Police are investigating the death of a woman who fell from a multi-storey car park after kissing a mystery man at a strip club.
23-year-old Jamie Smith’s death is a mystery to those who knew and loved her, as the CCTV images of the ‘unidentified’ man who was with her will not be released to the public for identification.
According to reports, Jamie had been seen kissing this man in a strip club just hours before she fell to her death in Portsmouth on 23 November, 2023. However, releasing his image would breach his ‘human rights’.
An inquest heard how the young mother had plummeted to her death from the first floor of a multi-storey car park, leaving her with injuries to her head which were not compatible with life. This all happened on the day before her daughter’s fourth birthday.
Jamie Smith was 23 when she died (Solent News)
She fell around half a mile from a strip club she had been in after sitting on a wall and falling backwards. Jamie was spotted at 4am and rushed to hospital, where she was sadly pronounced dead.
The mother of Jamie, Julie Stephenson, has now urged the authorities to share the image of the ‘stranger’ as her daughter had spent her final moments with him and wants to know what really happened in the club on the Wednesday night.
She believes that Jamie was ‘spiked’ after initially visiting a Christmas market but ending up at the strip club – named Wiggle – with the mystery man, who she was seen kissing.
At Portsmouth Coroner’s Court, Julie said: “She’s my daughter and I know she would not have done that just on a Wednesday night. She went to a Christmas market, in a hoodie and trainers. She’s not going to go out and get hammered and do drugs – not when it’s her daughter’s birthday the next day.”
While Jamie allegedly previously taken cocaine, they believe that she would not use Ketamine which, along with alcohol, was found in her system.
The final footage of the young mum saw her looking ‘unsteady’ on her feet after leaving the club alone, before wandering around the streets before 4am.
Jamie’s mum, Julie Stephenson, wants answers (Solent News)
However, the unidentified man could be seen leaving 30 seconds later.
Julie told the hearing how officers did not ‘try hard enough’ to find the man at the inquest in Portsmouth.
Frustratingly, it appears that much of what would be used to identify the man cannot be utilised as CCTV at the club was not working, and the till was not logging bank cards to identify customers who made payments.
Even specialist facial recognition software could not determine who the man was.
Now, Julie said she will be speaking to the police and Crime Commissioner over failings in the investigation.
She said: “No way did she take that herself, there’s no way. She’s a scaredy-cat.”
What is known about Jamie’s movements is that she visited Gunwharf Quays with her partner, but after an argument, she left to the Guildhall area of Portsmouth and at 11.30pm, she met an ‘unknown male’ who was with two other men who then entered the Wiggle strip club.
Jamie died half a mile from the strip club (Solent News)
When inside, she made two phone calls to her cousin and sounded ‘intoxicated’ while talking about her mental health.
In the final hour of her time in the club, she was not with the man and left after 2am.
Detective Sergeant Matthew Egginton said: “We do not know who Jamie was with in Wiggle, it’s a bit unusual.”
However, they will not be publishing his image as: “He’s not a suspect, we can’t release his photograph, it’s against his human rights.”
Police conducted a ‘frame by frame analysis’ of the CCTV and ‘zoomed in as much as possible around the male to see if he was doing anything shady, such as spiking Jamie’s drinks’, but they didn’t find any evidence.
Coroner Nicholas Walker said: “I’m not persuaded this was anything other than a very sad and very tragic accident.”
