Murder at Reach Lode, taken from the Cambridge Chronicle, 8th July 1786, pg 13.

On tuesday evening, between eight and nine o’clock, as two men belonging to Reach, were at work in th fens about four miles from Burwell in this county, they were alarmed with a cry of murder, and running towards the spot from whence the voice proceeded, they perceived a man in a waterman’s jacket, coming out of the fen. He fled, and the men pursued; but being on different sides of Reach Lode, perceiving they gained on him, he quitted the Bank, and hid himself in the fen, the sedge being high. The men on their their return to Reach, related what had passed, and the next morning some of their neighbours accompanying them to the place, they found the body of Elizabeth Hunt, a woman about 18 years of age, a pauper in the Burwell workhouse, with her throat cut in a most shocking manner. He had endevoured to conceal her in the sedge, but in his haste had left one hand uncovered, by which means she was found.
Suspiscon immediately fell on George Miller, a young fellow about 18 years of age, who was employed in Brooke’s sedge gang, and he was apprehended at Cambridge on Wednesday, and being carried before John Mortlock Esq; mayor, he was commited for further examination. Yesterday the Coroner went to Burwell to take an inquest on the body, when the Mayor accompanied him, and ordered Miller to be conducted there under the care of the Goaler; and on the road, Miller acknowledged the fact. When they arrived at Burwell, the Mayor being informed of what had passed, asked Miller if he wished to make a confession; to which he replied, he did, that he might be sooner out of his misery. He then related the following particulars.
That he had known the deceased for four or five years past; that on Tuesday evening, about eight o’clock, as he was walking along the bank, she came up to him, and asked him, if he would take her instead of a broomstick; that she took hold of his arm, and they walked together for about two miles, when he threw her into Reach lode, where the water was up to her breast; that she cried out, upon which he dragged her through the water, cut her throat, and covered her with sedge, as has before been related. That he then returned to his master’s boat, when he pulled off his cloaths, turned in, and slept with one Adams, a boy, belonging to the gang.
Adams corroborated this story, as to Miller’s being with the girl on Tuesday evening, that he watched them for a considerable time, and that Miller returned to the gang with his cloaths wet, saying, he had fallen in the river. The coroner’s jury brought in their verdict, wilful murder by George Miller, and he is commited to the Castle to take his trial at the ensuing assises.
It is something extraordinary, that Miller declared he never spoke to the deceased before the evening the murder was committed; and that he gives no account what could <unreadable> perpetrate to such a crime. It having been reported, that he had attempted to debauch her, he declared he never made such attempt, nor did it once enter his thoughts.