The Dunn Case: The Evidence That Exposed a Deadly Lie | True Crime 1927

In 1927 County Durham, a miner calmly declared that his wife had taken her own life.
But from the moment police stepped inside the cramped kitchen of 2 Lumsden Buildings, nothing about his story made sense.

A rope that didn’t fit.
A noose too small to pass over the victim’s head.
A bed he claimed to have slept in—yet had never been touched.
And the quiet, devastating testimony of a child who heard far more than any child ever should.

This episode unravels the forensic evidence, contradictions, and courtroom drama that ultimately exposed the truth behind Ada Dunn’s death. Drawing entirely from period newspaper coverage, we reconstruct how investigators dismantled Thomas Dunn’s account piece by piece—culminating in one of the era’s most striking murder trials.

In Further Particulars, we travel far from County Durham to 1959 Papua New Guinea, where a remarkably sensible priest documented one of the most politely perplexing UFO encounters ever recorded.

If you enjoy historically grounded true crime with strong investigative detail, this is an especially gripping case.

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