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Mary Ashford and Barbara Forrest, both 20, spent their last hours alive dancing on May 27—but 157 years apart
Mary Ashford and Barbara Forrest, both 20, spent their last hours alive dancing on May 27—but 157 years apart. In 1817, Ashford was spotted in the company of Abraham Thornton around midnight after attending a dance with her friend Hannah Cox. At 4am, Ashford showed up at Cox's house, where she'd left her work clothes, and said she'd been with Thornton, per the Lineup. Hours after she set off for home, her bruised body was found in a water-filled pit in the park by a laborer who followed two sets of footprints from a slick of blood in the grass, per the Birmingham Mail. Authorities believed Ashford was sexually assaulted and drowned, and Thornton was tried for her murder. Though he admitted having sex with Ashford before walking her to Cox's house, Thornton maintained he didn't kill her and was found not guilty after three witnesses backed up his alibi. Fast forward 157 years: Authorities say Barbara Forrest was raped and strangled on May 27, 1974, also in Pype Haye