Janet White

In the novel Hallowe'en Party, Janet White was a teacher at The Elms school at Woodleigh Common. She was found strangled about two and a half years before the halloween party at Apple Trees. At that time, she had apparently been walking on the path near Quarry Wood leading from the schoolhouse to her flat which she shared with another teacher Nora Ambrose. Janet was about twenty-four at the time of her murder. Her killer was never found.

This case interested Poirot because Joyce Reynolds was killed at the Hallow'en party after boasting that she had seen a murder committed, but that she had not reported it at the time because it did not occur to her that it was a murder. A strangulation attempt was the sort of action that might have been misinterpretated as, for example, horseplay.

Miss Emlyn, the school principal described Janet White as "an emotional girl". Elizabeth Whittaker, more direct, said that Janet was "over-sexed" but became evasive when Poirot pressed for details of Janet and her friend Nora Ambrose.