unsolved-murders.co.uk
Unsolved Murders
Tags

Baby

Age: 0

Sex: female

Date: 17 Sep 1915

Place: Hangmans Hill, Bidborough Corner

The body of a newly-born child was found in a pond on Hangman's Hill near Bidborough Corner.

The child was found by an engine driver that was drawing water from the pond on the Friday morning at 7am. He said that he noticed a brown paper parcel just on the edge of the water and pulled it out. He said that he then cut the string and undid the parcel and found that it contained the body of a child.

He said that the paper was quite clean and looked as though it had recently been deposited in the pond and that it was close to the edge where the water was only two inches deep.

He said that he had thought that the parcel had probably contained an old pair of trousers and that if he had known what was in it he wouldn't have opened it.

He then informed the police who came to collect the body.

The policeman arrived at about 8.15am and went to Hangman's Hill pond where they found the child's body wrapped up in two sheets of brown paper and a sheet of tissue paper. He said that there were no marks whatever on the paper and noted that whilst the paper was wet, the child was quite dry.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem said that the body was of a well-nourished child and that there were no external marks of injury. He said that after the examination he came to the conclusion that it had had a separate existence from its mother and breathed but had apparently not received necessary attention at birth. He said that in his opinion the child had not lived for more than 24 hours.

He said that the cause of death was asphyxia or suffocation.

It was noted that the child could have died from suffocation resulting from being tied up in the parcel.

An open verdict was returned.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Kent & Sussex Courier - Friday 17 September 1915