The Mind-Bending True Story of the Erdington Murders
Murder Most Foul
In the early morning hours of May 27, 1817, the body of a young woman was discovered in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, England. The victim was soon identified as Mary Ashford. The ensuing investigation would uncover that the twenty-year-old had been brutally raped before being strangled to death and discarded in a rain-filled sandbox in Pype Hayes Park.
Upon retracing her steps, detectives learned that Mary had attended a dance at the swanky Tyburn House Inn on the previous night. At some point during the festivities, she had caught the eye of twenty-five-year-old Abraham Thornton, with whom she had kept company until the venue closed around midnight.
After saying her goodbyes, Mary had gone to a friend’s house to change out of her formal wear before heading back to her flat. Unafraid despite the late hour, she had then set out for the long walk home.
At around four o’clock in the morning, a group of late-night revelers spotted a woman they later identified as Mary navigating her way down a darkened street. She wasn’t seen again until just before dawn when her remains were discovered in the park.
Since he was one of the last people to see the victim alive, authorities eyed Thornton as a person of interest in the case. When he was picked up and brought to headquarters for questioning, he had seemed genuinely shocked to learn that he was a suspect in Mary’s murder. Though he freely admitted that they had engaged in consensual sex on the night she was killed, he insisted that she was alive and well when they parted ways.
According to him, following their intimate encounter, he had walked her to her friend Hannah’s house and had even waited outside to make sure she made it home safe. After she failed to reappear in a timely manner, he concluded that she wasn’t coming out and left.
Although the witnesses who had seen her walking home in the hours before dawn attested to the fact that she was alone, prints found in the mud near the spot where Mary’s body was recovered matched a pair of boots owned by Thornton. On the strength of this strong piece of physical evidence, he was charged with her rape and murder.
While authorities were convinced that they had found their killer, the court wasn’t so sure. Citing a lack of evidence, Thornton was declared not guilty after a period of deliberation that lasted only six minutes.
Certain that Thornton had murdered Mary in cold blood, her brother William refused to accept the decision. Rather than remaining silent, he and his supporters had insisted on a retrial. Since double jeopardy was not in play at the time, three months after his acquittal, Thornton was once again forced to defend himself against a charge of homicide. This time, however, the proceedings would be anything but conventional.
In a surprising turn of events, Thornton’s legal team called for a trial by battle. In this seldom used legal maneuver, the defendant would be forced to literally fight for his honor. His accuser, William Ashford, would also be his opponent. If the latter emerged victorious, Thornton would be led to the gallows where he would face his executioner. If he came out on top, his name would be cleared, and his reputation restored.
Ashford balked at the suggestion. In an attempt to stall the proceedings, he had refused to acknowledge the challenge. As a result, five months would pass before the court stepped in. Keeping with the rules of the game, Thornton was awarded a win by default, which was as good as being found innocent. With the matter settled once and for all, all charges against him were dismissed.
Knowing that a cloud of suspicion would follow him if he remained in Britain, Thornton escaped to America where he lived out his life in virtual anonymity. While his acquittal had effectively closed the book on Mary’s murder, a shocking crime that would occur decades in the future would lead to renewed interest in the case — for good reason.
History Repeats Itself
Over a century later, a twenty-year-old childcare worker named Barbara Forrest would meet a strikingly similar fate as that of Mary Ashford. The tragic events unfolded on May 27, 1975, when she attended a dance on the arm of her boyfriend Simon. After tripping the light fantastic until midnight, they had stopped to grab a bite to eat. At around one o’clock in the morning, Simon walked Barbara to a bus stop and kissed her goodbye. It would be the last time he would see her alive.
Sometime between his departure and the bus’s arrival, the young nurse had crossed paths with a killer. Hours later, her broken body would be found lying prone in Pype Hayes Park, a mere three hundred yards from where Mary Ashford’s body was discovered over a hundred and fifty years earlier. An autopsy would show that she had been savagely raped and strangled to death.
After speaking with the victim’s close friends, detectives focused their attention on a man she worked with at the Pype Hayes Children’s Home named Michael Ian Thornton. A bit of an odd duck, he had reportedly shown more than a passing interest in the attractive brunette.
When investigators paid him a visit, they found a pair of pants covered with what appeared to be blood spatters. When confronted with the damning bit of evidence, Thornton had no explanation for the presence of the stains. Even so, he was adamant that he had not gone out on the night of Barbara’s murder. His elderly mother, who also lived in the home, backed up his story.
The case against Thornton suffered a blow when lab tests conducted on the blood stains came back inconclusive. Fortunately, the scales evened out when his alibi crumbled under police scrutiny.
Despite the scant evidence against him, Thornton was ordered to stand trial for the murder of Barbara Forrest. After carefully reviewing the crown’s threadbare case, the jury found in his favor. Having been cleared of any wrongdoing, he walked away a free man.
Incensed by the verdict, Barbara’s sister Erika put everything she had into finding justice for her murdered sibling. In 2012, the family demanded that the case be reviewed in light of advancements in DNA technology. As of this writing, the investigation remains open and active.
As horrible as these murders were in and of themselves, the fact that they mirrored each other in nearly every way is what sets them apart in the annals of crime. The similarities are as follows:
Mary Ashford and Barbara Forrest were both born on December 31. They also died on the same day: May 27, albeit over a century and a half apart.
Both were twenty years old at the time of death.
Both had premonitions of their murders in the weeks leading up to the actual crimes.
They were killed on the Christian holiday Monday of the Holy Spirit, also known as Whit Monday, which happened to fall on May 27 in both instances.
Both women had been sexually assaulted and strangled.
Their bodies were dumped in Pype Hayes Park and discovered just after sunrise.
The suspected killers in both cases shared the surname Thornton.
Abraham Thornton and Michael Thornton were both tried and acquitted of murder.
Siblings of the murdered women would fight tirelessly to see that the killers were brought to justice.
Both women had attended dances only hours before their deaths.
Mary and Barbara were both dark-haired beauties who resembled each other enough that some historians asserted that they could have been mistaken for sisters.
The Mystery Endures
While the Ashford/Forrest murder cases are intriguing to be sure, not everyone is convinced that the similarities are as remarkable as they appear. Naysayers contend that a calculating killer in the year 1975 — who had clearly done his research — could have set out to recreate Mary’s murder in modern times.
Dedicated to the bizarre task, he had searched patiently for a woman who was exactly the same age as Mary had been at the time of her demise. Being a stickler for detail, he had also made certain that they shared a birthday. This ingenious psychopath would have also had to try to frame a man who bore the same surname as Mary’s alleged killer. Lucky for him, the day he chose to carry out his misdeed had fallen on Whit Monday, just as it had done in 1817. In another fortunate roll of fate’s dice, he had gambled that he could get away with murder just like his predecessor. To everyone’s surprise, he had managed to do just that.
Though this bit of conjecture has its proponents, it would be stretching the imagination to its breaking point to believe that anyone could pull off such a convoluted scheme.
Wherever the truth lies, few can deny that these murders — occurring well over a century apart — are either the most coincidental in history or a predetermined series of events orchestrated by forces outside of our realm of understanding.
Resources:
·huffpost.com
·birminghammail.co.uk
·usatoday.com
·countrylife.co.uk
·mysteriousuniverse.org
·scaryforkids.com
·mysteriousunsolved.com
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