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The farmstead looked like any other on the windswept outskirts of Rockhampton, Queensland, in 1930. But when police pried open a buried zinc-lined box in the vegetable garden, they found what was left of a woman’s body—wrapped in calico, folded with unnatural care, and surrounded by a ring of religious pamphlets and burnt candles. The woman was Emily May, age 34, the wife of the farm’s owner and mother of seven. Her disappearance had been explained away for months as a spiritual journey, a retreat to “find God.” Now the truth was in the ground.
Emily May was born in 1896 to a working-class family in regional Queensland. She married William May at 21, and together they set up a modest dairy on the edge of the Fitzroy River floodplain. By 1929, the May household included seven children ranging from a baby in arms to teenagers. William was known as a quiet, deeply religious man. Emily, by contrast, was sociable, devout, and active in the local Methodist congregation.
The family’s fortunes shifted in late 1928, when William met Ernest “Brother Elijah” Toombs at a revival meeting. Toombs had drifted north from Sydney, preaching a new doctrine he called the “True Way of Cleansing.” He claimed he could heal the sick, cast out evil, and bring God’s wrath or blessing by incantation. His followers called him “the Light,” and Toombs attracted a small circle of locals, including William May, the widowed neighbor Edith Palmer, and a handful of itinerant farmhands.
Brother Elijah moved into the May home in early 1929. He began holding midnight prayer sessions, urging the household to fast, pray, and “cast out the Devil’s temptations.” According to testimony, Emily was the most resistant. She told friends she worried about Toombs’ influence over her husband, and that the rituals were growing “strange, even frightening.” By late 1929, Toombs had convinced William and Edith Palmer that Emily was possessed by a spirit of “discord.” He preached that only “total surrender” could save her.
On the evening of January 12, 1930, Toombs summoned the entire household to the parlor. He declared that the Lord had commanded a “purification.” Emily was told to kneel and recite prayers. Witnesses later reported that Edith Palmer and William May tied Emily’s wrists and ankles with rope while Toombs read from a leather-bound Bible, reciting psalms against the “enemy within.” The children were ordered upstairs. A neighbor’s testimony described hearing screams and then silence.
According to William May’s later statement, the ritual escalated. Toombs produced a jar of kerosene, anointed Emily’s forehead, and pressed a linen cloth soaked in the liquid over her mouth and nose—“to drive out evil by fire and breath.” Emily struggled, then lost consciousness. Toombs insisted she was “sleeping under God’s hand.” When it became clear she was not breathing, Toombs claimed it was “God’s will,” and she would rise “on the third day.”
Emily’s body was concealed in a woodshed for two days, wrapped in calico and doused in more kerosene. Toombs led prayers for her resurrection. On the third morning, when she did not revive, the group buried her in the garden, placed Bibles and tracts around her, and planted a row of pumpkin vines over the grave. The children were told their mother had gone to Brisbane “to do the Lord’s work.” Letters were forged in her name.
Over the coming months, neighbors grew suspicious. Emily’s absence was conspicuous at church, and her eldest daughter confided to a friend that she “missed Mother’s voice at night.” Edith Palmer was seen burning clothing on several occasions. The local grocer noticed that only William now collected the family’s rations. In July 1930, the Methodist minister, Reverend James Tully, paid a visit to the May farm. He was disturbed by the children’s fearful demeanor and William’s evasive answers about Emily. Tully reported his concerns to the police.
Detective Sergeant Charles Redfern was assigned to the case. Redfern interviewed William May, who insisted his wife was on “a spiritual sabbatical.” Redfern obtained samples of Emily’s handwriting from the church registry and compared them to recent letters sent to her sister in Toowoomba. The penmanship and phrasing were markedly different. Police questioned neighbors, collected statements about the midnight rituals, and noted that Emily’s personal belongings—her sewing kit, wedding ring, and hand-embroidered prayerbook—were all still in the house.
On August 2, 1930, Redfern secured a search warrant. Officers combed the May property. In the garden, they noticed a patch of earth where pumpkin vines had recently withered, the soil sunken and uneven. When they dug, they discovered the zinc box containing Emily’s body, her hands still bound. The coroner ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation from inhalation of volatile fumes, complicated by blunt trauma to the head. The autopsy found bruises consistent with restraint and handling by several people.
William May, Edith Palmer, and Ernest Toombs were arrested that evening. In their statements, May and Palmer insisted they had acted “in faith,” following Toombs’ guidance. Toombs, for his part, denied intent to harm but admitted to “laying hands” and anointing Emily to “call forth God’s mercy.” Police also seized Toombs’ diary, which included detailed accounts of the rituals, lists of “unclean spirits,” and sketches of hexagonal symbols he claimed were revealed to him in dreams.
At the committal hearing, prosecutors presented the physical evidence: the bindings, the zinc box, the religious tracts, and the forged letters. Local witnesses described Toombs’ charismatic sway over May and Palmer, his isolation of Emily, and the escalation of his demands. Medical experts testified that kerosene inhalation can cause rapid loss of consciousness, respiratory failure, and in some cases, death within minutes. The judge ordered all three to stand trial for murder.
The trial opened in November 1930 at the Rockhampton Supreme Court. The prosecution argued that Toombs had manipulated May and Palmer, using religious authority to coerce them into restraining and ultimately smothering Emily. The defense claimed the death was accidental, the result of a botched “spiritual healing.” The children testified in closed session, describing the strict regime imposed by Toombs and their mother’s growing distress.
On December 14, 1930, the jury found Ernest Toombs guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. William May was convicted of manslaughter, receiving a 10-year sentence. Edith Palmer was found guilty as an accessory and sentenced to five years. Toombs died in prison in 1941. William May was paroled in 1937 but never returned to the family farm. The May children were placed in the care of relatives.
The May case exposed the dangers of uncontrolled spiritual sects in rural Australia during the interwar years. Queensland police noted a surge in complaints about itinerant preachers and faith healers following the trial. The government passed new regulations in 1932, requiring all religious groups to register and banning unlicensed spiritual “treatments” involving restraint, physical contact, or use of flammable substances.
The case revealed how religious authority can be weaponized to justify violence. Toombs’ diary showed a pattern of escalating paranoia and ritual prescriptions, including sleep deprivation, fasting, and isolation. The court-appointed psychiatrist diagnosed Toombs with “delusional disorder with religious grandiosity.” Palmer and May were found to have no prior history of violence, suggesting the crime arose not from innate malice but from submission to group pressure.
It also brought attention to the vulnerability of women in isolated communities. Emily’s initial protests were dismissed by her husband and ignored by neighbors wary of interfering in “spiritual affairs.” Local press coverage led to a surge in letters from women reporting coercion and abuse in similar groups, prompting investigations across Queensland and New South Wales.
The May farm was eventually abandoned, the building left to decay among overgrown pumpkin vines and rusted fencing. The zinc box, its lining still faintly etched with soot, is now held in the evidence archive at Rockhampton Police Headquarters. The case file includes a full transcript of Toombs’ diary, the forged letters, and the testimony of the May children—preserved as a warning from a period when faith collided with fear, and trust in a self-proclaimed prophet cost a woman her life.
The autopsy found that Emily’s lungs contained both kerosene and traces of soot, indicating she was alive during the burning of candles and ritual incantations. The bindings used on Emily were identified as linen strips torn from her own bedsheets, recognized by her eldest daughter from a distinctive pink embroidery. The kerosene jar used in the ritual bore a label from a Rockhampton hardware store, matched to a purchase made by Edith Palmer one week before Emily’s death.
Medical testimony established that kerosene is highly toxic when inhaled, causing chemical pneumonitis and central nervous system depression leading to death. The court heard that the “incantation” Toombs recited was a distorted version of Psalm 23, altered to reference “fire and breath” instead of “green pastures.”
A neighbor’s dog began digging at the grave site weeks after Emily’s disappearance. When the animal unearthed a piece of calico, the neighbors confronted William May, who claimed it was “old rag for the compost.” This incident formed the first concrete suspicion of foul play and was the reason the police focused their search on the vegetable patch.
During the investigation, police recovered Toombs’ handwritten list of followers, numbering twelve, including names from as far as Mackay and Bundaberg. Correspondence with some of these individuals revealed similar accounts of rituals involving fasting, prayer circles, and “trials by fire,” though no other fatalities were confirmed.
The court transcript showed that Toombs referred to himself as “God’s Anointed Hammer” in his diary, and had written a chilling passage: “The woman yields or perishes, that is the Law.” This passage was read aloud during the trial and cited by the prosecution as evidence of premeditation.
After the verdict, the Queensland Parliament debated the introduction of the “Spiritual Practices Regulation Act,” which passed in 1932. The Act required itinerant preachers to obtain written permission from local magistrates before conducting gatherings, and empowered police to inspect the premises used for “spiritual healing.” This law remained in effect until 1959.
The May children, ages 2 to 16 at the time of their mother’s death, were cared for by an aunt in Toowoomba. The eldest son later served in World War II, and the youngest daughter trained as a nurse in Brisbane. None returned to Rockhampton.
The May case was referenced in a 1943 report by the Queensland Department of Health on “non-medical religious healing,” which cited the dangers of flammable substances and unqualified spiritual leaders.
One of the last entries in Toombs’ diary read: “The Devil walks in the garden. Only fire and breath can cleanse. The Lord will raise her if He wills.” This entry, dated the day after Emily’s death, was used in the prosecution’s closing argument to demonstrate intent.
The zinc box used to bury Emily was manufactured as a shipping container for cheese. Its dimensions matched a missing box reported by a supplier in Rockhampton four months earlier, and the lot number inside the lid corresponded to goods delivered to the May farm.
The jury deliberated for six hours before returning their verdict. The foreman later stated in a newspaper interview that the decisive evidence was the combination of Toombs’ diary, the forged letters, and the autopsy findings showing both restraint and chemical asphyxiation.
The trial was covered by major newspapers in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Editorials called for greater oversight of religious groups and highlighted the psychological dangers posed by charismatic leaders.
When police searched Edith Palmer’s cottage, they found a collection of Toombs’ religious tracts and a list of “unclean spirits,” each assigned to a local resident by name, with ritual instructions for “cleansing.”
The May case is still cited in Australian legal education as a landmark example of homicide arising from religious coercion and group delusion.
After the trial, the farm buildings were deliberately burned by locals to “purify” the site. The zinc box was transferred to police storage, where it remains labeled as “Exhibit A: May case, 1930.”
Toombs’ followers dispersed after his conviction; several joined mainstream churches, while others moved interstate. No further criminal proceedings were brought against members of the “True Way of Cleansing” sect.
The May case was referenced in a 1958 law journal article as “the most disturbing instance of cult-related homicide in early 20th century Australia.”
The only surviving artifact from the May household is Emily’s prayerbook, now kept in the Rockhampton Historical Society archives, still bearing the faint scent of kerosene.