You're listening to the second and final part of Unexplained, Season 7, Episode 5, Jumping

Jacks. Thomas Martin didn't want to believe it, and begged his wife Anne to stop saying

it. About 10 months before, in May 1827, Thomas's 26-year-old daughter, Maria, left their

modest home in Polsted for small village in South East England, with her boyfriend

William Corder, a local farmer, but Thomas had not heard from her since. There'd been letters

from the 24-year-old William, insisting that all was well. He'd even visited them occasionally

to pass on Maria's best wishes, but something was off. The Union had been shaky from

the start, but Maria seemed to smitten. William had a history of dodgy dealings and was

non-committal at best until Maria felt pregnant. When the baby tragically died soon after, Thomas

assumed the feckless William would soon disappear. To his surprise, however, William instead

announced his intentions to marry Maria. Then one morning, he arrived at the Martin's

home in a flurry, bearing the troubling news that a local police officer had ordered a warrant

to arrest Maria for having children out of wedlock. William had come to Urcher to run away with him

to nearby Ipswich so they could be married and lived the rest of their lives in peace together.

He told her to meet him at the red barn, a farm building that is family rented in the fields

about half a mile east of Maria's home. With seemingly no other choice but to go along with it,

Maria left the house later that day, dressed in men's clothing as a disguise in an effort to

evade capture and cautiously made her way to the barn. As William explained it later,

he said she waited there for him until nightfall, until he was able to come and pick her up.

After Maria then changed into her normal clothes, the pair alopeed into the night.

A week later, William Corder returned alone to the Martin's home. He explained to Maria's father

Thomas that there'd been some complications with the marriage license and it would take a few weeks

...