Eight months and ten murders: Timeline of 2017 Black Country killings

There were 17 murders in 2016 when the number rose for a fourth successive year, up from 13 in 2015, nine in 2014 and eight in 2013.

Half of this year's killings have taken place in Dudley while there have been two in both Sandwell and Walsall and one in Wolverhampton.

On June 23, James Brindley, aged 26, died in his parents' arms on Aldridge High Street after he was stabbed through the heart as he walked home at around midnight.

He is believed to have been attacked in a CCTV blind spot on Little Aston Road, near The Croft park in the centre of the village.

Aaron Kahrod, 20, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified, have been charged with his murder and have been remanded in custody until September.

Hit-and-run victim Benjamin Morse, aged 36, died after he was struck by a car at around 12.15am on May 1.

Labourer Mr Morse, of Yew Tree Road, Halesowen, was hit while walking down Cherry Street in the town.

Nidal Alboraiki, aged 21, of Foxhunt Road, Halesowen, and Ahmed Alboraiki, 19, of the same address, have both pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder

They also deny a count of attempting to pervert the course of justice by disposing of a Vauxhall Corsa and a further allegation of driving dangerously.

Ahmed Alboraiki also pleaded not guilty to a charge of perverting the course of justice. A trial date has been set for October 16.

The body of 17-year-old Megan Bills was discovered inside a clingfilm-wrapped double wardrobe.

She was found dead at Highgate Road Hostel in Brierley Hill. It's believed she was killed between April 13 and 20 .

Ashley Foster, of Highgate Road, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Miss Bills and a trial is due to start on January 8 next year.

Tracey Wilkinson, 50, and her son Pierce, 13, were stabbed to death at their family home in Norton, Stourbridge on March 30.

The attack also left husband and father Peter Wilkinson, 47, badly injured.

Aaron Barley, aged 23, of no fixed address, has admitted attempting to murder Peter Wilkinson and is yet to enter pleas regarding the two deaths.

Mrs Wilkinson was a British ballroom dancing champion while son Pierce was a pupil at Redhill School.

On March 8, police were called to a flat in Wolverhampton after Anne Marie James was stabbed to death by her brother Melvin James,

He attacked his 33-year-old sister as well as his mother Joyce, who survived, with a knife in her flat in Chadwick Close, Merry Hill.

A frantic Mrs James called police to say her son had ‘stabbed her and his sister’.

Officers swooped on the address and told Mr James to ‘drop the knife’ before Tasering him, an inquest later heard.

This had no effect, so an armed response team was called but Melvin stabbed himself and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tina Billingham, 54, of Granville Road, Cradley Heath, died after arriving at a doctor’s surgery in Rowley Regis two stab wounds, one to the heart and another to her stomach and liver on February 6.

Ronald Cooke, 54, also of Granville Road, Cradley Heath, was charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty and a trial was due to get under way at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

In January, Azad Singh killed his wife, Kulwinder Kaur, aged 40, in a rage after catching her with another man in their flat at the Pinnacle, in Gomer Street, Willenhall.

He stabbed her once in her neck, once on her shoulder and once in her side with a kitchen knife.

Last month, he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 14 years for the murder at Wolverhampton Crown Court.