Lucy Askham

Lucy Askham was found dead in a ditch.

Her body was found on Palm Sunday by two youths who were walking their dog. Her head was almost severed from her body.

She had a terrible gash on the right side of her neck which had partially severed her head from her trunk and there was a quantity of blood about three yards from the ditch.

A woman later said that she had seen the murder, saying that on 15 March 1913 she saw Lucy Askham quarrelling with a man and then saw the man pull out a knife from his pocket and cut her throat and then throw her body in the ditch. However, it was later shown that the woman was elsewhere at the time and could not have been a witness.

Lucy Askham was a native of Cambridge and was known in the district as a pavement artist and to have lived a wandering life.