The Workington Murder - Lucy Sands 1881

Aim: 1881 an unsolved murder of a young woman 142 years on - we reveal her killers true identities in lucys true crime 6 part period drama series

• The Workington murder 1881!

This is Lucy’s story! 
Lucy was born in Antrim northern Ireland in 1865. Orphaned by the untimely deaths of her father, and her mother, she was shipped over the water with her young brother James, to cumbria where her grandmother and aunt lived in a 2 roomed house at no 2 Christian street Workington.

She grew up quickly, became nobodies fool and took life as she found it. Befriended 3 other local young women and was popular with her own set around the town. Got work locally in the mills, then into service and moved away.

She returned home to Workington in late 1881 after being dismissed from her job after a prolonged bout of illness.
Returning to her old life and friends she was now 16 and spent most of her time - between recouping from her illness and setting up her next position - out on the town catching up with her friends,

A kindly, caring, generous and thoughtful young woman, who clashed frequently with her grandmother who disapproved of her lifestyle, and of her friends who she had recently taken back up with. 

The night of the 1st December was the last evening she was seen out on the town, and was seen alive! Many believing Lucy had left the town to go into employment after a blazing row had erupted at their home in Christian at between her and her grandmother 3 days earlier. 

Below. The only existing photograph of Lucy.

Fast forwards 3 months to the first day of spring of 1882 and a stone breaker sets about breaking a large pile of cobblestones he had deposited on the northside on the morning of the 1st December last.

The grisly discovery of a stocking clad foot beneath the stones lead to the biggest msn hunt - for the worst reported crime committed against any woman during Queen Victoria’s reign!

Lucy had been found, makeshift buried beneath a pile of roadside cobblestones. Vermin eaten and decayed she had lain dumped and hidden there for 3 months by her then unknown assailants on the darkened road at the northside.

What to do with all this information? 

After 13 years of research, uncovering some startling facts, we decided to document Lucy’s story in film, which quickly grew in size and status as more information was garnered - until it turned into a 6 hour long period drama series.

Where is the series at now? 

After 80 days countrywide shoots, many of which were performed in the same streets Lucy lived in (surviving cobblestones that Lucy’s feet once walked over - pic below) 

and with hundreds of thousands of man hours invested by over 550 cast and crew, over the  5 years since we first started shooting in 2018, Lucy’s story is finally in the can and editing on her series has stated.

We’ve now entered the postproduction phase of the journey, and find ourselves in need of raising funds to help us along the way to the finishing line.

Our personal investment. 

To date, over £60’000 had been self invested into Lucy’s captivating story. Along with tens of thousands of hours researching her forgotten story.
A story so grisly, it rocked Victorian society and their morals to the very core!

The late Victorian timeline of Lucy’s story 

Just 6 years prior to the infamous Whitechapel murders, 16 year old Lucy’s murder which was uncovered by the stone breaker on the 1st March 1882, 3 months after she went missing on the 1st December 1881, was considered the most heinous crime ever committed against a woman during Queen Victoria’s reign.

Within days a manhunt was underway, and within less then 2 weeks a young man aged 17 was brought into custody 

The man spent 4 weeks in jail whilst the trial endued, a trial that was as corrupt as could be! Leaving behind a crime which went (and continues to go) unpunished!

(Below, the makeshift morgue where Lucy’s body was taken after discovery. Workington bridge station, now just a grassy knoll by a road side).

Research and the search for more? 

During my 13 years research of Lucy’s murder I came across many hidden clues. Which lead to many questions?
How had the accused got away with the murder?
How had her body lain so close to the public highway for 3 months without anyone noticing?
Why was she murdered?
And who was involved in her murder?

In 2018, a psychic came into the equation quite out of the blue just a few weeks into our first shoots - and disappeared just as quickly? - saying he knew things a dead girl had told him and offered the information up to me.

Quite alarmingly it turned out he was pretty spot on with his information!
There wasn’t just one person involved, but in the aftermath - two!
This was corroborated by a reported deathbed confession I stumbled across a couple of years later, made by a local miscreant to a priest 10 years after Lucy’s murder.

Serving justice 142 years in the future! 

At this point I knew that the murderer and accomplice needed to be outed.
Justice finally served, the perpetrators named, and peace finally given to this young restless soul whose injustice has lived on for 142 years too long!

This is Lucy’s forgotten untold story,

80% factually based from existing court and newspaper reports from 1882, 20% fiction added, based on how and where many individuals involved in the case just simply disappeared without trace after the trial.

By pledging for any of our rewards you can help us tell Lucy’s story to a waiting world. 

This is true crime, period drama with a smattering of the supernatural all wrapped up in the harrowing story of Lucy, her murderer and Lucy’s 3 best friends who got caught up in the aftermath of her vile murder.

You can become instrumental in helping us tell Lucy’s story!
Simply pledge now and all the funds received will be going to our post production team to get Lucy’s story completed and out to an agent for distribution and hopefully network inclusion.

Associated risks?

The series is shot, so the risks involved in backing just a pipe dream of an ‘idea’ are nonexistent, and with a 2 episode premiere booked in in Lucy’s Cumbrian hometown in July, we are almost halfway through editing the series - with colour grading, sound design, orchestration and vfx about to start in the next 2 weeks.

So there’s did are no longer a problem we are factoring into the equation.
One way or another we will fulfil the final product and have Lucy’s story ready to tell,

Pledging for rewards simply helps speed up the process for us, we have momentum right now and it’d be amazing to be able to afford to keep that momentum going right through to the finish line,

To hear more about Lucy’s story - the YouTube link below for a 20 minute interview with our director.