BODY LEFT IN STREET

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1918, Page 2

BODY LEFT IN STREET

POOR MOTHER'S ACTION

A sensation wag- created in Fitzroy, Melbourne, recently by the finding of the dead body of a youth in Alexanderparade, in circumstances which indicated that he had been murdered. The body, which "was in an emaciated condition, was found beneath a peppertree in the parade. It was fully dressed, and the fact that it had been recently washed and clothed with a clean shirt, and that there were marks and scratches about the head and body, led to the conclusion that the youth had met with foul play, and that the body had been subsequently conveyed to the spot where it was discovered. As the inquiries proceeded, however, the theory of murder weakened considerably, and all doubts were dispelled when a pogt-mortem examination showed that death was due to bronchial pneumonia. There was also evidence that the" youth had suffered from water on the br»in. Inquiries showed that the lad's name was Edward George Boom, a half-caste, 17^ years of age, and that he was a son by a former marriage of Mrs. G. Kane) of Spring-street, Fitzroy. Mrs. Kane informed Detective O'Sullivan that her present husband was a seafaring man, who was now in New Zealand, where he had recently met with an accident. The dead boy had been a weakling from birth, and had been in orphanages until he was 16 years of age. About 18 months ago she took him from St. de Paul's Orphanage at South Melbourne to her home in Fiteroy. A few days ago he became ill, and she put him to bed, and gave him the best nourishment she could afford, but he died. The mother, who has eight young children by her second marriage^—their ages ranging from 10 years down to a baby o two months old —has for some time past been subsisting on relief obtained from charitable institutions, and has been living in dire distress. In her ignorance, she conceived the idea of having the corpse of her son buried at the expense of the State by placing it in the public street; and when darkness set in she clothed the body, t and conveyed it in a go-cart to the siiot [ where it was found. It was stated that the body of the youth was in such a wasted condition that it would not weigh more than 4st.