The case of Caroline Luard's grisly death is, perhaps, one of the county's most remarkable unsolved murder cases; full of intrigue, tragedy and mystery.

It involved two pillars of late-Victorian society living out their retirement years in splendour in a picturesque part of west Kent.

And the crime captured the imagination of the nation - with headlines across the national newspapers feeding the appetite of a thoroughly intrigued population. They were spared little detail or speculation on the case.

At around 2.30pm on the afternoon of August 24, 1908, Caroline Luard and her husband, Major-General Edward Luard left their Ightham Knoll home, in the village of Seal Chart, near Sevenoaks, to take their dog for a walk through nearby woodland.

The couple were well known figures in the area, where they had lived for the last 20 years. He had a distinguished military record, was a former county councillor and magistrate and was a governor of the local school. It was even said he was friends with Winston Churchill.

She was 58, 12 years younger than her husband, and had been involved in a variety of charitable work in the local area. The couple had two children - both of whom served in the Army.

The Major-General had planned to walk towards a summer house on land owned by their neighbours before parting with his wife. He was going to walk to his nearby local golf club to collect his clubs ahead of a holiday the couple were planning to take. She was taking in the air before returning to the property to meet a friend for tea.

After collecting his clubs, the Major-General returned home to find his wife's guest had arrived, but there was no sign of his wife.

Concerned, he started to retrace their steps. As he approached the summer house, known as the Casa, his dog alerted him.

On the verandah of the rarely used house he found her body. At first he thought she had fainted - but soon saw blood surrounding her. She had been shot twice - both in the head. A third shot missed and was found near her prone body.

One of the gloves had been pulled off and rings on one of her hands taken. A pocket on her dress had been ripped off. Her purse was gone. Hysterical, he rushed to a nearby property to raise the alarm.

It sparked a huge police investigation.

Bloodhounds brought in to sniff out the route the killer took lost the trail at a nearby road.

It didn't take long before idle gossip started to heap suspicion on the Major-General. Had he killed his wife? However, he had an alibi. Several people living nearby testified to hearing gunshots at 3.15pm. Yet the Major-General was seen at the golf club, by multiple witnesses, at around the same time. He didn't have time to have killed his wife and make it to the club - looking relaxed and "cheerful". A local vicar also reported seeing him and gave him a lift as he carried the sports gear home.

He did own three pistols - but none were of the same calibre as that used in the shooting. The murder weapon was never recovered.

An unnamed magistrate at the time was quoted in the press as saying: "Both the General and his wife were greatly esteemed in the district and were frequently to be seen in company on their walks. They were evidently very much attached to each other."

He added: "To my knowledge, Mrs Luard was often in the Seal Chart Woods. She loved the place on account of its quietness.
"The deceased lady was a generous benefactress in the district and was so loved by all that it is inconceivable that anyone, knowing her, would desire to do her an injury.

She was so loved by all that it is inconceivable that anyone, knowing her, would desire to do her an injury

"Was it the work of a maniac? It looks very much like it."

As coverage of the murder spread in the newspapers, many felt the Major-General was behind it and sent him hate mail.

The situation became unbearable for the 70-year-old. He decided to leave the area - arranging to auction of the property which he and his wife had shared. Friends at the time say the stress of the time had "added 10 years" to his appearance.

He was invited to go and stay with a friend - Sir Charles Warde, the local MP for the then-Medway constituency and the brother of Kent Police's chief constable - on the day after the inquest into his wife's death concluded.

He was driven to Warde's home at Barham Court, near Wateringbury.

The couple's son - who had been serving in the Army in South Africa - was due to return to Kent following his mother's demise the day after, September 18.

But on the day he was due to meet him another tragedy befell the family.

The Major-General spent the morning of his son's arrival at his friend's home, and wrote several letters. He then walked to nearby Teston where he concealed himself in bushes. Then, as the 9.09am train from Maidstone West to Tonbridge approached he stepped onto the line. He was killed instantly.

One of the letters found at the house in which he stayed read: "I am sick of the scandalous and lying reports. I cannot face my son whom I had arranged to meet today and have decided to end my life."

An inquest would later find he died of 'suicide while temporarily insane'.

Further tragedy would befall the family just a few years later.

Having already lost their first son after he contracted an illness while serving the Army in Africa before Mrs Luard's death, their second - who the Major-General had been due to meet on the day he took his life - was killed on the battlefield during the First World War.

As to the murder of Mrs Luard no one was ever brought to justice.

At the inquest into her death, the coroner said: "Never has there been a case in which the police had been so much in the dark and unable to find any trace of the murderer or any available clue as to who did the crime."

A verdict of 'wilful murder by some person or persons unknown' was returned.

A year after the crime, a 62-year-old man named Daniel Woodroof was arrested and hauled before magistrates in Sevenoaks, charged with the murder. But, bizarrely, the police refused to divulge any of the evidence against him. He vehemently denied any wrong-doing and was released to "loud applause" from the public in the courtroom. His solicitor said he had only been arrested in connection to the crime as he was in Maidstone Prison for common assault and "that this man appears at one point to have had a revolver". He was acquitted.

The vicar who had seen Major-General Luard also reported seeing a "well-dressed" man with a "somewhat repulsive face" leaving the woodland by a gate near the road just a few minutes after the shots were heard. He was never traced.

There were also rumours of a "strange woman" seen in the area at the time. Again, she was never found.

Was it a robbery which took a terrible twist? The killer cannot not have known she was wearing valuable rings on first glance as she was wearing gloves.

Had, as the police believed, Mrs Luard known her killer? Perhaps even arranged to meet them on that fateful day?

"Never has there been a case where the police had been so much in the dark..."

There was talk that John Dickman - who was convicted and hanged for the robbery and murder of a cashier on a train in Northumberland in 1910 - was convicted as authorities felt he was the man behind Caroline Luard's slaying.

The family home still stands today. It changed hands earlier this year for more than £2.1million.

The reality is that no one was convicted of her death and the case remains one of the county's most notorious unsolved murders.