curiousa2z
Be patient till the last.
November 5, 1961
A bag of bones helps solve a decades-old mystery
Cave explorers discover a sack of bones in Brandy Cove, South Wales, which helps to solve a 42-year-old crime. A gold wedding band and a black comb with brown hair still attached to it were found nearby. These items, along with the bones that were pieced together to form a reconstructed skeleton, provided the missing piece of the puzzle needed to solve the mystery of the 1919 disappearance of Mamie Stuart.
After Stuart, a chorus girl, married George Shotton in 1918, the couple settled in a remote seaside cottage in Swansea Bay. It was an unhappy marriage for Stuart, who confided to friends and family that Shotton's strange behavior concerned her. In December 1919, the couple suddenly and mysteriously vanished. At roughly the same time, a guest at a local hotel left behind a trunk. Months later, when no one had claimed it, the trunk was opened to find Mamie Stuart's belongings inside.
When the police tracked Shotton down, they discovered that he been married to another woman for years and had another remote home only a few miles away. Denying that he was involved in Stuart's disappearance, Shotton even tried to refute the fact that he had been married to her. When police could find no other clues linking Shotton to the murder, he was charged only with bigamy and sentenced to 18 months of hard labor.
Forty-two years later, the necessary evidence needed to solve the mystery was finally discovered. After painstakingly reassembling the bones, Welsh coroners found that the victim was a female measuring about 5 feet, 4 inches tall. By examining the bones and cranial structure together, they were also able to estimate that the woman was approximately 26 years old when she died--Stuart's age at the time of her disappearance. Other witnesses identified scraps of clothing and the wedding band as belonging to Stuart.
An 83-year-old postman testified that he had seen Shotton struggling with a sack and heading off in the direction of Brandy Cove in 1919.
Unfortunately, the discovery came too late for justice. Shotton died in 1958, three years before Mamie Stuart's bones and personal items were found. The bastard.
A bag of bones helps solve a decades-old mystery
Cave explorers discover a sack of bones in Brandy Cove, South Wales, which helps to solve a 42-year-old crime. A gold wedding band and a black comb with brown hair still attached to it were found nearby. These items, along with the bones that were pieced together to form a reconstructed skeleton, provided the missing piece of the puzzle needed to solve the mystery of the 1919 disappearance of Mamie Stuart.
After Stuart, a chorus girl, married George Shotton in 1918, the couple settled in a remote seaside cottage in Swansea Bay. It was an unhappy marriage for Stuart, who confided to friends and family that Shotton's strange behavior concerned her. In December 1919, the couple suddenly and mysteriously vanished. At roughly the same time, a guest at a local hotel left behind a trunk. Months later, when no one had claimed it, the trunk was opened to find Mamie Stuart's belongings inside.
When the police tracked Shotton down, they discovered that he been married to another woman for years and had another remote home only a few miles away. Denying that he was involved in Stuart's disappearance, Shotton even tried to refute the fact that he had been married to her. When police could find no other clues linking Shotton to the murder, he was charged only with bigamy and sentenced to 18 months of hard labor.
Forty-two years later, the necessary evidence needed to solve the mystery was finally discovered. After painstakingly reassembling the bones, Welsh coroners found that the victim was a female measuring about 5 feet, 4 inches tall. By examining the bones and cranial structure together, they were also able to estimate that the woman was approximately 26 years old when she died--Stuart's age at the time of her disappearance. Other witnesses identified scraps of clothing and the wedding band as belonging to Stuart.
An 83-year-old postman testified that he had seen Shotton struggling with a sack and heading off in the direction of Brandy Cove in 1919.
Unfortunately, the discovery came too late for justice. Shotton died in 1958, three years before Mamie Stuart's bones and personal items were found. The bastard.
