A Murdered Girl - and a Man with a Motive SCENE: Harriet Murder; When Pretty Harriet Wright Was Dragged from a Birmingham Canal, Was It a Sorry Suicide or Murder Most Foul? in the Penultimate Part of a Short Sunday Mercury Series, MIKE LOCKLEY Reports. Caseb K

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Byline: MIKE LOCKLEY

HANDSOME Josiah Lilly probably felt the rope round his neck when a burly sergeant banged on his door. The evidence was damning. The body of Lilly's sweetheart, Harriet Wright, had been discovered in a nearby cut, with Lilly's hat floating nearby.

A sodden note found in her pocket, asking the pretty 23-yearold for cash, had been penned by him.

What's more, on the fateful night - May 7, 1840 - the couple had been seen publicly squabbling over a bonnet and shawl quick-tempered Harriet had accused her boyfriend of stealing. And in the days before the killing, Lilly had confided to a friend: "I will hang for her before the week is out."