Dogged detective

Pet unearths poison bottle in possible link to 1865 murder case

- BY LAUREN BEAVIS

A PET dog may have found key evidence to a 160-year-old murder case when he dug up an empty bottle of poison in the garden.

After Stanley the Labrador unearthed the blue bottle, owner Paul Phillips discovered that a woman living two doors down had fatally poisoned her husband in 1865.

Mary Ann Ashford laced William’s tea so she could steal his money and be with her young lover.

She was later hanged in front of 20,000 people, but it took her many minutes to die.

The grim spectacle was said to have turned opinion on public hangings and was key to them ending.