Barnorama All Fun In The Barn
7. The Red Barn Murder
1827, Polstead, Suffolk, England. 24 year old single mother Maria Marten has arranged her elopement to Ipswich with her lover 22 year old William Corder in the presence of her step mother Ann Marten. William was known to be quite the fraudster and troublemaker by the way. They arranged a meeting in the local landmark known as The Red Barn about half a mile from the Marten’s cottage. Friday the 18th of May, 1827 was the day that Maria was seen alive for the last time. On that day both Maria and William vanished from Polstead.
William was sending letters to Maria’s family claiming that she is well and they live happily near Ipswich. Her relatives wanted a letter written from Maria herself, but William came up with different excuses as to why she is not the one writing. Fearing a visit, he later wrote that they had moved to the Isle of Wight.
Maria’s family was growing suspicious, and her stepmother Ann, was reporting strange dreams in which Maria is being murdered and buried in the Red Barn. On the 19th of April 1828 Ann Marten finally persuaded her husband to go and check the Red Barn. When they arrived she pointed to one of the grain storage bins and asked her husband to dig there. Soon they uncovered a decomposed body, but they were able to identify it by the clothes, hair color and a missing tooth that Maria was also missing.
William Corder was later found in London, with a new wife. He was arrested by the London Police. After some time he confessed the murder. He was hanged on August 11th, 1828 at the gallows in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. His death was also gruesome in a different way, as his body was later dissected, and his skin was used to bind a book that described the murder.
Maria’s murder has been a popular topic for years to come. It entered the local folklore, it became the basis for songs, plays, ballads as well as five movies in the 20th century.
H/T – Source
8. Nadine Haag
For our last three entries we move out of the realm of ghosts, weird dreams and psychics and we enter the realm of hard cold evidence left by the victim.
Such is the case of Nadine Haag from Sidney, Australia, whose lifeless body was found in the bathroom with a deep cut on her wrist in December 2009. Everything pointed to a suicide, and there even was a suicide letter written in Nadine’s own handwriting.
Nadine’s family refused to believe that she had committed suicide, she was 33 at the time of her death and had no real reason to end her life. Her family suspected her ex-boyfriend Nestore Guizzon with whom Nadine had a custody battle over their child. Another fact that contradicted the suicide theory was that the cut on her wrist was too deep for a suicide.
Further investigation found a piece of scrap paper under the suicide letter, on which the words “He did it” were written.
Some three years later the new tenants of Nadine’s house, found the same words etched on to a bathroom tile.
In 2013 the coroner disagreed with the initial conclusion of the police that this was a suicide. However there was no evidence that Nadine referred to Nestore as her murderer and there was no evidence that could place Nestore in her house at the time of the murder.
H/T – Source