On the evening of the attack, not long after he had arranged for a key to be made so that he could lock his office door from the inside, his assistant, young Mr Chamberlain, had gone home at five and Little had stayed on. The timing of the attack indicated that the killer knew something of the railway affairs because it was a day on which there would be far more cash in the office than usual. As was explained later in court:

I state to you heavy business because the receipts of that Thursday morning were unusually heavy. Tuesday was the day of the great fair at Mullingar, and on those days the receipts from Mullingar and other stations connected with the removal of cattle were very considerable, so that on Thursday, 13 November, Mr Little necessarily had in his hands a more than usual sum of money…

In fact, it was calculated that he had handled several hundred pounds. His office was close to some rooms occupied by a few families, and one of these, the people called Gunnings, knew his working hours. On the night of the murder, Mrs Gunning saw a light from his office and went to try the door. That was at around seven o’clock and there was no response or reply when she rattled the handle of the locked door. Either the murderer was in the room at the time or Little was working and wanted to be left alone; yet it was odd that he did not speak to Mrs Gunning.

The geography of the station at Broadstone becomes important in the case now. The next morning, young Chamberlain came and waited at the office door, unable to enter. Then after some time, Little’s sister arrived, very worried that her brother had not been home the night before. A member of staff called Brophy forced entry by going though a roof and then a side window. It was he who discovered the body of Little. In court, the scene was described by the Attorney General: