Eunice Ellen Clements

Eunice Ellen Clements was found strangled on some wasteland near her home.

A verdict of murder by some person or persons unknown was returned.

She had lived at 6 Plane Avenue in Pemberton and was the wife of an army cook.

She was found in some bushes in a hollow on the spare land about 200 yards from her home on 16 June 1942. She was last seen late on the night of Monday 15 June 1942 in Wigan.

Her death was given as being due to asphyxia and she had a fractured skull. The pathologist that carried out her post-mortem said that she had three lacerated wounds to her scalp and several small cuts on her face and that her neck showed diffused bruising.

It was heard that she had been alive at 11.30pm on the night of 15 June 1942 and that she was found dead four hours later.

Her clothing was noted as having been torn, indicating that a struggle had taken place.

After her body was found, bloodhounds were used to try and trace her murderer.

The police said that they were trying to trace her movements in the hours before she met her death saying that there was a gap of 14 hours which was unaccounted for. They said, 'We at once began a house-to-house check on the housing estate where Mrs Clements lived, and officers made inquiries at all bus and railway stations within a wide area'. The police added that the 14-hour gap could be cut if anyone who had walked near the field on the night of the murder that had seen her came forward and appealed for anyone that had been near the place where she was found between 11.30pm on 15 June and 3.10am on 16 June 1942 to come forward..

The police said that they were also trying to trace a man that was said to have been seen wandering about in the district at night. He was said to have usually worn a cloth cap and to have been a stranger to the town.

She had been employed as a barmaid in Wigan and had two children.

Her husband had been serving with the Forces in the United Kingdom.