A spinster who worked in a café could be the key figure in a police investigation to solve the mystery of a baby who may have been murdered more than a century ago.
The skeletal remains of a full-term baby were found, with twine wrapped around its neck, hidden beneath the floorboards of a flat in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, by the owner carrying out renovation work in July.
Newspaper wrapped around the body was dated 1910 and the twine suggested the baby – of unknown gender – may have been killed after birth.
Carbon dating analysis on bones should confirm the year the baby died and detectives expect to obtain a DNA profile that could be matched to living relatives.
Meanwhile, police hoping to solve the historic mystery have been tracing descendants of people living in the flat around this time.
No one alive can identify her in a photograph, but it is probable that potential prime suspect Mary Walker is one of the elderly faces in a group wedding photo taken in 1957
Census of England and Wales, 1911, showing Mary Walker was aged 22, single and the only woman of child-bearing age living at the house in question – number 67 Fore Bondgate
Police community support officers outside the building in Bishop Auckland in County Durham on July 31
Police forensic investigators enter the disused building after a skeleton of a baby was found beneath floorboards by contractors working on a property renovation on July 31
The Mail has done that too and given the current facts the name Mary Jane Walker stands out as a potential prime suspect.
Miss Walker was aged 22, single and the only woman of child-bearing age living at the house in question – number 67 Fore Bondgate – when the 1911 census was carried out.
She was listed as a ‘domestic’ and ‘servant’ on the official document, along with Elizabeth Adamson, 53, a ‘married’ woman and the proprietor of the ‘refreshment house’ and her son Ernest, 14.
The accommodation was above a café and ‘pie shop’ which they ran.
Until science reveals any evidence, Miss Walker’s connection to this tragic baby’s death remains pure speculation.
But intriguingly she stayed living in the same tiny flat where the baby was hidden and working in the café for more than half a century.
Scaffolding outside the disused building on Fore Bondgate in Bishop Auckland on July 31
Police forensic investigators enter the disused building in Bishop Auckland on July 31
A police car parked outside the building in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on July 31
The eldest of 13 children born to a local coal miner and his wife, a job in ‘service’ with accommodation provided would have been a valued option for a working class girl.
At that time it was seen as disgraceful and shameful for an unmarried woman to fall pregnant. In such circumstances women would be forced to hide pregnancies.
Professor Pat Thane, a social historian, said: ‘People were only looked after if they had families who could afford to support them.’
She said tragic baby deaths like this were ‘all too common’, particularly with a ‘poor domestic worker who was desperate to keep their income and place to live.’
‘It certainly happened that unmarried mothers might in the end give birth on the floor somewhere in desperation because they didn’t know what to do and then the child might just die or, as looks likely in this case, be killed because they didn’t know what else to do with it.’
By 1921 Miss Walker was still there but the café was owned by Robert Patterson and his wife Mary. In 1939 the widowed Mrs Patterson, 54, was living with her married daughter Hazel with Miss Walker listed as the café’s cook.
Police forensic investigators enter the disused building in Bishop Auckland on July 31
Police continue investigating on July 31 after a skeleton of a baby was found at the property
Police forensic investigators enter the disused building in Bishop Auckland on July 31
And that’s how it remained for decades, with the ageing Miss Walker helping the Pattersons to run the business.
An elderly relative, who asked not to be named, said she was known to his family as ‘Aunt Jane.’
He recalled: ‘She lived above the pie shop where she worked for many years and helped to bake the produce. She was quiet and shy, never married and didn’t go out and put her sealed pay packets in a drawer and didn’t spend them.’
He didn’t recall her having ‘boyfriends, only family.’ He suspected the only way she could have fallen pregnant is by meeting a married man who went into the shop.
Miss Walker made her final Will in 1966 when she was still at 67 Fore Bondgate. Apart from a few family bequests and a generous donation to the local Pentecostal Church, she also left her estate to Hazel.
She died in 1975, aged 86, with an estate valued at £12,666 after tax.
The family who lived with her have all died – if a dark secret was shared it was never divulged.
No one alive can identify her in a photograph, but it is probable that Mary Walker is one of the elderly faces in a group wedding photo taken in 1957.
The event in question was the marriage in Bishop Auckland of her niece Margaret Louth to Joseph Gelson. Margaret was the daughter of Miss Walker’s sister Elizabeth, who was closest in age to her of all the siblings and standing behind the bride.
The grisly find was made by contractors renovating a residential flat on Fore Bondgate which has been empty for a number of years
The skeleton of the baby was found at a property in Fore Bondgate
It seems likely she will have been invited to the local wedding and posing happily in the group shot.
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Body of baby found under floorboards above pizza shop is more than 100 years old, police reveal
Today story of the baby with twine around its neck and the possible link to their ancestor has stunned family members.
Roz Fleming, 54, an optical consultant and great niece, said: ‘It has come as a big shock to hear about this, but we would all like to know the truth.
‘It’s just rumour at the moment and we hope the police can find out the truth and whether the baby is connected to her. We would certainly cooperate with any police investigation if they needed DNA or anything like that.’
Detective Chief Inspector Mel Sutherland of Durham Police who is leading the inquiry said the truth should be told. Offices have made initial contact with the family but await scientific analysis to progress the investigation.
‘I expect to find out who the baby is related to but have low confidence in finding out how it died and how it was put there,’ he said.
‘My main aim is to identify who the baby is and seek the family’s wishes to give it a proper funeral. It’s a tragic story. At one point this was a child who couldn’t defend itself or speak for itself so it’s my job to do that.’
