Alan Cleaver and Sam Holding are given access to long-kept secret files on a notorious murder.

IT started as a simple missing person inquiry: Sarah Corlett, a 19-year-old farm girl, had last been seen on October 16, 1928, leaving Arlecdon Farm to go to her father’s house about a mile away.

There was no great cause for concern and it was thought she may have gone to her sister’s in Carlisle. But as the days turned into weeks, fears grew for her safety.

On November 12, workmen came to clean out Arlecdon’s underground reservoir. They found Sarah’s battered body thrown down one of the entrance shafts.

THE LAST SIGHTING

SARAH had last been seen at 7pm on October 16 by Mrs Mary Gill. Sarah worked as a servant on Mr and Mrs Gill’s farm and Sarah had asked if she could visit her father’s to pick up some clogs. Mrs Gill watched her as she walked down the lane.

Her father, John Corlett, was expecting her but says she never turned up. The weather was bad so he presumed she had decided to leave it for another time. It was only when she failed to turn up for work that the alarm was raised. Despite many inquiries, no one else came forward as to having seen Sarah.

THE INQUEST

AT the inquest, it was revealed that Sarah had been struck on the head with a blunt instrument. It was also revealed that she was not pregnant.

The significance of this remark would not be fully realised by the public until some time later, but rumours had spread that she was pregnant by farmer Robert Gill – with the implication that he had murdered her because of the scandal.

ROBERT GILL

IT’S clear from the police evidence now released to the public that Robert Gill was a ‘ladies’s man’. He’d made a pass at more than one female servant in his employ – but had he had an affair with Sarah? The most damning evidence comes from Sarah’s sister Evelyn. She told police: “On 13th October, Sarah told me ‘I am going to nurse’. I said who can it be, you are not with anyone. She replied ‘To Bob Gill. He has been giving me some pill. She then looked at the calendar. I asked why. She said to see how long since Loweswater Show”.

Evelyn went on to say that Sarah had mentioned several times that she and Gill were intimate.

THE DESERTED HOUSE

THE police were unearthing yet more suggestive evidence. Adjacent to the farm was a deserted house. Only Gill had a key to this house.

Inside police found an axe which they sent away for examination. Had this been the house where Gill and Corlett had carried on their affair? Did Gill meet her there on the night of her disappearance, storing the body there until it was safe to move it to the reservoir?

Forensic examination of the axe revealed no blood on it but Insp Melville argued in his notes that she was wearing a close-fitting hat so even if she was struck with the axe it might not leave any blood on the implement.

ASTONISHING TWIST

IF the finger of suspicion was already pointing in the direction of Robert Gill, then it was about to well and truly single him out with a dramatic twist of events: Gill hanged himself.

It was shortly after noon on Saturday, November 17 when he took his own life by hanging himself in a barn. He left a number of letters including one to the coroner which had the stinging comment: “If you make the verdict ‘village gossip’ you wont be far wrong”.

His letters included a repeated, detailed description of his movements on the night of Sarah’s disappearance including possible witnesses who may have vouched for his movements.

Gill was buried in St Michael’s churchyard in Alrecdon. He was 38 and left a widow and four young children. His wife gave birth to another daughter on December 7 of that year.

POLICE INQUIRIES

IT might have been easy for the police to end the case there. Village gossip was certainly blaming Gill and he would have made an easy scapegoat. But the police inquiries were very thorough and even Sarah Corlett’s father – described as a ‘very passionate man’ – was thoroughly quizzed about his movements and his relationship with Sarah.

With no other witnesses, the police had only forensic evidence to go by and none of that proved conclusive. On December 14, the chief constable wrote to the director of public prosecutions saying the police were all but convinced of Gill’s guilt. He wrote: “While the police were unable to definitely connect Robert Gill with the crime, their investigation led them to believe that he most probably was.”

And he went on: “The fact of his alleged intimacy with Sarah Corlett, together with his crimes that he left the home immediately before she did and that he was well acquainted with the reservoir, not withstanding his denial, have led the police to come to the conclusion already referred to.”

In Gill’s pocket, police found some tablets later identified as alces and iron tablets – used at that time to hasten miscarriage in women, to abort unwanted babies. Gill, and even Sarah, may have believed she was pregnant but as the inquest showed, she was not.

THE AFTERMATH

THE Whitehaven News has been able to trace one descendant of the Gill family – Michael Gill believes the family moved to America a few years after the tragic events at Arlecdon Farm.

In his suicide note, Robert Gill had urged his wife to move well away from the area. It seems she took his advice.