Lindow Woman and the False Confession

In 1983, workers in Cheshire, England, uncovered the head of a woman preserved in a peat bog. Believing that his long-hidden crime had finally surfaced, Peter Reyn-Barnett confessed to killing his wife and disposing of her body there in 1961. But radiocarbon dating revealed the remains were 1,750 years old, belonging to the Iron Age Lindow Woman. Despite the mix-up, Reyn-Barnett's confession sealed his fate, and he was convicted of his wife's murder.

Previous Fact Next Fact