Have you heard of the ghostly footsteps that led away from a Sheffield murder scene in 1812 and ended in an isolated cave?

A young mother murdered – her butchered body discovered lying in her isolated homestead, her baby sleeping peacefully in its crib, and mysterious footprints in the snow leading to or from the scene… but not both.
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This killing became a ghost story among the locals of Loxley in 1812, because the footsteps led to the Loxley Common Cave, where those that followed them after the grim discovery observed that they walked around the cave and then vanished.

It is assumed that the footprints led from the cottage to the cave, as no other footsteps could be seen in the snow, other than those of the woman from a neighbouring village who had discovered the mother’s body on New Year’s Day.

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And with the killer seemingly vanishing into thin air inside the cave, talk was rife of ghostly goings on, or the devil himself at large on Loxley Common that night.

Footprints in the snow were seen heading away from where the woman was murderedFootprints in the snow were seen heading away from where the woman was murdered
Footprints in the snow were seen heading away from where the woman was murdered
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The murder scene soon fell into disrepair and locals avoided it, fearing that the ghost of the murdered woman still dwelled there, awaiting her husband’s return and watching over the child.

Likewise villagers gave the cave a wide berth, fearing it was a gateway to another dimension, or even to Hell itself.

The woman’s husband, a gamekeeper and woodcutter had spent the night drinking late in a local tavern to see in the new year, and then returned to an isolated logman’s cabin deep in the woods to spend the night, legend has it.

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And when he was told of her death, the husband, Lomas Reville, showed little surprise or shock, but as the years went by he became a strange and isolated figure, ostracised for his strange and erratic behaviour, his hair turning white by the age of 52.

Another New Year's Day some years later, Reville had been missing from his duties for several days. The snow was once again deep, and when a search party was sent to his cabin, he was found hanging dead from a rafter.

But did Reville murder his poor wife and somehow cover his tracks, literally, to hide the killings, or were stranger forces at work?

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