Amy Margaret Reeves

Amy Reeves was found dead in a pond on Chertsey Common, Longcross near to Kitsmead Cottage.

She was found by her father who had gone looking for her when she didn’t return home. He found her lying face down in the pond with only her bare feet out of it. She had wounds on her head.

Amy Reeves had lived close by with her family at Kitsmead Cottage.

Her father, who was a gardener, said that he last saw Amy Reeves on the Monday night at their cottage in Longcross and that the following morning he went off for work at 3.45am at which time Amy Reeves was asleep in bed. He said that on the Tuesday night when he returned at about 8.30pm she was not at home but that he was not uneasy at her absence as she sometimes remained out playing with the other children, and he had his tea. He said that his two sons went out to look for her at 9pm and that when they returned unable to find her at 10pm that he went out to look for her himself. He said that as it had been a hot day that he thought that she might have gone to the 'dipping hole' to paddle, noting that the place was used to water cattle but was seldom used for anything else although the children occasionally paddled in it.

He said that when he arrived that he saw her in the middle of the pond lying on her side with a hole in her head, saying that the water was not deep enough to cover her legs, noting that as they were naked, he had been able to discern them through the darkness.  He said that he then at once sent for the police.

A 16-year-old boy was charged with her murder but discharged after the inquest heard that there was not enough evidence to commit him. He had been seen carrying a stick around the village of Longcross on the day and had said to someone, 'This is a fine stick. I got it from the common. It would make a fine cudgel, wouldn’t it?'. He had lived in Chobham Street, Chobham and had been a gardener.

A home office professor said that Amy Reeves had probably been hit on the head with a stick while she was stood in the pond and then fallen down and drowned.

Witnesses said that the boy had been seen carrying a stout stick that day and a similar stick was later found in a deep hole on the common.

A police inspector said that he went to the common in the early morning of 19 July 1911 to a small pond just off a footpath that was round in shape, about 11 feet deep by 10 feet and about an average of 9 inches deep with water and 9  inches deep with mud.

He then saw Amy Reeves's body who was pointed out to him by her father. He said that when he examined her body that he saw three wounds on her head, one on top, one on the right eyebrow and one low down on the back of the head, each of which appeared to be punctured to the bone.

He said that when he then examined the pond that he saw, near the middle, the top of a thick stick standing out of the water, with about two inches of the stick being exposed. He said that it was nearly upright and with the bottom end firmly fixed in the mud.

When the stick was pulled out it was found to be a garden birch, about two feet long and six inches in circumference and when examined it was found to have had a quantity of what appeared to be human hair which was fairly long and light brown or fair in colour on it.

The police later identified a birch that was growing on a bank adjoining the common about 200 yards away from the pond from which there were four large birch stems growing from one root that had recently been cut and cut samples of that from which the court could see the stem had been cut. Other fresh-cut sticks were also taken in evidence specially from the bank and other parts of the common between the bank and the pond although not from near the pond.

Amy Reeves's sister said that her mother had died seven months earlier and that there were four of them living at the cottage and that her father was a gardener at the Holloway Sanatorium.

She said that she last saw Amy Reeves at about 2.30pm on the Tuesday 18 July 1911, noting that Amy Reeves didn't go to school that morning but had stayed to help her.

She said that during the morning, between 11am and 12 noon, she had seen the boy tried for Amy Reeves‘s murder with Amy Reeves, playing in the yard, noting that the boy didn't live next door but was a frequent visitor to the house which was tenanted by his aunt and uncle.

She said that Amy Reeves came in alone at noon and helped herself to some bread and butter and then went out eating it and that she last saw her playing by herself in the yard at 12.30pm.

She said that between 2pm and 2.30pm she saw the boy walk up the garden path, which was about 200 yards from the pond, noting that he looked a little flurried, as though he wanted to speak, but didn't know what to say. She said that he then asked her whether she was still working and then said, 'I have been lying under the apple tree asleep'. She noted that he had a fresh cut birch stick in his hand and then told her that he was going to his aunt’s house to have some tea and that he then went off to his aunt’s house, returning about half-an-hour later.

She said that he still had the stick with him and the he again joked with her about her work. She said that she then asked him if he would like to do some work and dig up potatoes and that he asked how much and she said 'threepence an hour' but said that he told her that that was not enough.

She said that he talked to her for about twenty minutes to half-an-hour. She said that the stick that he was carrying looked like the one produced in court but appeared to be longer.

She said that he made no reference to Amy Reeves and that she thought that Amy Reeves had gone to afternoon school.

A police inspector said that when he had visited the pond at about 11pm on the Tuesday, noting that he called it the 'dip' hole, that Amy Reeves was there lying on the bank and that on the opposite side he saw a pair of child's boots and stockings. He noted that there was a large wound over Amy Reeves's right eye. He said that she was not actually in the water when he saw her but said that her clothes were saturated with water and mud.

He said that he later went to the birch tree that had been cut and collected a number of items from the bank including leaves, mould, chips and fibre, all of which were very wet. He said that the spot was about 200 yards from the pond and that a little later he went into a wood shed at the house of the boy’s uncle and aunt who lived next door to Amy Reeves and that just inside the shed door he saw a chopper, which was produced at the trial, on which, when examining it, he noticed had some leaves adhering to it that were similar to those found on the bank where the birch tree had been cut.

He said that about 6.45pm on the Wednesday that he saw the boy in Chobham Street in Chobham and stopped him and said, 'I am a police inspector, and am going to take you to Chertsey, where you will be charged with causing the death of a little girl named Amy Reeves'. He said that the boy then said, 'I am sure it was not me, sir'. He was then taken to Chertsey police station where he was charged with killing Amy Reeves by striking her on the head with a thick stick.

Amy Reeves's inquest had returned a verdict of wilful murder but without sufficient evidence to say by whom it was committed.

When the boy was discharged on Friday 11 August 1911, the magistrate said that he had brought the main part of the trouble on himself by lying about his movements on the day of the murder and he was advised to be more careful in the future.