November 11th: the inquest continues

Illustrated Police News, November 11^th, 1893.

The Bath Mystery.

Excitement in this case reached its height on Friday on the resumption of the inquest by Dr. Craddock, the North Somerset coroner. The young man, Arthur Coombs, who was originally arrested for the murder, and discharged by the magistrates, was tendered by his solicitor, Mr. Titley, as a witness. One or two witnesses were recalled, among them Sergeant Edwards, who said that letters from Miss Sheppard, Coombs’s present sweetheart, had been found to the number of [131?]. Miss Sheppard was also recalled, and asked where she went with Coombs on August Bank Holiday, 1891, before going to the theatre, as previously sworn. She said that she could not remember.

Arthur Stevenson Coombs said he became acquainted with the deceased in the spring of 1890. He knew her as Elise Adeline Wilkie, and she was then at 3, Norfolk-crescent, Bath, the residence of Mr. R.A. Dykes, as cook. He never gave her an engagement ring and was never really engaged to Wilkie. He used to “keep company” with her, as it is commonly called. How often did you see her on an average in 1890? – About three times a week. Witness could not recollect the date when deceased left Mr. Dykes. They were still “keeping company”.

After leaving there she went to Mrs Doveton at 38, Green Park, after being out of service for about two days. She stayed there three months and he “kept company” with her during the time she was in that situation. From Mrs. Doveton’s she went to Burlington-street. She was not out of a situation very long. Then she went to Canynge-square, Clifton. While she was there he wrote her a letter saying he did not wish to “keep company” with her any longer, as he had heard something about her. He could not tell whether he had told her what he had heard, but he could inform the court. The Coroner: Was it something startling? Witness: I was told on good authority that to obtain her situation in Canynge-square she had forged a character. Whom did you hear that from? – I think Miss Sheppard told me.

Continuing, he said his parents wished him to discontinue keeping company with her, and that was why he wrote. It would be about the latter end of January, 1891, that he wrote the letter. She came over from Clifton to see him about the matter. She falsely represented herself, and said she was a young lady, and that her father was Superintendent of the Emigrants’ Home, at Blackwall, London. She said he had £1,000 a year from that institution, and that he was connected with another in Germany which brought him in £750 a year. After the interview at Clifton he never “kept company” with her again.

He remembered her being at Cheriton House, Bath, during the summer of 1891, but he did not know when she went there. On two occasions he went to the house to return a small book and a small neck-wrap. He only went just inside the door and stayed about ten minutes. He never walked out with Wilkie in the summer of 1891, and the witnesses Clare and Phillips were inaccurate in saying they saw them together near Hampton Down in July, 1891. On the Saturday preceding the Bank Holiday in August of the same year, when Wilkie disappeared, the witness went for a walk with a young lady named Thorne.

On July 27^th his thumb was bitten by a young man during a quarrel while returning from a Liberal fete. This was the injury referred to by various witnesses.

A letter was read from the Chief Constable of Sheffield, stating that a Mrs. Morement, who formerly lived in Bath, had asserted that about Easter or Whitsuntide, 1891, Wilkie took a young man to her house, and afterwards left with him and Mrs Isaacs for Bristol. She believed that Mrs. Isaac knew that man’s name.

The inquest was then adjourned until the 21^st inst.