Declan Coleman

Thomas James Cheshire of Sandhurst Australia was born in 1867 in Sandhurst to Mary Toohey Cheshire. He had a brother John Richard Cheshire. Thomas Cheshire died at age 92 years old in 1959 in Sandhurst.

Irene May Tuckerman, born in 1913, was a lively young girl of Caulfield, Melbourne. Born into a great many other siblings, Irene grew up without a father, who died shortly after returning from the First World War. On the 2nd of August, 1924, at around 11:40 AM, eldest brother Harold Tuckerman sent Irene out on an errand to their mother. She would not be seen again until the following morning. At around 8:00 AM on August the 3rd, Basil Stewart, a medical student on his way to church, found Irene's lifeless body on the corner of Inkermann and Khartoum Street, not far away from the Tuckerman home. Upon her autopsy, it was deemed that Irene had been killed via strangulation with either a rope or some noosed material. Signs of potential rape were present, and as the body was still warm, a rough time of death was estimated at around 2:00 AM in the morning. After extensive investigation, Thomas James Cheshire, newsagent of 200 Balaclava Road, was investigated and charged for Irene's murder, after witnesses claimed to see him in Irene's company, and 2 hairs were found on Cheshire's overcoat matching Irene's. While he professed his innocence, Cheshire refused to call witnesses during the police inquest. However, no trial ever went forward after the police refused to legally try Cheshire for Irene's murder. No explanation for this decision was ever given.