September 30th: beginnings of the cross examinations

York Herald, September 30^th, 1893. 

The Bath Murder Mystery.

At Western Bath yesterday, Arthur Stevenson Coombs (20), coach builder’s apprentice, was charged with murdering Elsie Adeline Luke, whose remains, as is supposed, were recently found in a cave at Bath. The accused was greatly agitated. Supt. Rutherford said that Coombs, when arrested, admitted having courted the deceased, but denied responsibility for her death. The defending solicitor reserved his cross-examination for this and other witnesses.

Mr D.S. Smith said he was speaking with Coombs last evening, when the latter asked how they were sure the remains were those of Luke. Mrs Kerry identified the linen produced as her property.

John Edwards, fishmonger’s assistant, said he had seen the prisoner and Luke together some time ago. He had a conversation with Coombs, who said she ought to be dead or killed. Witness supposed the girl Luke was referred to.

Kate Bullock, deceased’s fellow servant, said that a youth whom she would not positively say was the prisoner, frequently visited Luke and used to go into the cellar with her. Annie Hayman said deceased had told her she had been enceinte for three months. That was about August 1891.

The accused was remanded.

September 30th: the inquest is opened

Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph, 30^th September, 1893. 

A gruesome discovery. 

Supposed murder near Bath.

A sensational discovery which has just been made near Bath points to the perpetration of a murder. On Saturday the police removed from a cave on Hampton Down the remains of a young woman which had been discovered there by a son of Commander Brand, R.N. , and another boy during their explorations. The corpse, which was well-nigh reduced to a skeleton, had been covered over with stones. The skull had been fearfully battered in, and the assumption is that the victim was first murdered and then dragged to the cave, which is situated in a very secluded spot. Part of the scalp remained on the right side of the head, to which a small quantity of brown hair was adhering. This was plaited. The woman had an excellent set of teeth, only one, on the upper jaw, being missing. The remains were placed in a sack and removed to the George Inn, Bathampton. A singular fact in connection with the affair is that about two years ago a watch and chain and a pair of blood-stained cuffs were discovered near the mouth of the cave. The police on Saturday night obtained possession of these articles, which were in exactly the same state as when picked up. Though the materials to work upon are slight, it is understood that the police are not without hope that they will be able to clear up the mystery. On the feet of the female were a pair of small Oxford shoes, which were slightly rat-eaten, but were otherwise in good preservation. It was one of these shoes protruding above the ground which attracted the attention of the lads and led to the discovery of the body.

Mr Craddock, County Coroner, opened an inquest at Bathampton, near Bath, on Tuesday, on the remains of the woman found last week in a cavern at Hampton Rocks. The Coroner, in commencing the proceedings, said it was evident that a horrible and villainous murder had been perpetrated, and he asked the Jury to devote a patient investigation to the case, in order, if possible, that the murderer might be brought to justice. Evidence was first given by Cecil Brand, son of Commander Brand, as to the accidental discovery of the remains.

The police-sergeant who removed the skeleton was next called, after which William Henry Dill, describing himself as an accountant, deposed that about two years ago, in the summer time, he found a woman’s blood-stained handkerchief and cuffs on Hampton Down. One cuff was on the edge of a disused quarry several feet deep, in a cave of which the body was discovered, and the other cuff and handkerchief were in some nettles just below. A gold watch and chain were near the first cuff. Witness, continuing, said he showed the cuffs and handkerchief to a constable, who attended the inquest now, but this was denied by the policeman referred to. Witness, continuing, said that he kept the watch and chain, hoping a reward would be offered. Some time after he found the broken walking stick produced in another part of the down.

Dr Charles Harper, who had examined the remains, said they were those of a young woman from 19 to 21 years of age, and about five feet two inches in height. There was a large fracture of the skull, which could only have been effected by terrible violence. One foot was dislocated. He conjectured the woman was thrown into the quarry, and that she was either killed by the fall or was first killed on the edge, and then thrown down and dragged into the cave. On the band of her underlinen was the name Kerry, corresponding with the name on the handkerchief found. – The Coroner adjourned the inquiry until October 25^th.

The remains have been identified as those of Elsie Luke, a domestic servant, whose former sweetheart, a young man named Coombs, was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of having murdered her. Coombs was remanded yesterday.

September 29th: "Colonel Dill"

Llangollen Advertiser, 29^th September 1893.

Body Found in a Cave: Mysterious Affair.

[…] The police on Saturday night obtained possession of some of the articles, which were in exactly the same state as when picked up, but they have failed to discover the gold chain attached to the watch found. The man who found the things is known in Bath as “Colonel Dill.” The watch was pawned and subsequently sold at a pawnbroker’s auction. […]

September 29th: the papers already have dirt on Coombs and Luke

Morning Post, September 29^th, 1893.   

The Bath Mystery. 

An Arrest.

A Bath Correspondent telegraphs that a young man named Arthur Stephenson Coombs was arrested last evening on suspicion of causing the death of the young woman whose remains were found in a cave, and who is now known to have borne the name of Elsie Luke, and to have been in service in the house of Mr Kerry, at Bath, some two years ago. The arrest was effected at five o’clock by Superintendent Rutherford, of the Somerset police, who was accompanied by a county police-sergeant and a Bath detective-sergeant in plain clothes. Coombs, who is 23 years of age, but looks older, was at work at Messrs Fuller’s coach building factory in Kingsmead-street, Bath, when he was apprehended, and in answer to the charge of murdering Elsie Luke, alias Wilkie, in August, 1891, he said he was not the man, and asked how the police could be certain that his former sweetheart was the woman whose remains had been found. The officers told him of the identification of parts of the clothing by Mrs Kerry, her last mistress. He was then removed in custody to the lock up.

Coombs is stated to have been keeping company with another servant in Bath after his acquaintance with Luke, and this so enraged the dead woman that she waited upon her rival and assaulted her. She is also said to have annoyed Coombs, and to have told her friends that he had got her into trouble. The house in which she stayed after leaving Mrs Kerry’s service is in the same terrace as the Coombs’ family dwelling, the accused residing with his parents, and it has transpired that on the Sunday evening before the August Bank Holiday on which she disappeared Luke was seen outside Coombs’s abode, apparently waiting for him.

The local police have been diligently inquiring into the antecedents of the young woman Elsie Luke, alias Wilkie. On her arrival in Bath she represented that she had come from London, and that her father was employed at an emigration office in the City. Her statements as to her relatives appear, however, to have been contradictory.

September 29th: Arthur Coombs arrested and charged

The Times, September 29^th, 1893. 

The Bath Murder.

Arthur Stevenson Coombs was arrested in Bath yesterday and charged with the wilful murder of Elsie Adelaide Luke, alias Wilkie, some time in August, 1891. Coombs, who is a coachmaker’s apprentice, not quite out of his time, replied: - “I did not do it.” He asked how they knew that the remains found in the cave were those of his former sweetheart, and was told that Mrs Kerry had that day positively identified the articles of linen found outside the cave bearing her name and the fragment of linen, also marked with her name, adhering to the skeleton, as being part of the clothing which Luke took with her when she left her situation. The police are also in possession of further important information. It is said that Coombs at one time walked out with Luke, but a coolness sprang up between them, and the prisoner became engaged to another young woman, named Sheppard. This so enraged Luke that on one or two occasions she assaulted Sheppard, who was obliged to complain of her conduct to the police. The police are now anxious to get into communication with the prisoner’s relatives, who live in London, but up to the present they have not been discovered.