Amy "Mamie" Stuart was born 24 Nov 1893 in Sunderland, England, to James Stuart (1853-1921) & Jane McGregor (1861-1945).
Mamie was her stage name, she was a chorus girl.
She married George Shotton (1880-1958) Jan 1919 in South Shields, England. He was already married to Mary Leader and they had a son named Arthur. He was a Marine Surveyor, so he spent a lot of time traveling.
George & Mamie
Mamie disappeared Nov-Dec 1919, here are some newspaper articles I found. (Just click on the links to read). She had written her mother several letters before she disappeared saying George was abusive and neglectful.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/herald-of-wales-etc-mamie-stuart/135444068/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/western-daily-press-mamie-stuart/135445795/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/hull-daily-mail-mamie-stuart/135445724/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/south-wales-evening-post-mamie-stuart/135445636/
Staff members at the Swansea’s Grosvenor Hotel noted in March of 1920 that a leather trunk was left by a male guest the revious December and was unclaimed for about three months. There was no address or tag on the luggage, the manager of the hotel contacted the police and theyopened it to discover women’s dresses, a pair of shoes, they were all cut and torn apart. There was also some jewelry, a Bible, rosary and manicure kit.
When a maid that was cleaning her & George’s cottage in preparation for the accommodation of new tenants, she discovered a mildewed brown leather handbag concealed behind a dresser in an upstairs bedroom. The handbag had two pounds in loose change and Mamie’s Sugar ration card.
By the Spring of 1920 South Wales Police suspected Mamie had been murdered, and that she died at the hands of her husband George Shotton, and the motive was either rage control or jealousy or a mixture of all. Scotland Yard was contacted and Chief Inspector William Draper was put on the case. He ordered an investigation of Ty-Llanwydd, the grounds of the property, and surrounding area. A nationwide search For George took place including fliers that circulated with his description. NO leads were yielded.
The inspector found George living in Penarth with his wife and child, less than 2 miles from Ty-Llanwydd. He admitted to knowing Mamie and to leaving the trunk at the hotel, shortly after he says Mamie left him after an argument because she was unfaithful, he denied he had married Mamie, and did not know where she was. Because there was no body they couldn’t charge him with murder. So the inspector proceeded to check out a bigamy charge. 13 July George Shotton was sentenced to serve 18 months for bigamy. His legal wife divorced him after he was released in 1922.
After George release he moved to Tintern where he ran a smallholding. He was a regular church goer and ran the local tennis club. But in May 1938, George threatened his sister Gladys Austin with a revolver out at her farmhouse. He was also charged with causing actual bodily harm to her.
This incident was sourced from resentment between the siblings regarding their respective bequeathments in their mother's will. This would give him a twelve month visit to the inside of the local jail with hard labor. He moved to Bristol later.
42 Years after Mamie went missing, on the 5th of November 1961, her remains were discovered in a rotting sack, that was hidden behind a large stone slab about 50 feet down a disused lead mine shaft at Brandy Cove in Caswell by 3 potholders. Her body was concealed just 200 yards from her home she had shared with her husband George.
The remains were taken in for the Forensic Science Laboratory to examine in Cardiff. The bones were reassembled into a complete skeleton minus the rib cage, the bones belonged to a women between 5’3 and 5’4 inches tall and was missing one canine tooth in the upper jaw. Three of her wisdom teeth were present suggesting her age to be over 20 years old. There were 2 rings on the body and Mamie’s friend identified them as being Mamie’s rings. One was a gold wedding band and a diamond engagement ring.
Sadly all her family had passed as well as George who died of natural causes on 30th April 1958.
A formal inquest was made and and she was laid out in the courtroom on a table to show that the body had been severed at three equal lengths, one cut was made by the lower femur, right above the knees, the second was made horizontally through both the humerus bones at the mid-section, with an instrument used to dissct her body also severing her lower shoulder blades and her spine. To the examiner it looked as though the murdered had problems cutting her up as there were cut marks that were started and then moved on to a different part of the body. Her rib cage was not found.
It was concluded that George Shotton murdered Mamie between 12th November and 6th of December in 1919.
Newspaper article on finding her
https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-mirror-mamie-stuart/135453675/
According to Wikipedia
At the conclusion of the 1961 inquest, Stuart's skeleton was retained at Cardiff University, where eminent forensic pathologist Bernard Knight is believed to have occasionally used them to teach students. No efforts were made to locate surviving relatives and return her body to her family.[40]
Stuart's great niece, Susan Oldnall, only discovered the whereabouts of her great aunt's remains in 2019 when she was approached by researchers for a programme on the CBS Reality channel focusing upon unsolved murders. Oldnall then discovered her great aunt's remains were being stored in a cupboard inside a Cardiff forensic laboratory. The senior forensic pathologist at the laboratory, Dr. Stephen Leadbeatter, had retained the remains—despite being urged to dispose of them—in the hope a surviving member of Stuart's family might reclaim them. Upon learning of Oldnall's whereabouts and wishes, Leadbeatter personally took Stuart's remains to Oldnall in order that they may be interred by her family.
Stuart's body was buried in Bishopwearmouth Cemetery in Sunderland in December 2019. She was buried in a grave alongside her parents. Four of Stuart's descendants attended the service. Shortly thereafter, Mrs Oldnall commented to the BBC: "She's been treated with such lack of dignity, and now she's with her parents. I'm not religious, but I do feel much better about it now ... I only did what a lot of people would have done and I hope, if there is a heaven, that the family are all finally having a good time together."
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