MELBOURNE TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLIII, Issue 9791, 6 February 1923, Page 8

MELBOURNE TRAGEDY.

'tracing the body. (Per Press Association, Copyright.) MELBOURNE, February ,5. The police made the discovery of the girl Coughlan’s burial place in a gully as a. result of a statement supplied by Frank Bonfiglio, the former hus--1 hand’,of Hannah Mitchell, alias Bonfiglio’ in December last, when he was in hospital suffering! from a gunshot ‘-wound allegedly inflicted by Hannah ;i Mitchell during a quarrel. ’ - The police also, secured evidence ' that the body , was taken to the; gully by Bonfiglio and the three accused! " Women. The police obtained a statement from Mrs Milward, admitting that she. assisted in removing the body. -v.

(Three women, named Hannah Mat- ■ chell, Margaret Mitchell, and Margaret Milward, were arrested, the first-named charged with murdering, in November last, a girl named Bertha Coughlan, and the other two charged with being accessories after the fact. All were remanded. Tne police evidence showed that the girl Coughlan, came to Melbourne from Omeo to receive medical treatment. She went to the house of Nurse Mitchell. Next day the nurse secured a car and allegedly took a body, supposed to he Coughlan’s, and hid it in a gully, 45 miles from Melbourne. The. police, acting on certain information received 1 , discovered where the body had been removed from the gully, but lost traces of it until Friday night, when they received a telephone call from a man stating that he had seen two men dumping a big package from the Anderson Street Bridge into the Yarra. Dragging resulted in the discovery of the body).