Today, Investigation Department solves many cases with the help of advanced science, methodology, lie detection, and many other methods. Now, if I take you back to the period when the techniques of today's progress are not available, and in those days if a murder had taken place in such a planned manner, no one knew that such a crime had taken place. Then it almost becomes a perfect crime for the killer to travel freely.
Like a murder that occurred in Polstead, Suffolk, England, in 1827 without leaving any witnesses, and the killer was happy with his life, not knowing that someone's mysterious dream will catch him.
Maria Marten, the daughter of Thomas Martin, a molecatcher from Polstead, Suffolk. She formed a relationship with her neighbor William Corder. Maria was an attractive woman, and her relationships with the men in the neighborhood had already resulted in two children. William Corder was the son of a local farmer who was a fraud and a womanizer.
Corder wished to keep her relationship with Maria a secret, but she gave birth to her child in 1827. Maria was pressuring Corder to marry, but he showed no desire to marry her. The child died, but Corder still showed no intention of marrying Maria.
And one day, Maria got disappeared.
According to her stepmother Ann Marten, Corder arrived at her cabin on Friday, May 18, 1827, and told Maria that the local bailiff had obtained a court order to prosecute her for having bastard children.
Maria couldn't leave in broad daylight, but Corder told her that she should dress in men's clothing so that no one would recognize her and that he would take her things to the barn where she could meet him and change before continuing to Ipswich.
Shortly after Corder left the house, Maria met him at the Red Barn, located on Barnfield Hill, about half a mile from the Martens' cabin. Unfortunately, this was the last time she was seen alive.
After a few days, Maria's stepmother began to dream that she had been killed and buried in the Red Barn every night.
Corder later appeared and claimed that Marten was in Ipswich and that he still could not bring her back as her wife for fear of provoking the ire of her friends and relatives. Pressure on Corder to produce his wife eventually forced him to leave the area.
Maria's stepmother began to talk of dreams that Maria had been killed and buried in the Red Barn.
On April 19, 1828, she forced her husband to go to the Red Barn and dig in the one-grain storage container. She discovered the remains of her daughter buried in a sack. She was very decomposed but still identifiable.
Her fearful dream came true.
An investigation was conducted at the Cock Inn in Polstead (which still stands today), where Maria was formally identified by her sister Ann hers for some physical characteristics. Corder's green scarf was around the neck of her body.
Corder was discovered in Brentford, running the boarding house with his new wife Mary Moore, whom he had met through a newspaper ad he had placed in The Times.
Corder was taken back to Suffolk, where he was tried at Shire Hall, Bury St Edmunds.
Corder was shocked when he learned that Maria's stepmother's dream discovered Maria's corpse.
Ann Marten was called in to testify to Maria's disappearance and her subsequent dreams of her. Thomas Marten later told the court how he had unearthed his daughter, and Maria's 10-year-old brother George revealed that he had seen Corder with a loaded pistol before the alleged murder and then seen him walk from the barn with a peak.
Corder then gave his version of events. He admitted to being in the barn with Maria but said that he had left after they argued. Corder claimed he heard a pistol shot as he walked away from her and that he ran back to the barn to find her dead with one of her pistols beside her.
The jury did not believe his story and sentenced him to hang.
He later confessed to the prison chaplain that he had accidentally shot her in the eye after they argued while removing her disguise and flatly denied stabbing Maria.
On August 11, 1828, Corder was hanged in front of a large crowd.
If Ann had never dreamed of murder, then Corder would never have been caught. And no one would have ever found out about Maria Marten's death. Strange to say, but a dream revealed a murder.
Good post
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