Aunt Bessie Volunteers

Aunt Bessie volunteers to help Manx National Heritage clear out years of accumulated rubbish at Peel Castle.

Elizabeth Cubbon has been known as Aunt Bessie for most her life. She's acted as an honourary aunt to most of the children who've grown up in Laxey over the past fifty years or more. She's also well known for being a helpful volunteer with Manx National Heritage, the group charged with preserving and publicising the island's rich history.

Aunt Bessie volunteers to take a quick look.

When Mark finds what looks like a skeleton in one of small towers in the castle walls, Bessie reluctantly takes a peek. A quick call to the police has Inspector Anna Lambert on the scene a short while later.

Aunt Bessie volunteers to help the police work out the identity of the skeleton.

Bessie knows people all over the island. It doesn't take her long to compile a list of women who left the island at the right time and never returned. Now the police just have to work out which woman never got any farther than St. Patrick's Isle, the tiny island where Peel Castle sits.

Bessie and the police need to work out the identity of their skeleton, but that isn't all. They also want to know how she died and how her body ended up at Peel Castle. Equally puzzling is how it managed to remain undiscovered for over thirty years.