The 3rd August 1889 was to be a sad day for the people of Seaham. Seven year old Caroline Winter was found in a rockpool on the beach near Featherbed Rocks. She had been murdered and sexually assaulted with her head all smashed in and her clothes torn, her hat, covered in blood was found in a cave nearby.
As the story of the murder reached the newspapers it started to attract a large number of people to where Caroline had been murdered. A report in the Echo said Nearly all were strangers to the town and had journeyed thither for the express purpose of viewing the scene of the tragedy. Not one went without a memento of some sort, either a chipping of the rock, a pebble or a stone from the cave. Some went as far as to take water from the pool where the dececed was found and take it away with them in a bottle.
The night before Caroline had been playing with seven year old Ann Cowell at half past nine, in Black North Terrace. Ann told how a man in a shabby coat had told Caroline he was a friend of her family and he would take her to buy half a shillings worth of sweets, Caroline had been smiling as she walked away hand in hand with the man. Ann followed but as it got darker she got frightened and shouted to Caroline she was going home and that Caroline should come with her.
The next morning walking along the beach Henry Smith found Caroline's battered body. A witness came forward and told police he had seen a man that morning in the sea washing blood from his trousers and with his and Ann's help the police hot a description of the man. He was in his thirties, scruffy with a thick military moustache.
Caroline's funeral took place at Christ Church where the street was lined from there to Caroline's home with men, woman and children. Reverend William Scott told the crowds An innocent, happy, intelligent, fair haired child had been killed and mutilatedto satisfy one man's fiendish lust. Her manner of death was a painful one but we hope the child's anguish and torture will be rewarded by her entry into the glory of Christ's Kingdom.
On the 12th August washed ashore on the north side of Featherbed Rocks, was the body of a man. Even though his head had been smashed against the rocks and he was never identified the police said he bore a striking resemblance to the description of the man wanted for the murder of Caroline. When the people of Seaham heard they were thrilled because they thought he was the murderer and he was dead. It is still not known who he was if he was the murderer or how he actually died.
