1967 (pre): Selena Broadhurst’s Fiery Death

The following account appears in Emille Schurmacher's 1967 book Strange Unsolved Mysteries:

        Mrs. Selina Broadhurst, of Wrexham, North Wales, was burned to a crisp by her own clothes in circumstances where it was not possible.

Not Enough 

        Schurmacher claims he found this story in a newspaper called the 'Liverpool Echo,' but doesn't give a date for it. This particular newspaper has been in publication since 1879, so I've set the date for this event as 'previous to 1967,' being that's the year Schurmacher's book was published.

        I have not yet been able to confirm this previous source’s existence, or find any other source for this account... so for now it is marked as 'Unreliable' as evidence of anything paranormal.

        As a further note of warning, however, Schurmacher opens his section on spontaneous human combustion in his book by recounting the death of Maybelle Andrews as she burst into flames while dancing... an account that has since been proven to be completely false and the creation of Schurmacher himself. The likely implication is that all other short accounts that Schurmacher presents in the same book are also False Leads... stories that simply never happened. I'm being nice, though, and not marking the stories as False Leads until I can directly check the sources he quotes.

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