Margaret Hogg

Margaret Hogg (died in October 1976) was a manslaughter victim whose body was preserved in Wast Water lake for eight years.

Married to Peter Hogg, she worked as an airline stewardess for Air Europe, where her husband was a pilot. Peter was 19 years senior to Margaret. Margaret had a three-year affair with banker Graham Ryan, and often flaunted it before Peter. One night in October 1976, Mrs Hogg attacked her husband, hitting and kicking until he "grabbed her round the neck and squeezed hard." Margaret Hogg suffocated and Peter wrapped her body in a carpet, tied it to a block of concrete, and dumped the body in Wast Water lake in the Wasdale valley in the Lake District National Park, England.

The body settled at a depth of 34 metres (110 ft), only a short distance away from much deeper parts of the deepest lake in England. Due to the lack of oxygen, her body did not decompose, but over time was preserved by the formation of adipocere.

In 1983, the lake was searched for the body of Veronique Mireille Marre, a missing French student. Subsequently, the remains of Margaret Hogg were found by a diver, Neil Pritt, in March 1984, who initially thought them to be just an old carpet. Shortly after the recovery, the body was identified by friends. Her husband, the prime suspect, initially denied the murder before giving a confession. He was sentenced to four years for manslaughter, obstructing a coroner, and perjury in his divorce proceedings.

The body of Veronique Mireille...
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