Whilst Annie was found not guilty, all modern opinion concludes the weight of evidence would point to her having murdered at least three people.
[1] She obtained a post as cook and housekeeper to William (1889–1949) and Alice Thomas (née Parsons)[2] who lived at nearby Trenhorne Farm.
Annie left Trenhorne House and faked a suicide by leaving a distinctive checked coat on a clifftop at Looe.
Dr Eric Wordley and Roche Lynch gave expert witness on the presence of white arsenic in the each body.
A local chemist, Shuker & Reed, gave evidence that they had sold Annie a weedkiller containing white arsenic some four years previously.
[5] The prosecution led by Henry du Parcq KC argued that Annie's sister, Minnie Everard, had died in July 1930, and had been poisoned slowly by arsenic over a period of 7 months.
[7] William Thomas was forced to leave due to the level of rumours and returned to his home area of St Germans where he died in December 1949.
The poisoned sandwiches that Annie made to kill the woman who she felt stood in her way with William and the suspicious death of her aunt inspired mystery writer Agatha Christie's 1940 novel Sad Cypress.