Dr Nell Derby tells the tragic story of six-year-old Mary Jane Sewell, whose unsolved 1928 murder led to spurious allegations being made against her own mother and father <\/p>

Sometimes, an event as horrific as a murder, particularly when it involves a child, can have lifelong repercussions. In the case of Mary Jane Sewell, her parents could not live with knowing that their child had died, that her murderer had not been caught \u2013 and that they had been suspected of the murder themselves.<\/p>\n

Mary Jane Sewell was six when she died yards from her family home in 1928. She lived in the mining village of Sunnybrow, County Durham, at 12 Hill Street, which was in a row of miners\u2019 cottages. Mary Jane\u2019s father, Anthony, had fought in World War I, but was now an out-of-work miner; her mother, Isabella, was at home.<\/p>\n

The couple had had four children \u2013 a boy, followed by three girls. The eldest daughter, Irene, died of bronchitis shortly after Anthony returned from the war; the youngest, Dora, had died of convulsions at the age of 18 months, just two months before Mary Jane\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Read other instalments of Nell Darby\u2019s historical cold cases:<\/h4>\n
The money murders<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
The mystery of Miss Lamond<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
The mystery of the vanishing widow<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Murder in the year of the Ripper<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
The strange case of \u2018Mr Francis\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
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On the evening of 29 February, Mary Jane left her home to run some errands. As the night wore on, her parents believed that she must have gone to play with some friends, but then it got later, and they became worried and called the police. At around 11.30pm, Mary Jane\u2019s body was found in a nearby field. She had been sexually assaulted and suffocated.<\/p>\n
At Mary Jane\u2019s inquest, her parents faced aggressive questioning. It emerged that Isabella had been seeking work as a domestic cook, and in a job interview lied about her family, not admitting to having a daughter. When questioned, Isabella cried and admitted that she and Anthony were \u201cdown and out\u201d \u2013 she thought that by pretending to have no family commitments, she might be able to earn some money.<\/p>\n
On the podcast | Grisly killings & mysterious motives: murder in early modern Britain<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Poison and poverty<\/h3>\n
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