London: Aldine Publishing Company, [1893]

For fictional purposes, drowning was a usefully uncertain murder method: the unfortunate victim might easily recover and return unexpectedly later in the story. Even if the victim died, the uncertainties of the river flow meant that the body might never be found.
In fact, rivers were used more frequently as a means of disposing of victims killed elsewhere, and body parts: in 1882 over 500 bodies were retrieved from the River Thames.

1893.8.72e