A little girl snatched from her cot - how a draft from an open window led to the discovery of a chilling murder
When ward sister Gwendolyn Humphries went to investigate a draft coming from an open door on the children's ward at Queen's Park Hospital, Blackburn, in May 1848, she could not have known the horror that would unfold.
But just before midnight, on May 15, Nurse Humphries sensed something was amiss. Noticing the draft she went to investigate and discovered June was missing. The side of her cot was up, and there was no way June could have scaled it. Along with the footprints and the open door, there was only one conclusion: June had been taken.
A post mortem revealed June had died from shock after suffering blunt trauma to her head. The pathologist concluded she had been swung by her legs against the wall, causing head injuries. Further injuries showed she had been raped, and teeth marks were found on her little body. With no real leads, the police checked the fingerprints of 2,000 people who had access to the hospital, but were unable to find the owner of the unidentified print. It was at this point that DCI Capstick decided that every male, aged 16 or over, in the town of Blackburn, would have his fingerprints checked. He was determined to catch the killer and if it took weeks of strenuous checking then he was willing to do it.
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