MYSTERY SOLVED AS 131 YEAR OLD SKULL IS IDENTIFIED

The ‘Barnes Mystery has been solved after a skull found in Sir David Attenborough’s garden has been formally identified as the head of a murder victim.

Julia Thomas was decapitated by her maid with an axe in 1879 but the head was never found.

The skull was unearthed by workmen in Richmond working on an extension for the TV naturalist.

Carbon dating and census records satisfied the West London coroner that the skull almost certainly belonged to Mrs Thomas.  

She was killed by Kate Webster, 29, after the victim returned home from church on a Sunday evening.

Webster, a convicted thief and fraudster, dismembered the body, threw parts of it in the Thames and disposed of the rest in various places around London.

But she buried the skull which was never found.

Webster was tried and executed for the murder in a case which attracted huge publicity.

Chief Superintendent Clive Chalk, Borough Commander of Richmond said: “This is a fascinating case and a good example of how good old-fashioned detective work, historical records and technological advances came together to solve the ‘Barnes Mystery’.”