This eerie coincidence happened in a suburb village called Erdington, near Birmingham in England. Erdington itself was always a quiet sleepy place near a Roman road, with a mention in the Domesday Book. Surrounded by thick chase forests of wild animals, few of the villagers ever attended its church that fell into decay. This might be down to low population ever since the Bubonic Plague. Canals, railways, farms and mansions have sprung up over the ages in Erdington, making this a ward of Birmingham with many interesting features. A quiet sleepy village with two tornadoes in 1981. The most famous news to come out of Erdington are chilling coincidences of two murders 160 years apart.
In 1817, a 20 year old woman named Mary Ashford died on Whit Monday, 26th May. She had been a cheerful pretty girl with lots of admirers and had enjoyed a party late at night. She once confided in a friend that she had felt "bad feelings about the week to come". That evening she set off to the party at Tyburn House, had fun dancing and met a man there named Abraham Thornton. After midnight she was with Abraham and went home, but she was found dead in a ditch of Chester Road at 8 a.m.
Abraham Thornton was the last person to see Mary alive. He was accused of murdering her. This went to trail and it came out that Abraham raped Mary so everything pointed at him being guilty. Then he was soon acquitted after no evidence was found and alibis came to the trial. The brother of Mary felt angry and wanted the trial reopened. The public all despised Abraham Thornton, so that he fled the country.
Eerily similar was a murder in 1974, of another 20 year old woman who was found dead in the same ditch at Chester Road. The victim was named Barbara Forrest who vanished on Whit Monday after going to a dance. Police arrested a man named Michael Ian Thornton, who last saw Barbara alive and showed blood stains on his clothes. He was sent to trial and found not guilty due to lack of evidence, and alibi coming forward, making Barbara's sister angry who wanted the trial reopened. Before she died, Barbara had once told a friend "This is going to be my unlucky month. I just know it. Don't ask me why." There are many similarities of both cases.
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