On the trail of a murder in the family

It caught his eye, sitting there in a cardboard box full of bric-a-brac in his parents' house. A large photograph of a little girl in a coffin adorned by flowers; Barbara Whitham Waterhouse was her name, and she'd died in June 1891 at the age of just five.

- by Laura Reid

David Tasker, who is writing a book about the murder of his great aunt Barbara Waterhouse in Leeds in 1891.

David Tasker's interest was piqued. The box of belongings had ended up with his mum and dad in Horsforth after the passing of his aunt. His folks didn't know much but they knew that Barbara - David's great-aunt - had been the victim of a murder.

"That raised a lot of questions and it took me on a little bit of a journey," says David, who formerly worked in policing.

It was back in the mid-1980s that he stumbled across the story, one he says his family "never spoke about". Four decades on, he's writing about it, hoping to publish a book next year.

"I've written it as a family record I suppose,' the 67-year-old reflects. "Barbara was one of seven children, so there's probably quite a big family network in Horsforth, though I don't really know anybody."

David's grandmother, Jane, was Barbara's sister, though born after she was murdered. After seeing Barbara's photograph, he set about researching what had happened to her all those years ago.