Mexborough and Swinton Times December 14, 1912
” Found Drowned.”
Inquest on the Missing Swinton Girl
How The Body Was Found.
The Rescuer’s Story.
The inquest on the body of Edith Vernon, the missing Swinton girl who left home on Tuesday week, and was never seen again until her body was recovered from the Dove and Dearne Canai on Saturday, was held at the Council Offices Swinton, on Tuesday afternoon. Mr. J. Baldwin Young (deputy coroner) presided.
The first witness was Arthur Vernon, 84, Queen Street, Swinton, a miner, who identified the deceased as his daughter aged 19. She was a cheerful girl on the whole, but at times a little depressed. She had not always enjoyed good health, and had been under Doctor Harvey. The last time that he saw her alive was on Tuesday at about 12.30, just before he went to bed. Deceased seemed to be in her usual state of health and was going about her work all right. The last few months she might have been a little depressed.
He first knew that she was missing as he was going to work about 8.30 at night. Her sweetheart told him, that she was nowhere to be found. Witness was fetched from work about I2 midnight and was told that his daughter had not returned. As she did not come back by the following morning he suggested dragging the river.
The Coroner: Has she ever threatened herself? – No, sir.
Are you quite sure— Yes, sir. Quite sure.
Had she never threatened to do away with herself?—No. sir.
Deceased’s mother. Rhoda Vernon, said that her daughter was usually of a cheerful disposition, but the last few months she had been a little depressed. She had been under the doctor’s orders. On the Tuesday she left home at five minutes past seven to go up to Swinton to meet her sweetheart. About 20 minutes to eight the young man came down and informed witness that he had not seen her. A search of May, and somewhere about 10 or 11 the police were sent for. She had never heard a daughter threatened to take her life.
The Coroner: What she shortly going to be married? – Oh, no.
Kaletia Broadhead, 6 Crown Street, Swinton, said that he was courting deceased. On the date in question he was to have met her at 7.30, but she did not turn up, so he went to look for her. Together with others he went to the locks to see if she was walking about anywhere, but he did not think she had drowned herself. He had never known to be very depressed, threatened to take her life, and he did not believe that she had done.
How the Body was Found
Harry Large, 13, Oxford Street, Roman Terrace, who found the body, said that he was dragging on Saturday afternoon about 5 o’clock in a piece of water known as the “basin,” situated between Bowroom top and bottom locks, and the Dearne and Dove Canal. She was in the middle of the canal, and it was his last attempt to find a before going away.
The Coroner enquired as to what caused him to commence dragging operations?
I formed an opinion in my own mind that that was the place the girl was in, seeing that she had been missing for four or five days, I took my first opportunity and went down to the canal. After I’d been there for a time it began to be dark, but I thought that I would stop for a few minutes to try and find her. It was the widest part of the canal that I pulled her out of.
Doctor Harvey, of Swinton, stated that he had made an external examination of the body and had found no signs of violence. Death was due to drowning. The deceased must have been in the water for five days. He had been cheating the girl for nervous stability, and she had a tendency to melancholia.