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This mystery began with thenewspaper account of a child who drowned while fleeing threatened punishment, but became a poignant investigation into a Victorian working-class family, the legal meaning of a child’s inquest verdict, and a remarkable burial-register annotation that described her final moments as a “paroxysm of fear”. THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE Chester Chronicle and Cheshire…

This mystery began with a newspaper appeal for a young woman who vanished without explanation from her workplace, but became a wider investigation into a Victorian family, a mysterious £100 payment, a pioneering plastics company, and decades of missing records before revealing that the woman had survived and eventually reunited with her sister. THE NEWSPAPER…

This mystery began with a newspaper report of a young bride seeking the return of her estranged husband but became a far-reaching investigation into a marriage contracted at fourteen, opposing petitions for restitution of conjugal rights, a decade of separation, an allegation of adultery, a contested divorce, and two remarkably different lives built after the…

This mystery began with a newspaper report of a bigamous marriage and an alleged stabbing, but became a wider investigation into a Victorian working-class family, two deceived wives, children caught in the consequences of their father’s double life, a five-year prison sentence, and the enduring social importance of marriage, respectability and family responsibility. THE NEWSPAPER…

This mystery began with a newspaper account of a young woman’s murder but became an nvestigation into a Victorian farming family, a troubled courtship, jealousy and escalating violence, a possible premeditated killing, a fugitive’s escape and capture, and a petition for mercy that failed to prevent his execution. THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE Liverpool Weekly Mercury, 27…

This mystery began with a newspaper report of a child’s murder by poisoning but developed into a wider investigation of disputed paternity, a bitter maintenance dispute, a deceptive charitable scheme, suspicious correspondence, emerging forensic evidence, and the execution of two people convicted of the crime despite the jury’s recommendation for mercy. THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE Liverpool…

This mystery began with the discovery of a skeleton in a Norfolk field but developed into an investigation spanning an elderly farmer’s unexplained disappearance, a substantial unpaid debt, a disputed landholding, a troubling witness account, and a coroner’s persistent promises of a breakthrough, while the identity of the remains and the ultimate outcome of the…

This mystery began with a newspaper account of a brutal attack on a greengrocer’s wife but became an investigation into a Victorian household, a husband’s failing health, the vulnerability of a small business, and the life of a woman who survived a violent crime but was left with many questions unanswered. THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE The…

This mystery began with a newspaper account of a Victorian breach-of-promise action but became a poignant investigation into a concealed identity, an alleged seduction, a financially dependent relationship, a broken promise of marriage, and a woman’s struggle to secure her future in a society where men could preserve their respectability while women risked losing their…

This mystery began with a newspaper account of a bigamy trial but became a far-reaching investigation into a transported convict’s return to England, multiple marriages under possibly assumed identities, the lives of the women he left behind, and a series of unresolved questions about his past, his movements and his ultimate fate. THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE…