The Strange Case of The Actress and The Skeleton

Ada Constance Kent was an English actress who enjoyed a degree of success in both stage and screen productions in the early decades of the twentieth century. Given her relative fame at the time, it is rather surprising that comparatively little seems to be known about her early life. Ada was born around 1880, and appears to have spent most of her working life in and around London. However, it is not for her thespian accomplishments that she is remembered today.

At some point in her later life, Ada decided to essentially retire from her acting career and retreat from public life. She bought herself a quaint little cottage in the English countryside, in a small village called Fingringhoe, in the county of Essex. Rather surprisingly, given her profession and public persona, she never married, and turned into something of a reclusive spinster. Ada rarely left the confines of her cottage, with her only regular outing being to frequent the nearby Whalebone pub for a drink and to purchase a packet of Woodbine cigarettes, her preferred choice of smoke.

On 6 March 1939, she popped into the pub as usual for a quick drink and a packet of cigarettes. Although he didn’t know it at the time, Alfred J. Hasler, landlord of The Whalebone, would be the last person to ever see Ada Constance Kent alive. Unfortunately, due to her reclusive lifestyle, it was a full three months before anyone grew concerned for her welfare. The local police were informed and asked to investigate. They duly dispatched Bernard Constable (yes, he really was Constable Constable) to pay a visit to Ada’s cottage, which he did along with Ruben G. Winkel, a local gardener. Quite why the police felt the need to bring a gardener with them has never been adequately explained. They found the place unoccupied, but other than the missing actress, everything seemed to be in order. On the kitchen table was a tray with a meal waiting to be eaten, and next to her chair beside the fireplace was an open copy of Romeo and Juliet. Her coat and personal belongings were present, and nothing appeared to be missing, save for Ada herself. There was no sign of the property having been broken into, no evidence of a struggle or any suggestion of foul play.

With nothing to suggest any criminal activity, the property was left untouched, pending the return of the missing occupant. Three years later in 1942, an old friend of Ada’s, George Wynkoll, visited the cottage to look for clues as to her disappearance. He apparently conducted a thorough search of the small home, even checking under furniture for the slightest indication of what had become of his old acquaintance, but without success. He also noted the meal and open book. He commented “It appears Ada just vanished and never returned”.

And so that appeared to be that. A strange and unusual disappearance for sure, but hardly unique. Unfortunately, people do go missing from time to time, and sadly some are never found. However, this particular case was to take a bizarre turn. In March of 1949, a full ten years after Ada was last seen alive, her bank contacted the police, as large sums of money had been deposited into her account, the last being in September 1948. The bank had been trying to contact the account holder without success, and so decided to pass the mater onto the local constabulary.

Prompted by the bank’s new information, the police decided to have another ferret around Ada’s cottage, only this time they made a shocking discovery. In the bedroom, lying next to the bed, was a fully clothed skeleton. As if to add to the freakishness of the scene, next to the fleshless cadaver was an empty bottle marked “Poison”. Other than that, however, the rest of the cottage looked just as it had a decade earlier, with one exception. Ada’s jewellery and money remained where she had left them, and so burglary was ruled out, but oddly the book was gone.

This latest twist made the story front page news, and reporters rapidly descended on the sleepy village. With the local police at something of a loss as to what to make of the latest developments, Scotland Yard took over the investigation. Despite the initial inquest ruling that the bones belonged to the 69 year old former actress, the police concluded that the skeleton was not that of Ada Constance Kent, as it was too large and was in all probability that of a male.

However, other than ruling out the skeleton as being Ada’s, England’s finest detectives were unable to shed any more light on the mystery. And so, over eighty years after her disappearance, a mystery it remains. What really did happen to Ada? Whose skeleton was found in the cottage, and why was it placed there with a bottle marked “Poison”? Who deposited the money into her bank account and why? And what happened to Ada’s copy of Romeo and Juliet? Someone somewhere must have known the answers to some, or possibly all, of these questions. However, given the passage of time, they will by now almost certainly have taken that information with them into the hereafter. So ends the strange case of the actress and the skeleton. One of history’s little mysteries. 

Sources:

mysteriousuniverse.org

coolinterestingstuff.org