The Burning of Evelyn Foster - 88 years ago: Unsolved England Murder

          The Burning of Evelyn Foster - 88 years ago: Unsolved England Murder

     In the northernmost part of England, you’ll find the county of Northumberland. You will find beautiful beaches, cheviot hills, and even the castle Hogwarts was designed after. You would likely feel safe, after all, Northumbria Police force is the sixth largest police force in England and Wales. However, they were not formed until 1974. So, 88 years ago, in 1931 the law enforcement agency in place was nowhere near as large. When young Evelyn Foster was found burnt and dying she didn’t have the luxury of what the people of Northumberland do today. However, police were not the only faulty factor in her case going unsolved, it was typical early 1900s sexism.

Evelyn was the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Foster, who were very prominent business owners at the time.   Joseph begin his career as a groomer and servant for the Vicar of Horsley. Not long after he married Margaret they had children and moved to Otterburn. Evelyn, the second child to the couple, was born November 20, 1901.  In Otterburn, Northumberland the family started a garage and transport business. Her father’s business grew quickly and soon he started hiring workers from outside of town. He bought a house and transformed it into lodging for his employees and their families. Evelyn was independent and head strong. Even though her family had substantial wealth Evelyn wanted her own.  By 27 she had already created a great deal of wealth for herself with her taxi cab company. One of the men her father brought into town to work, George Phillipson, was Evelyn’s unofficial fiancé of sorts.

On January 6, 1931 Evelyn’s day went as it always did. She had ended her day by dropping a carpool of five fares off in Rochester. As she approached a bridge in Elishaw Road Ends she met a man. A couple had just dropped him off, they were not driving any further. The man asked her to take him to Ponteland so he could catch a bus to Newcastle. She agreed she would after she refueled back in Otterburn. When they arrived in Otterburn she pointed him in the direction of the Percy Arms. This was a popular place for locals and travelers to stop for a drink or rest. Evelyn frequented the Percy Arms quite often for taxi costumers. While her fare was grabbing a drink she went home, to her parents, and told them of the man she met and where she intended to take him. This wasn’t worrisome for her parents because it was typical work for her. And even though the man was a stranger they didn’t fear because a couple had already given him a ride without any harm. Evelyn refueled and started her journey with the man. Fifty miles into the drive they reached Belsay and he asked her to turn back around. She complied, this is where the man tried to “interfere” with her. She pushed him. He, then, struck her in the head, rendering her unconscious. She woke up to him leaning over top of her driving the car. From there he threw her into the back of the car, put a rug on top of her, poured gasoline on her and set her on fire. He pushed the car down the bank onto a moor between Kirkwhelpington and Otterburn.

Not long after, Cecil Johnstone, a bus driver employed by Joseph Foster, was on his bus route from Newcastle to Otterburn when he spotted flames. He and another employee decided they would stop and check. They realized that about 70 yards from the road a car was on fire. When they approached the car they knew the car was a cab belonging to their boss. They soon spotted Evelyn beside the car. The clothing on the lower half of her body was burnt off and her fingers black with frost bite. She was mumbling to the men. Cecil said all he could make out was “that awful man.” Cecil wrapped his coat around her and they drove her to the hospital. As she clung on to life she told the story of her attack as well as a detailed description of her attacker. She said the man was coming from Scotland. He had a Tyneside accent, dressed smartly in a dark tweed suit, overcoat and a bowler hat.  He stood to be about five feet six inches. She said the man spoke educated and was probably 25 or 26. She also said before Cecil had arrived she heard another car pull up. She heard men’s voices before they returned the car and left. Not long after she uttered her last words “I have been murdered.”

A few days after Evelyn’s death jury members decided the crime was a case of murder even though a biased coroner advised against the ruling. A lot of the evidence was called into question. First the coroner asked why was there no bruises in the spots she claimed to be hit. Secondly he stated that Evelyn may have been molested but was certainly not raped. Lastly he stated the burns indicated she stayed in the car for a long period of time after she was set ablaze. Then a motor engineer said it would be impossible for someone to control and drive the car leaning over someone in that position. The police said the car was not pushed down the bank but instead driven to the moor before being lit.  They did say, however, the car was lit intentionally. The car and fuel tank was not damaged in any way that would cause a fire. The emergency gas she kept in her car was also tampered with.  The investigation quickly shifted.  Instead of looking for the suspect they started to look into Evelyn herself. Even though she was very wealthy in assets and money they theorized Evelyn had done this to herself for insurance money. It was said that no one seen an unknown man around town that night. It didn’t help that the couple who had first given him a ride never came forward. So, they released a statement saying the man did not exist. They also did not follow up by calling Scotland Yard.

Unfortunately, in the early 1900s every part of the world was riddled with sexism. Men thought a woman’s place was at home, in the kitchen.  At 27, a woman should be married with children not running a successful cab business. This mindset is why her case wasn’t taken more seriously as a murder. It was a case ruled by a biased coroner. His views of what a woman should and should not be clouded his judgement. For one, Evelyn’s exact words were the man “interfered” with her, not raped her. They also should not have called to question the length of time she spent in the burning car. Today we would know that the blow she received to the head would have given her a concussion. Making it very difficult to escape the burning car (much less doing so with the extensive burns she had). A man later came forward and said he had stopped at about 9:45 pm to see the car on fire. He thought it was possibly just burnt or abandoned and left. (just as Evelyn described) George Sinclair, also came forward later in the investigation to say he did see an unknown man loitering near the Post Office that night. More importantly, Evelyn had no reason to scam for insurance. Like I said, she had plenty of money and assets.  Looking back at the evidence is what made police change back to the thought that she may have been honest. Since so much time was spent looking into Evelyn being guilty of her own murder a lot of precious time had been wasted. The first 48 hours is when you typically catch a suspect but that was long gone.  The only evidence I can find a trace of was a foot print and glove near the scene, which articles indicate was dismissed.

There was only ever one suspect in this case, outside of Evelyn herself. Twenty months after her murder, in February 1934, a Yorkshire man was arrested for killing his employer. Ernest Brown had been having an affair with his boss’s wife. In a fit of jealousy, he shot him, put him in his car and set it on fire in an attempt to hide the evidence. When he was hanged he was asked if he had any last words. Brown then mumbled “Otterburn.” This is partly why people suspected he was Evelyn’s killer. Brown was a known molester of women and had a bad reputation in town. Yorkshire was about 100 miles from Otterburn. At the time of Evelyn’s murder his job was to attend horse sales at the Scottish border.  The route the mysterious cab fare was on that night would have been the same Brown would have likely taken home. Brown also dressed “smartly” and was known to ware bowler hats.

Now in 2019, 88 years later, Tony Stevens, Major Investigation team supervisor for Northumbria Police has released a statement to a news outlet. He said ““With a Force as large as ours, you can imagine we have very detailed archives and periodically, we go back through and take a look at our old cases.” “We never close our murder investigations until they are solved and in some cases we can look to see if there are any new scientific or technological methods we can use to help identify DNA and follow leads which were previously impossible.” Even though there may have been a lot of theories beforehand they seemed to have gotten lost in time or cleared away. Since this is an open case some things are still kept tight lipped from the public. Even though it seems unlikely, I hope someday we find out what truly happened to the courageous Evelyn Foster.