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Carl Oscar Sandmann

Age: 20

Sex: male

Date: 24 Dec 1932

Place: Cuerdale Lane, Cuerdale

Carl Oscar Sandmann was found dead in a ditch.

He was an unemployed fitter's labourer from Chorley Road in Walton le-Dale near Preston. His body was found in a ditch in Cuerdale Lane, Cuerdale near Preston by an omnibus driver.

A policeman said that he was 8ft 6in from the road and said that he could have stumbled there if he had been hit by a car.

A police surgeon said that Carl Sandmann's face was bruised, one of his eyes had been bleeding and the base of his skull appeared to be fractured. He said that he thought that he had died about four hours before he had seen his body which was at 10.10pm. He also said that he thought that he had lived for a few minutes after receiving his injuries.

The policeman said that he found some mud and grit at the scene such as might be expected to collect under a car mudguard. He also said that Carl Sandmann's trousers and overcoat were torn. However, the coroner said that if the tear to his trousers had been caused by a car then he would have had some corresponding mark on his leg.

However, the coroner said that the absence of any injuries to his body seemed to eliminate the possibility that he had been hit by a car and said that he thought that his body had been placed in the ditch and that he had been fatally injured some other way. He said that the injury to his eye could have been caused by a fist but that he didn't think that that was likely.

Carl Sandmann's mother said that he often went out on his own but noted that she didn't think that he had any friends in the district that he was found in which was about three miles from where he lived. She said that he had gone out at 12 o'clock without saying where he was going.

His body was found by the omnibus driver at 8.05pm later on the Saturday night as he drove his bus along Cuerdale Lane.

An open verdict was returned at his inquest.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Leeds Mercury - Wednesday 28 December 1932

see Lancashire Evening Post - Tuesday 27 December 1932

see Gloucester Citizen - Wednesday 28 December 1932