Corpus delicti

Here’s my conundrum du jour: whether to comment on the Republican caucuses in Iowa or the female corpse found on the premises of one of Her Majesty’s royal properties. What to do, what to do?

<pause>

Nah—no contest. I’m going for the story with the lower stink factor.

It seems that a dog walker out in the woods at Sandringham (the Queen’s country house in Norfolk) on New Year’s Day found the body of a young woman. Presumably in an advanced state of decomposition, as it’s reported that she’s been dead for somewhere between one to four months. (Although there’s no word as to whether she’s been at Sandringham for all that time, or whether it was a dump job.)

Moreover, while there’s no cause of death yet, official word is that she didn’t die by natural causes or by accident.

So we’re talking homicide.

Ordinarily one would wonder at a corpse going unnoticed in the grounds of a royal estate—could this happen at Camp David? Aren’t there security patrols? But not all of Sandringham is entirely private, and the body is in an area open to the public, although apparently not very often traveled.

But you also have to wonder at someone having the chutzpah to either kill the woman or leave her corpse on HM’s doorstep. Or at least, within a mile or so of her doorstep. Was it a crime of opportunity, or some sort of political statement? And, seriously, what’s with her security force not taking a swing around the perimeter every once in a while?

Well, in “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, Sherlock Holmes averred that “The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.” Holed it in one, old chap.