what looked ominously like a pair of legs was showing under the seat in a second-class compartment . his fears were realized when some porters helped him to lift out the body of a woman . still puzzling as to what could have happened to his fianc&amp;eacute;e , Edward Berry at first watched the growing group of excited railway officials farther up the platform . when he learned what was causing the commotion he became greatly alarmed , and after the body had been taken to St Thomas &apos;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 . there was little doubt of how she had met her death , and even less that it had been murder . she had been struck several times with a blunt instrument , and her head was smashed in . there were signs of a violent struggle , blood on the cushions and floor , and the remains of her broken umbrella . but a pair of bone cuff-links found in the compartment seemed to provide the only possible clue to the killer . the body was examined , and it was definitely established that no sexual assault had taken place . it seemed probable that the motive had been robbery , and this was further confirmed when a check was made with the woman &apos;s relations in Hounslow . Miss Camp had been the housekeeper at the good intent , a public-house in Walworth . 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 . 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 . this sister was able to establish that she had carried a green purse and had bought a railway ticket . but both purse and ticket , and the packages , were gone when the body was found at Waterloo . neither the sisters nor Mr Berry thought it likely that she had been carrying much money . a porter at Hounslow supported the sister &apos;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 . the police began a systematic search of the line - no easy task , but one in which patience and method paid off . 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 . the murder weapon , more than likely , and perhaps evidence enough to have brought a killer to book in modern times . but in 1897 , alas ! there was no fingerprint bureau , no experts to check and photograph any dabs it might have yielded . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . day by day the police followed up likely and even unlikely trails . 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 . the dead woman had been engaged once before - to a barman named Brown . this man agreed that his engagement had been broken off after one particular tiff , but denied that he owed Miss Camp any money . all the while the police were casting about for a man who had been seen leaving the train at Wandsworth . 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 . the porter at the station bore out this description , but the man was not traced . 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 . 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 . a young man from Reading named Marshall had an uncomfortable time in the presence of the coroner . this man was known to have left his home on February 11 , and to have been away for four days . 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 . 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 . 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 . the most vital clue of the Wedgwood pestle had been of no assistance . the killer must have been very thankful that the science of dactyloscopy was only in its beginnings . 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 . there has always been something sinister in the idea of tunnels . 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 . some thought that the result would be all sorts of horrible illnesses brought on by the confined atmosphere . 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 . the mere thought of subterranean travel gave others a feeling of danger . 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 . it was also prophesied that passengers would be robbed and assaulted in the darkness . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . it was the battered and broken body of a woman . he sent word straight away to near-by Merstham station , and a stretcher party took the body to the Feathers Hotel to await identification . was it a case of suicide , where some unhappy soul had walked deliberately into the blackness and into the path of some train ? 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 . 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 . there were no letters or papers found on her to assist identification , no money , and no railway ticket . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . on the Sunday , the day of her death , she had gone out in the evening at about seven o&apos;clock , telling her room-mate , Emma Hone , that she was going for a walk , but would not be gone for long . according to Miss Hone , she had not been carrying a handbag , but she believed she had had a small purse . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 . the two could have joined this train by taking one from Victoria and changing at East Croydon . 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 . 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 . 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 . 