On the afternoon of Monday, 12th September 1853, Jane Collinge made her way to the home of 31 year old Elizabeth Cunliffe, her step-daughter, fearing that something terrible may have happened since they last spoke the previous day.
Elizabeth had suffered from severe depression since the birth of her daughter Alice Hannah, back in January of that same year and had been in a low state of mind for the past three months, at one point telling her stepmother that her soul would be eventually lost and only on the previous evening she said that there was no chance of her father, herself or her stepmother going to heaven – which, as you can imagine would have been an unsettling thing to hear.
As she approached Elizabeth’s home, the porch door was open but upon trying the front door, she found it was bolted from the inside. Still worried about the previous evening and seeing how troubled Elizabeth seemed, Jane quickly hot-footed her way back to her house to inform her husband, John.
A few minutes later and just after 2.00pm, John, along with Jane as well as Mary Dyson, a neighbour of the Cunliffe’s, would return to Elizabeth’s home and, just like his wife had already encountered, John found the front door to be fastened from the inside. After a few minutes of struggling, he somehow managed to force the door open and began to search the house for any signs of Elizabeth or any of her children.
The fire was out and it seemed the house was empty but John knew that was impossible as the front door had been locked from the inside so somebody must be in the house. Making his way upstairs and upon entering one of the bedrooms he saw not only three of Elizabeth’s children laying on one of the beds but also that of Elizabeth lying on another, her body entirely covered in bed clothes.
Fearing the worst, he removed the sheets, revealing Elizabeth who was wearing a night dress and two petticoats that had by now been besmeared with blood. Her head was downwards being supported by her hands and she had two handkerchiefs tied around her neck which he tried to lift. In doing so, blood gushed from the neck and whilst he didn’t see any wounds, he could hear wind rattling in her throat. Alarmed, he immediately replaced the handkerchiefs. Standing back, he noticed blood was trickling onto the floor beneath the bed and this is when the most shocking of sights would reveal itself.
