What looked ominously like a pair of legs was showing under the seat in a second-class compartment .sx His fears were realized when some porters helped him to lift out the body of a woman .sx Still puzzling as to what could have happened to his fiance@2e , Edward Berry at first watched the growing group of excited railway officials farther up the platform .sx When he learned what was causing the commotion he became greatly alarmed , and after the body had been taken to St Thomas's Hospital it was his grief-stricken duty formally to identify Elizabeth Camp , aged thirty-three , the girl who was to have been his bride .sx There was little doubt of how she had met her death , and even less that it had been murder .sx She had been struck several times with a blunt instrument , and her head was smashed in .sx There were signs of a violent struggle , blood on the cushions and floor , and the remains of her broken umbrella .sx But a pair of bone cuff-links found in the compartment seemed to provide the only possible clue to the killer .sx The body was examined , and it was definitely established that no sexual assault had taken place .sx It seemed probable that the motive had been robbery , and this was further confirmed when a check was made with the woman's relations in Hounslow .sx Miss Camp had been the housekeeper at the Good Intent , a public-house in Walworth .sx Her day off was Thursday , and before coming up to London in the evening she had called on her two sisters , one of whom lived at Hammersmith and the other at Hounslow , where she kept a shop .sx Elizabeth had left Hammersmith in the late afternoon , and arrived at Hounslow around 5 P.M. , where she had tea with her other sister , and then went to catch the 7.42. Her sister saw her to the station , helping her with some of her packages .sx This sister was able to establish that she had carried a green purse and had bought a railway ticket .sx But both purse and ticket , and the packages , were gone when the body was found at Waterloo .sx Neither the sisters nor Mr Berry thought it likely that she had been carrying much money .sx A porter at Hounslow supported the sister's statement that Elizabeth Camp had been alone in her compartment when the train left , but this did not help much , since it had made stops at nine stations before Waterloo .sx The police began a systematic search of the line- no easy task , but one in which patience and method paid off .sx At a spot on the embankment between Putney and Wandsworth they found a bloodstained pestle such as chemists use , with some hairs sticking to it .sx The murder weapon , more than likely , and perhaps evidence enough to have brought a killer to book in modern times .sx But in 1897 , alas !sx there was no fingerprint bureau , no experts to check and photograph any 'dabs' it might have yielded .sx It was a tough case to tackle , and Superintendent Robinson , of the L.S.W.R. Police , and Chief Inspector Marshall , of Scotland Yard , combined forces in the investigation .sx While accepting the likelihood that Miss Camp had been attacked for the sake of robbery , they did not overlook the possibility that this might have disguised another motive , and a thorough check of her former men friends and acquaintances began .sx They also had to cope with the usual flood of rumours , some well meant , some mischievous , including one that a man had been seen fleeing from Vauxhall station on the Thursday evening , with blood actually dripping from his hands .sx The inquest was opened on February 17 , but , beyond the jury hearing a formal identification of the victim and inspecting at Waterloo the carriage in which she had died , there was nothing on which to proceed , and the inquest was adjourned .sx Day by day the police followed up likely and even unlikely trails .sx It was learned that Elizabeth Camp had been lending money to her relatives , and her brother-in-law was asked for a detailed account of his movements on the 11th .sx The dead woman had been engaged once before- to a barman named Brown .sx This man agreed that his engagement had been broken off after one particular tiff , but denied that he owed Miss Camp any money .sx All the while the police were casting about for a man who had been seen leaving the train at Wandsworth .sx A passenger described this individual as a man of about thirty , of medium height , with a dark moustache , and wearing a frockcoat and a top-hat .sx The porter at the station bore out this description , but the man was not traced .sx Perhaps the news of their search got around , for a man did obligingly present himself at Wandsworth police-station , claiming to have committed the murder- but he was mentally defective , and , despite his claim to infamy , had been nowhere near the 7.42 that evening .sx Even the bone cuff-links found beside the body , which had at first been considered as belonging to the killer , proved yet another red herring , for it was learned that they had been borrowed by Elizabeth Camp from one of her sisters .sx A young man from Reading named Marshall had an uncomfortable time in the presence of the coroner .sx This man was known to have left his home on February 11 , and to have been away for four days .sx Not in itself a crime , but , added to the knowledge that he had gone shopping in the town of Guildford for a false moustache , it left him with something to explain .sx His story was that he had left home to try to join the Army ( presumably feeling that a moustache might enhance his military bearing ) , and this was accepted .sx And so the inquest , which had dragged on , with adjournments , until April 7 , finally had to be content to return a verdict of " wilful murder against some person or persons unknown .sx " The most vital clue of the Wedgwood pestle had been of no assistance .sx The killer must have been very thankful that the science of dactyloscopy was only in its beginnings .sx The next female fatality occurred eight years later , yet so strange were the circumstances that it was a further seven years before even a ghost of a solution emerged .sx There has always been something sinister in the idea of tunnels .sx The building of them was one of the most dangerous jobs connected with railway construction ; and there were many people who believed that to travel through tunnels would be an equally hazardous business .sx Some thought that the result would be all sorts of horrible illnesses brought on by the confined atmosphere .sx " The shareholders who travel by it will be so heartily sick , what with the foul air , smoke and sulphur , that the mention of a railway will be worse than Ipecacuanha , " wrote an anti-railway industrialist when it was proposed to build the Box Tunnel .sx The mere thought of subterranean travel gave others a feeling of danger .sx A medical journal said , " the deafening peal of thunder , the sudden immersion in gloom , and the clash of reverberated sounds in a confined space combine to produce a momentary shudder , or idea of destruction , a thrill of annihilation .sx " It was also prophesied that passengers would be robbed and assaulted in the darkness .sx For all that , as far as England is concerned , there have been only two occasions on which a body has been found in a tunnel in circumstances pointing to murder .sx The first was that of Mr Gold , in the famous Lefroy case , and by an odd chance the second tragedy occurred on the same line , although this time the victim was a woman .sx Though in the minds of most people there was no doubt that the woman had been the victim of foul play , the verdict brought in was that there was not sufficient evidence to show whether she had fallen or been thrown from a train .sx The Merstham Tunnel , on the London-to-Brighton line , is approximately one mile long , and some time before midnight on September 24 , 1905 , a Sunday , Sub-Inspector Peacock , of the London , Brighton and South Coast Railway , who was in charge of a gang of men engaged in relining the tunnel , was walking through when he stumbled over something in the darkness .sx It was the battered and broken body of a woman .sx He sent word straight away to near-by Merstham Station , and a stretcher party took the body to the Feathers Hotel to await identification .sx Was it a case of suicide , where some unhappy soul had walked deliberately into the blackness and into the path of some train ?sx This hardly seemed likely , since , when she was examined by a local doctor , the woman , young , small , and rather plump , was found to have her own silk scarf drawn almost tight enough to strangle her , and the ends thrust in her mouth like a gag .sx Both her wrists bore the marks of severe bruising , and there were other injuries on her body which had occurred before her death was ensured by some train which had roared through the tunnel .sx There were no letters or papers found on her to assist identification , no money , and no railway ticket .sx By then reports were being gathered about all traffic over this stretch of line , but no information was forthcoming about any carriage with an open door , nor any passenger reporting an incident which might relate .sx So the body of this small girl with the blue eyes and long brown hair in a bun at the back of her head remained a mystery until later the following day .sx During that time a description of the girl was circulated , and a Mr Robert Money came forward to identify her as his sister , Mary Money , aged twenty-two .sx The girl , who was described as being " always bright and jolly , " had been unmarried , and lived at Lavender Hill , Clapham , on the premises of a dairyman , Bridger , for whom she worked as a book-keeper .sx On the Sunday , the day of her death , she had gone out in the evening at about seven o'clock , telling her room-mate , Emma Hone , that she was going for a walk , but would not be gone for long .sx According to Miss Hone , she had not been carrying a handbag , but she believed she had had a small purse .sx Mary had certainly taken some money with her , for the police traced her movements to a shop in Clapham , where she had bought some chocolate .sx Miss Golding , who kept the sweet shop in the Station Approach near Clapham Junction , knew Mary well , and knew she was fond of sweets ; and in the brief conversation they had had she recalled that the girl had said she was going to Victoria- hardly the short walk she had suggested to the friend who shared her room .sx At Clapham Junction a ticket-collector was able to identify a photograph of the girl , and he said he had last seen her on platform six waiting to board a train for the short run to Victoria .sx A passenger at Victoria said he had seen a young lady " as near as possible " like the photograph shown him , with a man " very close in conversation and walking arm in arm .sx " A guard reported that at East Croydon he had seen what was accepted as the same couple sitting close together in a first-class compartment of the train from London Bridge of which he was in charge .sx The two could have joined this train by taking one from Victoria and changing at East Croydon .sx He also believed that they had still been together at South Croydon , and he remembered that when they reached Redhill , after passing through Merstham Tunnel , a man who might have been the companion of the girl had left the train .sx Medical evidence established that Mary Money had been dead for about an hour before her body was discovered , and this matched reasonably well with the timetable of the train in question .sx More important evidence came from a signalman at Purley Oaks , who had seen , as the train passed his box , a couple struggling in a first-class compartment ; but he seemed to have been used to seeing couples engaged in close embraces , for he had not attached any importance to the scene at the time .sx