Today is Saturday, March 7th, 2020.

On this day in 1826, 15-year-old Ellen Turner

was abducted in a forced marriage plot intended to swindle her family out of their fortune. Welcome to Today, today in True Crime, a parcast original.

Today we're covering the abduction and forced marriage of Ellen Turner by Edward Wakefield, a 30-year-old

aspiring politician with designs on the Turner family fortune.

Let's go back to a ladies boarding school in Liverpool on Tuesday March 7th 1826. Lessons hadn't yet begun when Ellen was summoned from her room. She was told that the school mistress, Mrs. Dalby, needed to see

her immediately. When she arrived at Mrs. Dalby's office, Ellen was surprised to be introduced

to a Mr. Edward Teveno, ostensibly a new servant of her father.

Ellen was the only child of William Turner, a businessman who owned several factories and a great fortune.

By all accounts William was progressive and intended his daughter to have the best education possible.

To that end, she was enrolled at a lady's... the best education possible.

To that end, she was enrolled at a ladies boarding school in Liverpool instead of being

educated in the family home in Shrigley.

It was from the Turner household that this stranger, Mr. Teveno, had been sent.

Ellen listened as she was told her mother had taken ill and that Ellen was to be brought home at once.

Ellen was an even-tempered and bright young woman

and agreed to go as summoned.

She was bundled into a waiting carriage

and spirited away from her school.

After traveling for some hours, the carriage arrived at a hotel in Manchester where Ellen

was introduced to 30-year-old Edward Gibbon Wakefield.

Edward told the teenager that he'd been sent to escort her to her father.

...