On the last afternoon of her life, Dorothy Barbara Rawlinson, known as "Barbara" popped two library books and other cosmetics into a bag and headed off to Southlands Beach in Warwick.

Miss Rawlinson was friends with Southlands owner Brigadier H. Dunbar Maconochie and had permission to be there.

She was 29-years-old, and English born. She'd visited Bermuda a few months before and liked it so much she decided to make it her permanent home.

She found a job working as a secretary, but every Thursday and Sunday made a point of going to the beach.

Coral Hanky, the daughter of Miss Rawlinson's landlady Anne Sayers, told The Royal Gazette this week, that she had been away in school and only knew Miss Rawlinson for two weeks before it happened.

"She and my mother were quite close though," said Mrs. Hanky, now in her sixties. "In fact, she use to call my mother whenever she was going to be late.

"When she didn't turn up she telephone the Police, but they laughed at her, saying that Barbara was an adult."

Later, Police scoured Southlands Beach, and found no sign of Miss Rawlinson. But there was blood on a large rock on the beach, and blood on the sand, suggesting foul play.

Police began a massive excavation, which quickly turned the place into what looked like "Normandy Beach".

The authorities thought perhaps her body was buried under the sand, but instead found buried her bloodied possessions, including her swimsuit, bag and library book.

There was no sign of her body. Helicopters from the Kindley Airforce Base were brought it to search over the waters around Southlands which were known for their strong currents.

Two days after Miss Rawlison disappeared, a fisherman, Frederick Gunnison Astwood, noticed sharks circling in the waters off of Astwood Cove. Miss Rawlinson's body was pulled from the water, badly mauled by sharks. Her skull was found to have multiple fractures the result of a great force and a number of blows.

Miss Rawlinson was laid to rest in St. John's Churchyard in Pembroke. Four Policemen acted as pallbearers. The casket bore white gladiolas. Wendell Lightbourne was arrested by Detective Inspector Milton Marsh when an employee at a livery store across from Southlands reported that Lightbourne had come into the store visibly jittery dressed in only soaking wet trousers.

Lightbourne was already known to Det. Insp. Marsh. as he'd arrested him previously. Because of rising community panic, Scotland Yard was called in. The Royal Gazette reported that although Bermuda investigators were considered "adequate" they were not considered adequate enough to deal with "an unprecedented wave of crime".

There had been a number of previous murders of women in the two or three years before the Rawlinson murder including Dorothy Pearce in May of 1959, as well as the attempted murder of Florence Flood.

Lightbourne confessed to murdering Miss Rawlinson and attempting to murder Mrs. Flood. "I done it; I can't go to heaven now," a weeping Lightbourne told Scotland Yard.

He also told prison officials when he first was checked into prison: "You fellows can get the rope ready. I only wanted to get even (for the 12 lashes he received the previous year)."

He was never charged with any other murders, although he was questioned about a number of other cases. The trial got under way in December 1959 and was over before the end of the month. The Crown case was presented by Attorney General Hon. John C. Hooton, before Chief Justice Sir. Newnham Woorley.

Lightbourne was presented as a young man, severely traumatised by the death of his father when he was nine-years-old. He struggled in school where he was bullied by other children, and classified by teachers as mentally retarded and unteachable.

At one point during questioning he told Police he was unable to spell his mother or sister's name. He made failed attempts at suicide before he was even a teenager. He admitted to getting violent when drunk.

Lightbourne told Attorney General Hooton that he saw Miss Rawlinson on the beach that day. They chatted about life for a little bit, and then had sex. He claimed that afterward they quarrelled and he slapped her across the face. She fell and struck her head on a rock.

Doctors for the crown testified that in fact, Rawlinson had probably been struck multiple times with a heavy object on the head, and would not have regained consciousness after the first blow. Lightbourne was represented by a young Dame Lois Browne-Evans. She had become Bermuda's first female lawyer only six years previously.

Lightbourne was found guilty with a plea for mercy from the jury, and sentenced to death after the jury deliberated just two hours on the case.

Dame Lois always considered the case a triumph, because in January of 1960, she was successful in an attempt to get the Governor, Sir Julian Gascoigne, to commute Lightbourne's death sentence to life in prison.

She argued her client had diminished responsibility due to him having brain damage. Though the jury found Lightbourne guilty they requested mercy, something that had never been done before. Lightbourne served out his sentence in England. Mrs. Hanky said her mother was badly traumatised by Miss Rawlinson's death.

"It was made worse by the fact that Barbara's mother kept calling," said Mrs. Hanky. "Because my mother was her last link to Barbara. And to top it off, my mother had also been friends with Dorothy Pearce who was murdered a few months before."