ATROCIOUS CRIME.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1642, 8 January 1913, Page 7

ATROCIOUS CRIME.

MURDERED BY BURGLARS. MELBOURNE RESIDENT KILLED CHILD'S PATHETIC APPEAL. «i TsltEraDh-Presa Asiociatlon—Oopyrliht (Rec. January 7, 9.40 p.m.) '• Melbourne, January 7. Two burglars Inst night entered: tho bedroom of Mr. Trotter, chief collector for Messrs. Macßobert and Sons, confectioners, and shot Mr. Trotter in the prceonce of his wife, afterwards decamping with .£2OO. ■ .I. : , The Trotters lived in a villa at Fitzroy. Mr. Trotter had just returned from a holiday. .Ho stayed downstairs until Idte at'night counting money, and was apparently watched. Mrs. Trotter tells a sensational story. She and her husband and their five-year-old child: were awakened at two in the morning'by the flash of an electrio light. They saw: two masked men covering them with revolvers, and demanding money. ', Mr. Trotter declared that there was none.. " '■ The men replied that they knew he had money, and threatened to shoot him, at the same time telling his wife that 6he would not be hurt, and they only wanted money. Mrs. Trotter thought it was only a joke, and told her husband the-men were playing a game.': Trotter reiterated that tho only money ho had belonged to his employers. ,He then jumped out of bed, and struck . and struggled one of .the robbers. The second robber placed ■• his revolver at Trotter's, head, and fired, ■' .' The thieves then went and turned up the mattress where the" money was usual-, ly-kept, arid took a bag containing. .£BB cash and JEIIB in cheques, :representlng Trotter's takings on the previous day. ' 'The house had been entered by forcing a' window, and the men had propped open the doors to make the outlet easy. They promptly escaped, and the police' are without clues; . ; ..The robbers: wefe apparently well acquainted with Trotter's habits, and chose a day when his takings would be unusually heavy. They knew where he *'kept the money, and the position of the electric light. Trotter received a frightful wound.'in the. forehend;-'and died three hours after he was shot. r ,' ■'■': '.'"■. When,her husband was struggling with his murderers, Mrs. Trotter attempted to. reach the window, to give, the alarm, but was debarred by a pointed revolver. She appealed to : her husband to. give up ,the mohoy to save his life, but| he firmly refused. She then appealed to the robbers not to shoot, and the child also called to the men, "Don't shoot Daddy!" , '-Trotter was a strong man in the prime of life,' and was getting tho better of the :robher. when.'he was shot. - ' .."■'..■-.,.. Finger-prints have been secured. , s'.