In June 1903 local gamekeeper Caleb Carter was found dead near Kenilworth in circumstances that have never fully been resolved.

On Monday, June 29 1903 his body was found face down in a stream next to Chase Woods and he had been shot in the back of the head.

Carter had last been seen on the Saturday by his brother Alfred who had cycled over from Birmingham to see him.

We have taken a look back through newspaper archives to piece together what happened.

Who was Caleb Carter?

Caleb Carter, 29 at the time of his death, was a gamekeeper on the estate of the Earl of Clarendon (Edward Hyde Villiers).

Carter had served in South Africa with the Shropshire Light Infantry before returning to his native Warwickshire.

He accepted the position as gamekeeper at the end of 1902 and took up residence in Chase Cottage where he lived alone.

He was engaged to a Kenilworth girl and did the shopping and other errands for her parents Mr and Mrs Hancox.

Events leading to his death

On Saturday, June 27 Caleb was visited by his brother Alfred who had cycled over from Birmingham to meet him. The two spent the afternoon together, and Alfred left Caleb in a wheat field on the edge of his gamekeeping rounds at around 8.20pm.

Alfred then walked through fields to the road back to Birmingham. Whilst walking away he heard a number of gunshots from behind him, but thought no more about it.

Caleb was expected to call upon his young lady friend at 9.00pm that night - he never showed up.

He was then expected at his parents' house in Stratford the next day and again was not present. The alarm however was not raised until Monday 29 when Mr and Mrs Hancox and latterly Alfred began the search for him.

It was Caleb's soon-to-be mother-in-law who found his body, face down in a brook in Chase Woods with bullet holes in the back of his head.

In his pocket were 10 sovereigns and a gold watch that had stopped at 2.25am.

The Coroner found that he had died instantly and the Gloucester Citizen reported that: "The death was not caused by a bullet, but by shots."

The Leamington Spar Courier reported that the police "absolutely precluded the idea of suicide."

Who could have been responsible?

The Courier ran the story under the headline "The Kenilworth Mystery - Murder or Accident?" which perhaps goes someway to explaining the circumstances around his death.

Given that suicide was clearly ruled out, the police were on the hunt for a killer.

The body was found in a brook, which either meant that it had been dragged there after the murder, or he was standing in water at the time of his death.

No signs of a struggle could be found and so it was assumed that Caleb was stood in the water, or at least next to it when he died.

The fact that he still had his watch and some money on his person means it is unlikely he was robbed and killed in the process.

His brother told the Coroner that he "had not an enemy in the neighbourhood," so the list of suspects was short to say the least.

The Courier reported that residents thought Carter had been crouching in the water, hiding from a poacher that he had seen. They thought that the poacher saw his crouched body and shot him thinking Carter was a small creature before fleeing after realising the mistake.

"Some person who was too timid to face the consequences of his blundering," said the Courier.

The Citizen agreed, running the story: "The police are of the opinion that the said affair was brought about accidentally by some person engaged shooting rabbits."

However, Alfred said that his brother had never mentioned any problems with poachers. The Coroner also said that the bullets had entered his head from behind and above, meaning he was facing away from his killer so not watching a trespasser.

The Coroner adjourned the inquest until July 17, hoping for the police to have gathered more evidence. However Superintendent Ravenhall said that there was no hope of catching the killer.

As such the jury returned an open verdict; they simply said: "The deceased met with his death by a gun shot wound, inflicted by some persons unknown."

Carter's body was later buried in Wilmcote.