The Ruxton case

Piecing together the evidence

Warning: graphic description of murder

I often visit the northern city of Lancaster, as my son is studying at the university there and, as the centre is quite small, it’s impossible not to pass by the house where, in 1935, a terrible double murder took place. Isabella Ruxton and her nursemaid, Mary Jane Rogerson, were killed by Isabella’s common-law husband, Dr Buck Ruxton, who then dismembered their bodies and dumped them in a river in Scotland. Despite the lack of identifying evidence, this complex case was solved by clever detective work and a groundbreaking forensic science technique.