<P> The small market town of Alton had previously seen little crime during the 19th century . The afternoon of 24 August 1867 was reported as fine, sunny and hot . It was around this time that Fanny, along with her sister Lizzie and best friend Minnie Warner, asked Harriet Adams if she could go out to the nearby Flood Meadows . Having no objections, Harriet agreed as she was pleased for the girls to leave her while she got on with housework . Fanny and the local children had often played in Flood Meadows, owing to its close proximity to Tanhouse Lane and the fact that there had been no real crime in Alton within living memory . As the girls walked towards Flood Meadows and into a hop garden they met Frederick Baker, a 29 year old solicitor's clerk . He was wearing a frock coat with light coloured trousers and a tall hat on his head . Baker had moved to work and live in Alton about two months prior, which allegedly made him unfamiliar with the town . </P> <P> Baker gave Minnie and Lizzie three halfpence to spend on sweets and Fanny another halfpenny . The girls had seen Baker before at church meetings and were thus unconcerned to take money from him . Baker then watched the girls run up and down The Hollow (a lane leading to the nearby village of Shalden) as they played and ate the blackberries he had picked for them . An hour later, Lizzie and Minnie decided that they had had enough and opted to go home . Baker then approached Fanny and asked her to accompany him to Shalden . Fanny refused, and it was then Baker picked her up and carried her into the nearby hop garden . </P> <P> Lizzie and Minnie ran back to Tanhouse Lane and went straight to Martha Warner, who ignored them and so the girls carried on playing together, oblivious of Fanny's abduction . It was not until 5 pm that they made their way home for dinner . Mrs Gardner, who also lived in Tanhouse Lane, noticed Fanny's absence and asked the girls her whereabouts . The children relayed what had occurred earlier in the day and told Mrs Gardner that Fanny had accompanied the man . Mrs Gardner then relayed the information to Fanny's mother and the two set off to search for her . They met with Baker after going only a short distance, near a gate separating the hop garden from Flood Meadows . According to the Hampshire Chronicle, Mrs Gardner asked Baker what he had done with the child, but assured her he often gave money to children for buying sweets . Mrs Gardner replied "I have a great mind to give you in charge of the police", to which Baker told her she could do what she liked . Baker's position in town as the solicitor's clerk initially deflected any suspicions the two women had, and returned to their homes in the belief that Fanny was still playing in one of the surrounding fields . </P> <P> Sometime between 7 pm and 8 pm Fanny had still not returned home, prompting Harriet Adams and a group of neighbours to search for her missing child . As the evening was setting the group began the search in The Hollow, to no success . In the nearby hop garden, however, labourer Thomas Gates (a Crimean War veteran who partook in the famous Charge of the Light Brigade) found the head of Fanny Adams stuck on two hop poles while he was tending to the crops . An ear had been severed from the head which had two large cuts, from mouth to ear across the temple . Further investigation discovered the remains of the child; the head, arms and legs were separated from the trunk . There were three incisions on the left side of the chest, and a deep cut on the left arm, dividing her muscles . Fanny's forearm was cut off at the elbow joint, and her left leg nearly severed off at the hip joint with her left foot cut off at the ankle point . Her right leg was torn from the trunk, and the whole contents of her pelvis and chest completely removed . Five further incisions had been made on the liver, the heart cut out, and vagina missing . Both of her eyes were cut out and found in the nearby River Wey . </P>

Where does the term fanny ann come from