The Oamaru Child-Murder. SHOCKING DETAILS.

Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 148, 6 November 1886, Page 2

The Oamaru Child-Murder. SHOCKING DETAILS.

3 LBY TELEGRAPH.! > [united prebs association. I j Oamaru, sth November, j Agnes Sorgenson was charged at the Resi 3 dent Magistrate's Court to-day with having on or about 20th September, murdered hei infant, the body of which was found mud t mutilated in a hole in the garden of the fc house in which accused lived. Accused was ¦ defended, and pleaded Not Guilty. The , evidenco taken was, of course, to a greal I extent similar to that taken at the inquest, ) Accused told ono witness that she was b ) widow, and that her husband had beon c • sailor, but had died in London lately. Some • time after tho baby was born, acoused re> moved it to a two-roomed cottage on the outskirts of the town, and it was from thif . place the accused said the child had beer ; taken away. The landlord of tho house . said that the accused had borrowed a spade ; and tomahawk from him, and that they were put through the fence next morning. Nexi day the accused told the landlord that she ! was going to Dunedin that afternoon. The i body of tho child was subsequently fonnd in | a hole in the garden along 1 with a quantity ! of nightsoil, and presented a shocking ap- \ pearance, the legs being cut off, and the head and chest much hacked. The evidenoe given by Detective O'Brien was to the effect . that he saw the accused in Dunedin after. [ she left Oamaru, and spoke to her. He afterwards made enquiries of tho woman who was said by tho accused to have takon tho child away from Oamaru, but could find no ono of that name at tho address given, and on returning tound that the accused had disappeared. He camo back to Oamaru and searched in the garden of the cottage where accused lived, and found buried in a hole along with nightsoil, the body of a child, much mutilated. On the same day he left in search of the accused, and next saw her in charge of tho police at Clinton. At the Dunedin railway station a Mrs. Home spoke to the accused, and he hoard acoused say, " Yes, it is Tripp's," and also, " I am ready to die." The case was adjourned till tomorrow.