THE ALLEGED MURDER AT INVERCARGILL.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 796, 23 November 1865, Page 2

THE ALLEGED MURDER AT INVERCARGILL.

(From the Southland Times , Nov. 22.)

We lately alluded to the sudden death of woman named Catherine Farrar, -whose dead body was discovered on the morning of the 15th inst. in a small wharre in Spey-street, and under circumstances which created suspicion that the woman had come by her death by violence. Since then, owing to a hat and stick, known to be the property of Mr D. B. M‘Connell, the Registrar of the Supreme Court here, having been found on the premises, and the result of the post mortem examination -of the body leading to the conclusion that the woman’s death had been caused by blows on the head, Mr M‘Connell has been arrested on the charge of wilful murder, It appears from the evidence elicited at the inquest that the deceased, who was a laundress, before retiring to rest the night previous to the discovery of “the murder, had arranged with a female friend, one Dora Walker, to be called by her at seven o’clock next morning. On this woman going to call the deceased the following morning, she the door of the wharre was ajar, and having called the deceased and receiving no reply, she went in, and found her lying dead on the floor near the door, in her night dress. She then called a neighbor, John Hart, who, with a woman, went in and examined the body, upon which they found several bruises as well as on the face and head. On search being made, the hat and stick belonging to Mr. M‘Connell were discovered in -the house, and the police having been called in, these articles were at once identified by them as hi a property. On being questioned, he denied that he had been there, but when told his hat and stick had been found in the house, he admitted he had gone there on the night of the murder for the purpose of getting a light, as he had known deceased for some time ; that she opened the door with a light in her hand ; that the lamp was blown out by the wind, and his hat blew oft; and he lost his stick and left them both behind him, the deceased stating that she should send them to his house the following morning. The testimony of Dr. Monkton, who conducted the post mortem examination was clear and explicit, and went to prove that the woman’s death was caused by blows on the head from some blunt instrument such as the stick before referred ‘to. The j'ury, after hearing the evidence of a great number of witnesses, returned a verdict that the deceased died by violent means, and that strong suspicion attached to M ‘Connell, the accused.