In the Tommy and Tuppence short story The Sunningdale Mystery, Doris Evans is a young blonde woman typist who was arrested and charged with the murder of Captain Anthony Sessle at the Sunningdale Golf Club.
Police found some fair hairs in the fingers of the dead man. There were also some flame-coloured wool caught in one of the button of his coat. Enquiries at the nearby railway station also revealed that a young blonde woman in a flame-coloured coat had arrived at the station earlier in the day and asked directions to Captain Sessle's cottage. Two hours later, the same woman came back to the station asking for trains back to town. She appeared highly agitated. Her hat was awry, her hair tousled and she was continously looking behind her shoulder as though afraid of something. The police eventually traced this woman to Doris Evans and arrested her.
Doris's own account of the events was wholly different. She said she had met Sessle at a cinema and he had invited her to his cottage. When she arrived, she found that he behaved strange and differently. After a meal Sessle suggested that they take a walk and the strolled to the golf course where he drew a gun and began to threaten her. He said he was ruined and done for and he wanted to kill her first and then himself. Doris struggled with Sessle and broke free and then ran to the station to get away.
When taking up the case, Tuppence was convinced that Doris could not have committed the murder. Sessle had been killed with a hatpin. Doris had bobbed hair and in any case, in their era, women wore close fitting hats which did not need hatpins. Tuppence herself had not used a hatpin for almost five years. It seemed to her to be something which a man would use to frame a woman. He would be relying on his own preconceptions of what weapon a woman would use, and would not understand current fashion trends.
Portrayals[]
In LWT's 1983 TV adaptation of The Sunningdale Mystery, Doris Evans is portrayed by Emily Moore.