How the 'Jigsaw Murders' Revolutionized Crime Investigation, After Jealous Doctor Dismembered Wife and Maid

Nearly 100 years after what historians call “one of the most important criminal investigations of the 20th Century,” a university in Scotland is asking for the public’s help in finding the victims’ relatives so that researchers can safely return their bodies.

Edinburgh University made a plea last month in partnership with the BBC to try to track down the living relatives of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson, two English women who were brutally killed by Isabella’s husband, Dr. Buck Ruxton, in 1935.

The general practitioner murdered his wife, Isabella, and their nursemaid, Mary, before dismembering them and scattering their body parts in an attempt to thwart the investigation into their murders, according to the BBC.

But an unprecedented use of forensic science helped investigators identify the victims and find evidence that Dr. Ruxton was the killer, leading to one of the most significant court trials of the 1900s and, five months later, his execution. The extensive efforts to identify the victims and the circumstances of the crime led the case to be dubbed “The Jigsaw Murders.”

Here’s what happened, and here’s how investigators used new advancements in forensic science to crack the case.

The Murders

By 1935, Dr. Bruxton grew jealous of his wife’s friendships with other men and allegedly became abusive, according to the BBC. The outlet reported that Isabella reported his domestic violence to the police, but the matter was never properly investigated. Soon after, tensions between the couple boiled over and Dr. Ruxton murdered his wife and the household’s nursemaid, Mary.

“Their bodies were disposed of in woodland in Dumfriesshire,” according to Edinburgh University. 

The United States’ National Library of Medicine says the doctor “mutilated their bodies and scattered the parts, in an effort to make them unidentifiable.” Their body parts were soon recovered under a bridge near the border of England and Scotland, according to the BBC.

But then, forensic scientists and researchers at Edinburgh University took on the task of reconstructing the bodies and studying the evidence: They used groundbreaking methods involving fingerprints to identify the women and even studied bugs found on their remains so they could ascertain when they were murdered. 

The Court Case

The forensic scientists’ evidence was used to convict Dr. Ruxton in a first-of-its-kind presentation of such scientific proof.

Tom Wood, a former English police officer who wrote a book about the revolutionary investigation, told the BBC “it was one of the most important criminal investigations of the 20th Century, not because of the horror of the case and the dismemberment of the bodies, but because of the forensic science.”

“Put simply, anything before the Ruxton case was ancient history,” Wood said. “Anything after the Ruxton case is modern, integrated, forensic science-led investigation.”

Dr. Ruxton was found guilty of murdering Isabella and sentenced to death, while the charge for killing Mary was dropped. The doctor-turned-convicted murderer was hung at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison while huge crowds gathered outside — a dramatic scene that highlighted the magnitude of the case.

A New Plea to Find the Victims’ Families

Edinburgh University asked the BBC for help tracking down potential living family members of both Isabella and Mary after researchers rediscovered some of the victims’ remains in the university’s archives last November.

Isabella and her husband shared three children, who were orphaned following their parents’ deaths, and the university says it’s uncertain whether the children were ever told the truth about what happened to them.

“We want to do what is morally right for the women and their family members,” the university said in its plea last month.

The university has since closed its appeal for information about remaining family members, though no further announcements have been made about the effort.

“Our appeal has generated numerous enquiries and we are now working to pursue leads,” the university said. “This is a sensitive process, which requires anonymity for all involved, and we must ensure it is handled with the utmost care.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.