Twenty-seven-year-old Evelyn Foster, a popular fixture in the community and the daughter of a garage owner in Otterburn, Northumberland, England, was a taxi driver by trade, and January 6th, 1931 seemed as though it was going to be just another routine day on the job. But unbeknownst to Evelyn, this day was to be her last.
At some point, she picked up a passenger in Elishaw, who wanted to be driven to Ponteland. This individual would later be described as around five-foot-six and clean-shaven, appearing to be in his mid-twenties, and clad in a dark tweed suit, an overcoat, and a bowler hat. He also had a Tyneside accent.
Shortly after the ride began, on a stretch of deserted moorland road, the man attacked Evelyn, tossing her into the back seat of the vehicle, throwing a rug over her, then soaking the rug with gasoline and setting it alight. The perpetrator then pushed the car down an embankment and fled the scene.
A grievously wounded and terrified Evelyn managed to crawl out of the burning car and get help, and lived long enough to describe her attacker to police. Sadly, however, her injuries were too severe, and she died not long afterward.
Authorities were baffled by the brutality of the crime and its seeming lack of motive, and the murder remains a frustrating puzzle nearly a century later. Reportedly, a few years after the slaying, a man who had been sentenced to death in Yorkshire for killing his boss uttered the word “Otterburn” before his execution, as if he was confessing to the attack on Evelyn Foster. No compelling evidence linking this man to the crime was ever discovered, however.
At least two books have been written about the mysterious crime, and the 2017 work Death at Wolf’s Nick: The Killing of Evelyn Foster by Diane Janes even names a possible suspect. As of 2019, Northumbria Police have made renewed efforts to solve the 1931 murder, and the case remains open.
Crime Immemorial 