The Moat Farm

What we know so far

In 1899, Camille Holland — a wealthy, cultured woman living in London — bought a remote farmhouse in Essex surrounded by an old moat. She moved there with a charming former soldier she had recently met, Samuel Herbert Dougal.

Within weeks of moving in, she disappeared. Dougal told people she had gone away. Soon another woman was living at the farm with him.

For four years, nobody heard from Camille. But her money kept being spent. In early 1903, as gossip about Dougal spread through the villages, Essex police finally began to ask the obvious question: where was Miss Holland?