(11:01):
year old Tiona Grant was experiencing the kind of Christmas
she'd always imagined for herself. Three years earlier, Tiona had
made the move from Nuneaton to Bletchley. It's not a
vast distance geographically, but emotionally it represented independence, adulthood, the
beginning of building her own life. Tiona had found work

(11:21):
and found love with her fiance, twenty nine year old
Bradley Ladder, and found a place that felt like home.
But Nanton was never far from her heart. This is
where she'd grown up, and she remained deeply connected to
her parents, Petra and Reginald, and her two sisters, Jade
and Paris. The bond between them was the kind that
required maintenance, regular phone calls, visits scheduled, and kept holiday

(11:45):
spent together when possible. Family wasn't just something that Tiona had,
it was something she actively nurtured. Tionah's family said that
she was the kindest, sweetest, most caring daughter that any
mother could have wished for. And on Christmas evening, Tiona
and Bradley had enjoyed exchanging gifts and eating their Christmas
dinner together. The walls of the flats were thin, so

(12:08):
when the chaos erupted in Flat number eight, Toony and
Bradley had heard it all Before they even had a
chance to figure out whether they should check on their
neighbors or call police. Their front door flung open. Standing
in the doorway was Josuell Braun. He was covered in blood.
In one hand, he gripped a bloody kitchen knife and

(12:30):
in the other a baseball bat. Tooni and Bradley knew Braun.
He was their neighbor. They passed him in the hallway
often and often exchanged pleasantries. Braun immediately lunged at Tiona
and began stabbing her over and over. Bradley's body reacted
before his mind fully comprehended what was happening. He grabbed

(12:51):
Braun and tried to pull him off Tiona, but Braun
overpowered him, and then he turned. He had zero expression
on his face as he turned the knife on Bradley.
Bradley tried to defend himself and shouted, why are you
doing this? What have I done? Braun never responded. They
struggled over the weapon, giving Tiona a second to try

(13:14):
and get help. She managed to pull herself off the
ground and stumbled towards the door. She made it outside
into the cold December air. Her fingers gripped the balcony
rail and she screamed, I can't breathe. Back inside Flat

(13:35):
number seven, Bradley was still fighting with Braun until suddenly
he stopped. Braun pulled away, turned and walked out of
the flat. Bradley managed to pull himself off the ground.
His legs barely supported his weight, but he moved forward.
He stumbled towards the door. Outside, he saw Joe Pearson.

(13:57):
She was lying faced on on the landing, a pull
of blood spreading beneath her body. On the balcony t
on a lay faced on in a puddle of her
own blood. Bradley grabbed his phone from his pocket and
called nine ninety nine. It was the second call the
emergency services that Christmas evening, another play for help that

(14:18):
would arrive too late for some barely in time for others.
While Bradley was discovering the bodies on the landing and balcony,
Jake Brawn emerged from Flat number eight. His chest was punctured,
his hand was missing a finger, and he had been

(14:39):
brutally beaten and stabbed by his own father. He should
have been unconscious, really, but trauma does strange things to
the body. Jake ran down the street screaming for help.
He spotted a neighbor outside. His voice was hoarse, but
he managed to shout, you need to help me. He's
going to kill me. Then Jaswell Braun emerged on the street.

(15:03):
Witnesses said that he looked eerily calm. He walked briskly
towards Jake and the neighbor till he was on her
leash being dragged beside Braun. Her white fur was stained
with blood. The neighbor saw Braun approaching, he grabbed Jake
and ran for his own home nearby. They made it
inside and slammed and locked the door behind them. The

(15:26):
neighbor later recollected. I went into survival mode and got
my sister in law into the house and locked the
door to protect our family. The festive lights quickly gave
way to flashing police and paramedics lights as they swarmed
the scene. Police cars formed a barrier at both ends
of the strait. Ambulances positioned themselves as close to the

(15:47):
flats as possible, Their rear doors flung open as paramedics
jumped out. Officers spilled out onto the pavement. Among the
chaos of arriving emergency services and frightened neighbors spilling out
of their homes, officers found Tilly, the white Staffordshire bull terrier,
was wandering in a daze, her leash still attached and

(16:08):
dragging behind her on the pavement. Her coat was matted
with blood that had saped from wounds to her chest
and neck. She moved slowly, operating on instinct alone because
her body was in profound shock. An officer approached her carefully,
despite everything she'd been through, till east Hail gave a

(16:28):
weak wag, because that's what dogs do, even when they're dying,
even when they've been stabbed by somebody who should have
protected them, they still try to be good. Tilly was
rushed to an emergency vet. Her blood pressure was dangerously
low from blood loss, but the knife had missed her
vital organs. Tilly would survive. Jake Brown would survive too,

(16:52):
though the injuries he sustained would mark him for life.
When paramedics reached him, he was in severe distress. The
twelve centimeter stab wound to his chest had punctured his
diaphragm and injured his liver. Blood and air had leaked
into his chest cavity. His right hand was a mass
of blood and explosed tissue where the tip of his

(17:13):
finger had been severed completely. They loaded him into an ambulance,
started ivy lines, administered pain medication, and raced towards the hospital,
while calling ahead to prepare the traumaty. In the back
of the ambulance, Jake tried to explain what had happened
to the attending paramedic. He described it as like watching
a horror film. Bradley latter had survived as well. He

(17:36):
sustained sharp force injuries to his scalp, back, neck, and ear,
defensive wounds on his right hand from where he'd grabbed
the knife, yet blunt force trauma as well. Bradley kept
asking about Tiona. Where was she?

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Was she ka?

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Could he see her? The paramedics exchanged glances but said nothing.
There would be a time for those conversations later. For now,
their job was to keep Bradley alive and stable. But Joe,
Piers and in Tiona Grant weren't so lucky. Joe lay
dead on the hallway outside the flat. She had sustained
thirty one stab wounds to the face, neck, chest, abdomen,

(18:15):
and arms. She was dead. She had even sustained scratches
after death. Joe had been killed by the stab wounds
to her neck, which damaged her jugular vein and airway,
and the stab wound to her chest, which entered her
left lung. She had also sustained blunt force trauma and
defensive wounds to her arms and hands. On the balcony,

(18:37):
Toona lay faced on in a pull of her own blood.
She had sustained five stab wounds. One of those wounds
had struck her neck, severing her carroded artery and damaging
her jugular vein. What paramedics and police were securing the scene,

(19:00):
documenting evidence, treating the injured, and covering the dead, Jaswell
Braun had fled. He made it to his car and
had driven off at high speed into the night. He
drove radically weaving through traffic with his headlights off. He
ignored red lights. Police gave chase while others positioned themselves
ahead of his root. Armed police forced the vehicle to stop.

(19:23):
They grabbed him.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
From the vehicle, Start resisting, stop resisting.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Braun's hands were stained with blood. Next to the driver's
seat lay a kitchen knife covered in blood. As Brine
was arrested, he didn't say a word, but after he
was placed in the back of the patrol vehicle, he
started mumbling to himself. He said that he was crazy.
At the police station, he continued talking. He said, I

(19:52):
lost my cool tonight, and then started talking about what happened.
He said that what he had done wasn't self defense,
it was plain murder.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Not such a fence playing mind.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Brown's finger printed and had his mugshot taken and was
then escorted to his cell. Once the cracker came began
to wear off, his head seemingly became clear. He stood
in his cell and mumbled, oh Jesus, what happened tonight?
What happened tonight?

Speaker 3 (20:26):
Boy?

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Pure fucking madness. I've gone fucking crazy. Guys just gone crazy.
He then added it turned into a bloody disaster because
I was hanging out with him for too long. It
rubbed off on me, just hanging out with the Lunds.
It rubbed off on me. He paced back and forth,
and in a moment of clarity, he said, I've gone

(20:49):
bloody looney, not self defense murder. It's plain murder, not
self defense murder. The next day, Jaswell Brown was interviewed
by tam Valley Police. He suggested that he blacked out
at some point, but other than that he refused to speak.
How may what happened from conors?

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Do you know anything about anyone being stabbed?

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Jested?

Speaker 2 (21:16):
On the twenty fifth December, Jaswell Brown was subsequently charged
with two counts of murder, two coinds of attempted murder,
and one kind of possession of a knife. He was
also charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protect an animal.
After the charges were handed down, Detective Chief Inspector SHIRP.
Brangwyn publicly announced, firstly, I would like to extend my

(21:39):
deepest condolences to the families of the women who have
tragically died in this shocking incident. We've launched a double
murder investigation which may be concerning to the wider public, however,
we have made in the rest and we're not looking
for anyone else in connection with this incident, and the
parties are known to each other. But for residents of
Santa Cruz Avenue, the distinct unction provided little comfort. Knowing

(22:03):
the victims and the perpetrator were connected didn't erase the
fact that the murder had arrived on their doorstep. On
Christmas Day, the apartments were transformed into crime scenes and
cordoned off with yellow tape. Police officers stood guard while
forensic experts began their work inside, photographing the scene collecting evidence.

(22:24):
Outside the official perimeter, a makeshift memorial started to grow.
People left on flowers, cards, and trinkets. Neighbors gathered outside
in small clusters and spoke to the reporters that had descended.
An unidentified neighbor recalled saying, Braun leave the flat in
the immediate aftermath, and his description captured something chilling about

(22:46):
the man's demeanor. Braun looked super chilled, he said, not
panicked or distressed or even aware that he just committed
unspeakable acts of violence. The neighbor recalled, we heard banging
on a door next to us, and there was a
lad covered in blood and shouting I've been stabbed. He
had a chest wound and a head wound. We looked

(23:07):
out on the balcony of one of the flat and
there was a woman in distress saying I can't breathe.
There was a dog which is a bit like a staff.
He running around the estate for an hour and a
half covered in blood. It went to my friend's porch
and there was a pull of blood. After Bradley Ladder
was released from hospital, he faced a difficult decision. Where

(23:28):
do you go when home has become the place where
everything ended. He did eventually return to the flat where
Tiona lost her life and where he almost lost his.
Bradley told the bbcay that nightmares had become his new normal.
Slave brought no relief, only endless replays of the attack,
Brawn's blank face, the knife rising and falling, Tiona's voice

(23:52):
saying she couldn't breathe. His conscious eyes weren't much better.
His mind obsessively re round and replayed those moments, searching
for different choices he could have made, different outcomes that
might have saved her. He said, nothing I can do
can bring Tionna back. But I have to live for her.
The months between the arrest and court appearances stretched like

(24:14):
a wound that wouldn't close. For the families of Joe
and Tiona, for Jake and Bradley, for everyone touched by
the violence of Christmas Day. Time moved in strange ways,
simultaneously too fast and agonizingly slow. They wanted justice, but
justice required process, and process takes time. Finally, on the

(24:36):
fifteenth of April, Jaswell Braun appeared in Luton Croncourt. He
pleaded guilty to two coinds of murder and two coinds
of attempted murder. He also admitted possession of a knife
in a public place and causing unnecessary suffering to protect
an animal. According to the prosecution, they had a very
strong case. It included witnesses, CCTV and forensic evidence, and

(25:00):
it really gave Braun little choice but to plead guilty.
There were the survivors who were going to testify. The
murder Webon was found in Brown's car. His fingerprints were
on the blood on the handle. Spots of Joe and
Tiona's blood were also on his trainers. During the court hearing,
his defense attorney Charles Miskin said that his client was

(25:21):
remorseful and profoundly sorry for what he'd done. He was
ordered to return to court to be sentenced to a
later date. Outside of court, Detective Chief Inspector Sturt Brangwyn stated,
Braun is a dangerous man and I'm glad he's pleaded
it guilty, accepting responsibility for his actions that day, But
the deaths of Joe and Tiona cannot be undone. This

(25:43):
was a brutal attack on his own partner and neighbor
in their respective homes where they should have been able
to feel safe and secure. Despite Braun's guilty play, despite
the evidence and the confessions and the clear pathway from
crime to conviction, one question lingered in the courtroom and
in the public consciousness. Why Why had a dispute over

(26:04):
a crack pipe escalated to double murder? Why had Braun
turned on his own son. Why had he broken India
his neighbor's flat and killed a young woman who'd done
nothing to him. Why had he stabbed the dog. Celia
Morden of the Crime Prosecution Service said, while we may
never know why Braun committed such mindless violence, we must

(26:26):
remember the two lives that were needlessly lost. Our thoughts
remained with the loved ones of Joanna and Tiona, and
we hope today's result provides them with some closure. Jaswell
Brun returned to court on the seventeenth of June. Prosecutor

(26:48):
Diana here Ksey read aloud some facts of the case.
She described the attack on Joe, telling the courtroom Jake
Bron tried to pull his father away from her, only
for the defendant to turn on him and stab him
in the chest. Victim impact statements were presented. Bradley stood
in front of Braun and said, we both thought of

(27:10):
you as our neighbor and close friend for a number
of years. He said, the impact of what happened was
never ending. He said that his entire world and future
was taken away from him by Braun. He stated, the
world will now and forever go on without you.

Speaker 3 (27:28):
Here.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
Bradley said that he had lost his job because of
the injuries that Braun had inflicted on him. He said
that he and Teona had been nothing but kind to him.
He then tearfully said, for you to take a beautiful,
harmless woman, I wished to take my life each day
to be with her. Tiona's sister Paris provided a victim
impact statement as well. She described her sister as a

(27:52):
pure and kind soul and said that she was irreplacible.
She said that she found herself becoming anxious in public.
She told Braun, I haven't a rational fear now that
any one I come across will be like you. I
don't see Christmas is Christmas any more. I say it
is the day you stole my sister. Jonas's father, Reginald,

(28:12):
then stood before the court. He became emotional as he
said to explain my feelings is impossible. Part of my
heart has been ripped out. No more cuddles, no more
chuckles or I love you dad. Joe's mother, Susan, said
the family could only imagine how horrific her final moments
on earth were. She stated, our own well being has

(28:35):
also been seriously compromised. Our faith in humanity has been
seriously rocked. We don't think we'll ever understand. As the
victim impact statements were read aloud, Braun looked on with
his head in his hand. The only time he showed
any emotion was when his son Jack stood before him.
Jake said that the trust he had in his father

(28:56):
had been completely betrayed that day. He said, watching people
you love being stabbed is heartbreaking. I heard Joe screaming
for her life, begging him to stop. Every night I
hear Joe screaming for her life and see Joe being stabbed.
Defense attorney Charles Miskin then addressed the court. He offered

(29:17):
mitigation before the judge handed down his sentence. He said
that Braun's history was that of a man who had
a fairly ordinary life, but that he had a paranoid
view of the world. He stated Braun concurs with the
prosecution that drug intoxication underlies the offending. He said his
client was very sorry about what had happened and that

(29:40):
he couldn't forgive himself for his actions. He stated, it's
very difficult for him to prove remorse. He cannot understand
why he did it, but he did it. Mister Justice
care then addressed Braun.

Speaker 4 (29:54):
Last Christmas Day, after taking cocaine without warning or provocation,
you stabbed and beat your partner, Joanne Pierson to death.
You tried to kill your teenage son, Jake Brown, stabbing
and assaulting him. You went to a neighbor's flat and there,

(30:16):
stabbed a young woman, Tiana Grant, to death, and you
tried to kill her partner, Brandy Bradley, latter stabbing him
several times. You stabbed her partner's dog and drove from
the scene dangerously at high speed until he was stopped
by police and arrested. You had blood on your hands, literally,

(30:38):
and a bloodstained knife was on the front passenger seat
with your fingerprint on it.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
He continued steering the terrible crime you committed on that day.
The terrible crimes you committed on that day have torn
apart the lives of many people. I have seen and
heard the moving statements by your many living victims. Joanne's mother,
Suzanne Kierson, has lost her loving daughter, her sister Samanthe
is also devastated. Juan was thirty eight when you murdered her.

(31:08):
She'll never see her parents, sister, and large extended family again.
Christmas will be a time of dread, stress, grief, and
mourning for the family. They are haunted by the suffering
Juan must have endured in her final minutes. He then
sentenced Joswell Brown to life in prison, with a minimum
term of thirty nine years for each of the murders

(31:30):
they were to run. Concurrently, he also handed down a
twenty one year sentence and an eighteen year sentence for
the attempted murders of Jake and Bradley, an eighteen month
sentence for possession of a knife in a public place,
and a nine month sentence for causing unnecessary suffering to Tilly.

(31:53):
After the sentence was imposed, Joe and Tuna's family released statements.
Joe's tribute read her life was needlessly and crilly cut
short in her endous circumstances on Christmas Day in her
own home with the hands of her partner. We will
never be able to understand why. Joe experienced many good
and happy times and achieved lots in her short life.

(32:17):
These shouldn't be overshadowed by the difficulty she experienced. Joe
sometimes did not make the best decisions, but who of
us can say we don't get things wrong from time
to time. Joe always cared for everyone around her, which
was evident even in the last moments of her life.
She was inseparable from her dog Tilly, who she told

(32:38):
us was her rock. We are sure Joe will be
remembered with love and affection by all of those who
knew her. There will certainly always be a huge Joe
shaped hole in our lives. Tiona's read. Tiona had a
huge heart full of love and kindness. She was such
a kind and caring daughter and sister. Tiona is irreplaceable,

(32:59):
and she's left a huge void in our lives and
our hearts. As a family were heartbroken to have lost her.
The heartbreak is intensified by the realization that we lost
our due to the senseless, cruel actions of someone else.
Our world is emptier, full of sadness, and holds a
lot less laughter now she's gone. Tiona deserved more time

(33:20):
to live and deserve the chance to experience the good
things that life still had to offer her. The world
is a darker place without Tuna's beautiful smile. We desperately
wish that we could have made many more happy memories
with Tuna, but all we can do now is cherish
the past twenty four years of treasured memories we made
with Tuna when she was alive, which nobody can take

(33:42):
for us. Jake spoke outside of.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Court, well, I remember jo Anne getting stabbed at and
losing a life, and I remember looking myself in the bathroom,
fighting for my life, I was fighting for survival. Really,
what he got today is what he deserved.

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Bradley also spoke, although it's going to take a very
long time, and best believe it's going to be multiple
years before any form of healing can start. But I
do at least feel happy now knowing that he will
never see the light of day and that the likelihood
is that he's going to die in prison.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
The machinery of justice had done what it could. Brian
would likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
But justice, even when served, can't resurrect the debt. It
can't erase trauma or restore what was destroyed. It can
only acknowledge harm and impose consequences. Both Joe Piers and
in Tiina Grant would remain dead. Jack Braun would carry

(34:48):
the physical and psychological scores of his father's violence for
the rest of his life. Bradley latter would continue having nightmares,
would continue living in a world without the woman he loved.
Tilly would live out the remaining years with whatever trauma
dogs carry from violence they can't comprehend. And every Christmas
when lights went up and Carol's played and families gathered,

(35:12):
there would still be empty chairs at tables. Well that

(35:40):
is it for this episode of Morbidology. As always, thank
you so much for listening, and i'd like to say
a massive thank you to my new supporters up on Patreon,
Ryan and Ashley. The link to patron is in the
show notes if you'd like to join, Morbidology Plus is
also available on Apple subscriptions. I'd also like to say
happy holidays to everybody and thank you all for your

(36:01):
support this year. It's been a very different year for
me after welcoming my baby girl last December. People that
say time flies after you have a baby seriously aren't lying.
So whatever you may be doing this festive season, I
hope you're happy and healthy. Remember to check us out
at morbidology dot com for more information about this episode

(36:22):
and to read some true crime articles. Until next time,
take care of yourselves, stay safe, and have an amazing week.