Nancy Patterson

Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we are exploring a case which drew me in due to the strangeness of the situation and the odd

reporting on it, as well as how mysterious it appeared to be. It's no secret that I enjoy covering historical cases, and with the murder of Nancy Patterson in nineteen thirty two, the odd and vague details, as well as the large amount of speculation in the small town in Cumbria, makes it just

a different kind of case. The sad fact is since nineteen thirty two there has been little to no reporting on her unsolved murder, and sadly it looks to have been forgotten by many people, but I'm sure not by her family. This episode contains descriptions that may distress some listeners, including the brief mention of suicide, so listener discretion is always advised. Workington is a coastal town which is located on the west coast of England in the area of Cumberland in

the County of Cumbria. Cumbria is perhaps best known for the Lake District National Park, are just the Lakes, as many people call it. In the Northwest. The Lake District is known for its beautiful lakes and scenery and mountain landscapes, and is inspired many people, including artists William Wordsworth and Arthur Beatrix Potter, who wrote the Peter Rabbit series of books. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is today and was in the past a very popular destination for

visitors and for people who love hiking and doing sports on the water. Workington is located around forty five miles away from the Lake District National Park at the mouth of the River a Durwan. It's an area that has been associated with the production of coal and steel, and many people historically worked in these industries. When these industries began to decline in the UK, Workington, like many

other areas, struggled with high unemployment and dissatisfaction. Since then, Workington has had a revamp of its high street and in two thousand and six a new shopping center was built to replace an area which had been built in the nineteen seventies. Today, Workington is a mostly residential area with under thirty thousand people. During the nineteen thirties, Workington was still very much a working town, with many of the people employed in either the coal or the steel sector.

It was certainly a place where local people were known well to one another. During the week following the third of January nineteen thirty two, local man Thomas bailey Hill was increasingly cons earned about his sister in law, Nancy Patterson. He and his wife, Nancy's sister, had last seen her on Sunday, January the third, and she headed out from their home on Vulcan's Lane to

the Congressional Church in Workington around five to six that evening. Nancy usually visited the church on a Sunday night, and so this didn't seem out of the ordinary. She usually returned to the home that they shared when the service had finished, and was normally back before eight pm. Nancy was her usual self that evening, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Thomas had gone out himself that night to the Hippodrome and had got back at around nine thirty pm.

It was then that he was alerted by his wife to the fact that Nancy hadn't yet come home. This was certainly out of character for her, as she never stayed out that late after she'd been to church. Thomas decided that he would go out to try and look for her, and he searched around the town. However, he couldn't find her by eleven twenty five. That night, he and his wife were so worried that they reported this to

the police. Thomas Hill and his wife told the police that twenty eight year old Nancy lived with them as she had no parents since her mother had passed away a while back. They explained that Nancy was very reserved and usually kept herself to herself. She didn't have any male friends as far as they were aware, and usually had a very similar routine, and so they believed that something could have happened to her. They also added that Nancy had her own

private means and had around eighteen to twenty shillings a week for herself. It would later be reported that after her mother's death, Nancy was given around fifteen hundred pounds in inheritance to live on. This was the equivalent of around eighty six thousand pounds in today's money. According to Nancy's sister and brother in law, Nancy was relatively happy and contented, and there didn't seem to be any reasons why she would have just disappeared on a whim. Workington police were initially

unsure what could have happened to her, and did ask around. They discovered that she was well known in the area due to the fact that she usually wore black clothing. Some people in Workington took to calling her the Black Shadow for this reason. Despite finding out this, there was very little evidence as to where she could have gone after heading out at around six pm on that Sunday evening. That was until the eighth of January, five days after she

disappeared. Gilbert William Jones, who worked as a farm servant, stated that he was walking along the beach around thirty miles away from Workington when he noticed something on the sand. He said that he thought at first it was just a heap of clothes. However, when he got closer, he saw that it was in fact the body of a woman who was laid face first in the sand. The woman was clearly deceased, and Gilbert Jones quickly went to

Willer authorities. They removed the body to the morgue to analyze it, and they began looking into who this woman could be. It didn't take long for them to establish that this was in fact missing Nancy Patterson from Workington. Her body was taken away for analysis and a post martin was done to establish what had happened. In the meantime, Nancy's family were faced with the awful realization

that she had died at just twenty eight years old. This must have been a horrific realization, particularly for her sister, who it appears had no other family than Nancy. Nancy had been described as an orphan and so the two sisters seemingly only had each other. They couldn't understand why this had happened to her, or even the circumtan dances that led to her disappearance. How had she got thirty miles away and how had she ended up in the water.

Police now had to try and establish a timeline for Nancy and figure out if there were any witnesses that evening. They were able to track down several people who saw Nancy after she left the home on Vulcan's Lane. Joseph Hawthorne was one of the key witnesses who saw Nancy twice that evening. He told police that he knew Nancy by sight and that at around seven ten pm he saw her at Grosser's shop on Power Street. He noticed her, particularly because she

wasn't alone. He stated that she was with a man who he didn't know, and the man had his arm around her neck. He explained that the way they were walking was odd and stood out so much that he said people were laughing at them. While he didn't know the man, he said that he would recognize him if he saw him again. Joseph Hawthorne also provided them with another sighting of Nancy. He said that he was coming out of the Bessemert Arms Pub and that he saw Nancy. This time, she was alone

and she was holding a handkerchief up to her face. She appeared to look distressed and kept looking behind her, as though she was checking if someone was following her. She was going up Church Street in the direction of Durwent Street, and this was after nine pm. This struck Joseph, who thought she'd looked quite cheerful earlier on with the man, and now she looked worried and concerned. This was of interest to police, given that they needed to know

anything about her on the evening On that Sunday. Joseph Hawthorne was not the only person to have seen Nancy that evening with a man and then alone. Thomas Boardman also said he saw her close to the church. This was about seven thirty pm, and it looked as though she was waiting for someone to come out. Between seven thirty and eight pm, he then saw Nancy talking to a man at the post office. The man had his arm around her waist. Between nine thirty and ten pm, he saw her again, this

time alone. She was walking along Brow Top in the direction of Church Street. It would appear that both of these witness statements lined up. Nancy was seen with a man who had his arm around her waist, and she appeared cheerful and relatively happy at this point. By nine pm to ten pm, Nancy was alone, and Joseph's statements said she now looked worried or even scared. Nancy being out at this time at all was unusual, and so why

was she even out? What could have happened and what happened afterwards. It's also crucial to say that Nancy did not go to church that night as planned, and this was also out of character and so portant to the investigation. While police were trying to establish Nancy's movements and who she could have been with. They were also trying to find out whether her death was the result of

any sort of foul play. On the fifteenth of January, around a week after Nancy's body was recovered, the Mill and Gazette stated that police were not of the opinion that Nancy had been murdered. It was stated that her death must have been due to some sort of accident or by her own means. The idea that Nancy could have done anything to herself didn't seem likely to her

family. Her brother in law explained that Nancy had never shown any indication that she would do this, saying Nancy was too happy and contented a girl to do away with herself, especially by drowning. She was terrified of water and would not even cross a bridge over water. They believed that Nancy would never

have done something like that. Police had uncovered some witnesses who apparently had heard Nancy talk about suicide in the past, including a member of the extended family who said she'd once heard her say she would take herself off or else throw herself in the water. Another man also stated that she had once brought up the idea of suicide to him. This, however, would not be the last that was said on the matter, as the results of the post mortem

suggested something very different to this initial assumption. Doctor mac fall, who worked as a pathologist in Liverpool, gave his opinion about his own analysis of the body. He explained that Nancy's body had many abrasions on it when it was recovered. He explained where these marks were on her body, saying that she had abrasions on her forehead and her cheek. She also had a small puncture wound on the point of her chin and a bruise on the jaw on the

left side which was half an inch long. On the right hand side of her nose, she had a bruise around a three quarters of an inch long below the right side of her jaw. On her neck, she also had a small circular bruise. There were no bruises on her body, and she had superficial abrasions to both of her hands. There was no damage to her whimpipe and her tongue was swollen. Doctor McFall concluded that the bruises and marks on her nose had been recently done. He also stated that she had died

within five hours of eating food. This was significant as Thomas Bailey Hill stated that she had last eaten some bread and butter around four or fifteen the afternoon. Of course, it's unknown if she'd eaten after this. The most important finding was cause of death. Doctor McFall concluded that this was due to asphyxia, but there was nothing to show that this was caused by drowning. He actually ruled out drowning in the usual way as the cause of her death.

This conclusion clears some things up, but actually confuses others. It establishes that Nancy had died as a result of asphyxia, perhaps prior to going into the water, and a later expert, doctor James Queerer, later said that the bruises were caused before her death and they were sufficient enough to cause her harm. The conclusion did seem to rule out that Nancy had done this to herself, despite the medical professionals unable to completely rule it out without further evidence.

However, a later inquest would establish that she had died as a result of murder by person or persons unknown. The mystery was who was this person or persons and why did they want to kill Nancy Patterson. The man seemed with his arm around Nancy was of course a major person of interest in this case, as he had seem to be with her by multiple witnesses on the evening that she disappeared. It would turn out that they were in luck with this,

as the man in question voluntarily turned up to speak to police. The man named Charles Robson said he came forward to police, as quoted in the Sunderland Daily Echo, I thought it was best to give myself up and say I was in her company. He said he'd met her by appointment and that they had spent around three hours together, from around five to six until around five to nine. He said that she seemed cheerful in his company and there didn't seem to be anything wrong. He also said she gave him a ring

as a keepsake when they were parting. This did clear up one aspect of the case, as they knew that a ring was missing, but they assumed that it had been lost when she was in the water. Charles Robson stated that there had been no rough handling and that nothing of that s had happened while they were together. This assertion appears to be corroborated by the fact that several witnesses did see Nancy with a man, and none of them said that

there seemed to be anything odd or suspicious happening. This seemed to rule out this man as being the person they were looking for. However, there were still some odd sightings on that same night that raised questions. There were several strange sightings by residents in Workington after this time period and closer to the ten PM time, However, not all of them seemed the most credible. One

of them came from a man named Richard mckeatin. He said that he'd seen Nancy that evening and that she had been alone, but he couldn't account for the rest of his movements that night. At the inquest, a very odd interaction occurred between the coroner and mckeatin, implying that he may have been up to no good that night. The coroner asked him if he was a peeping

tom, to which mckeatin stated not that night. The farmer of the jury then asked him if he'd ever been on the peeping tom game in the mill fields, to which mckeatin replied yes, offten. He was then asked if he was out on that expedition for that purpose that night, to which McKeating said no, we'd all been chased by the police. There was then a final question of are there others that do that, to which he said yes.

The implication in this conversation was that there were people out there that were possibly watching or even starking women, and it was some sort of game. The implication also was that he may have been out that night and perhaps that was why he had noticed Nancy and perhaps didn't want to say what he had

been doing while he noticed her. Another man called Matthew Taylor, who was near the River Derwent that night, said he saw her leaning over one of the bridges at the stream, and that she was twisting her gloves in her hands while leaning over it. A couple also remembered seeing her that night. They were near the Navvy's bridge over the River Derwin around ten p m. When they saw Nancy talking to a man. After they'd been talking for a

few moments, they both went up the steps. After about ten minutes, they heard the sound of a man's footsteps running across a nearby bridge. These times seemed to imply that Nancy was close to the River Derwin at close to the time when the medical experts believed she had died around five hours after she'd eaten, which was around four fifteen to four thirty pm. Were any of

these sightings credible? Nancy was apparently well known to many of the residents in Workington, and so it would be plausible that these witnesses were correcting their recognition of her. However, their contradictory was she with a man or was she alone? All of the other witness statements put her as alone during this time, and so if she was alone, who had then killed her? And why? There are so many things unknown about Nancy Patterson's death, and the

accounts of her evening and what she was doing are contradictory and vague. The official ruling of murder by person or persons unknown is conclusive, and it's clear that Nancy was murdered that evening. Was this someone who randomly chose her and attacked her? Were any of the people who had been chased away by police for being peeping Tom's involved? This case is so strange in its entirety and

very sad that we know so little about Nancy herself. The fact that people in the local area called her of the black Shadow paints the picture of a young woman who was clearly still in mourning for her mother but trying in some way to move on with her life. Whatever happened to Nancy and whoever did it, she deserved better than what she got, and unfortunately, the person or people who did this have got away with it for over ninety years,

and most likely they took this secret to their grave. My aim in this episode is that Nancy was remembered and what happened to her was documented, as there have been very few mentions of her since nineteen thirty two and she deserves to be remembered. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like to support the podcast further, then you can on Patreon and contribute to the exclusive polls to get extra bonus episodes every month. You can also get access

to new episodes earlier and add free. You can use the link in the show notes to visit Patreon and see what we offer. You can also support us by reviewing the podcast wherever you listen, including Spotify, and also just share the episodes. You can subscribe on YouTube and follow us on social media. You can also subscribe and listen to my other podcast, Her Minute True Crime, which tells infamous crimes in a short form, bite size ten minutes

for people on the go or who just like the facts. Find that wherever you listen, and in the show notes, as always, I'm Caprice and this has been unseen