WOMAN DONE TO DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 18045, 12 August 1922, Page 3

WOMAN DONE TO DEATH

DASTARDLY CRIME IN VICTORIA. BODY THROWN INTO RIVER. What has ever}' indication of being a brutal murder came to light in Yea—a picturesque north-eastern town', situated eighty miles from Melbourne —at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, July 23. The event caused quite a sensation in the town. The victim was a married woman with three little children, named Josephine Jane M'Laughlin, thirty-five years of ago, living with her husband, Michael M'Laughlin. a middle-aged laborer. The murdered woman, together with her husband and family, had only come to live in Yea from Trawool—a roadside station on the way to Tallarook railway—about five months. They had previously been living at Trawool for a number of years. Mrs M'Laughlin was reported to he missing from her home on Sunday morning. Mr George Hamilton, a hay and corn merchant, who was one of tho searchers, discovered tho body in a diallow, reedy part of tho Yea "River, near the back of tho town. Two deep wounds were found on the woman’s head—ono a long wound in the centre of the forehead; and a smaller one exposing tho skull on tho loft temple. There wore also several sharp cats on the nose, which had apparently been inflicted’ with glass. In a timbered paddock some little distance from where the body was taken from tho river, a large stick, broken near one end, and with hair adhering to it, was fonnd. Near the spot was a pool, of blood and marks on the ground which were indicative of a fierce struggle. Tho story of the -tragedy, as related to the police, revealed that Mrs M'La.nghlin on Saturday afternoon expressed a desire to attend a dance that was to be held in tho shite hall in the evening. Her husband consented to her going, and gave her some silver in case she needed it. When tho time came to go she, according to the husband’s story, kissed bun good-bye, and as a parting injunction ho warned her not to come home through the paddocks, but to go round the road. He stayed_ at home with the children, and at midnight he became anxious about her; but, thinking she had called in at a house on the way home to help a townswoman whoso husband was ill, he was not as concerned as ho might otherwise have been. However, some time later he thought ho heard a scream, and his wife cry out, “Mick! Mick!” He immediately rushed out. but all was still. He called his wife’s name several times, but received no response. Becoming very worried, he then left the children sleeping, and went np to the township. He knocked up the people with whom he thought his wife might have stayed. They told him they had not seen her. He then tried another home, with the same result. Prom this house he went to the police station,_ and informed Constable Searle that his wife had nob returned home. This was about 3 a.m. on Sunday. He and _ the constable then- searched tho vicinity of the homo until daybreak, but their efforts to trace her whereabouts proved to be unavailing. However, be found his wife’s handkerchief, with the silver he had given her tied in a corner, in tho paddock, where the signs of a struggle were subsequently discovered. A man whose name is” William Grisp was on Sunday afternoon detained by the police in connection with the crime, and ho was subsequently locked up on a charge of vagrancy. Tho police scoured articles of _ male clothing which are torn and stained with blood.

Tlie theory sdivancecli by some of the townspeople is that the murdered woman was crossing a paddock—a clear, open field, with practically no timber on it, which, has a path running through! it leading to the victim’s home—when she was set bn by her assailant.. She then ran, or was carried away, through another rough stubble paddock, in the direction of the river. Alongside a briar bush glowing near the fence a large pool of blood was found. It is believed that th® unfortunate woman was here struck violently on the head by the stick which was found not far away from where the body was recovered from the river. An unfrequented lans at this spot runs into the river frontage. The blows from the murderar’a weapon no doubt killed the woman at thia identical spot. The author of the dastardly crime no doubt then carried the body from this lame, rolled it through the river frontage fence, and threw it into the shallow, reedy portion of the river, almost directly in front of the lans. The scarf worn by th© murdered woman was found by her husband on Sunday morning only a few yards away from where shs was pushed, or rolled, through th© fence. Important developments occurred on Monday (July 27), when information was given the police hy a young man that ho had seen a man leave the dance hall about two minutes after the murdered woman departed for home. Subsequently Detective Bruce and Senior Constable Commons and Constables Scare, Nolan, and Knopp, went to a bouse whore •a man named Reuben Fox, twenty-nine years, a laborer, was living. The police arrived at the house just as Fox was returning to his home. They searched the premises, and in a corner of a room a- bine serge suit, hat, shirt, and braces were found. Fox was then arrested and taken to th© police station, where ho was charged with having on the 23rd inst., at Yea, murdered Josephine Jane M'Laughlin. He strongly protested that he was innocent. Senior Constable Commons and Constable Nolan then took a pair of boots to where the murdered woman was found in th© Yea River. A print in the soft mud was compared with the sole of one of the boots, and the nail marks and other distinctive features corresponded. River mud was also found on the boots, which were still wet. The police are of opinion that when the body of the woman was placed! in the water, the man responsible for th© crime removed his boots, walked up stream and came out in his socks, walking homo without boots. The black trackers were thus prevented from picking up th© footprints. It is stated that Fox visited the husband of the murdered woman on Sunday and expressed sympathy with him in hie trouble. He was on the seen© of tha tragedy on the Monday, and discussed it with townspeople. Next day ha took a •reporter and a photographer over tha ground, and discussed th© tragedy with them. Ho has been photographed many times. The other man, Crisp, who had bean detained on a charge of vagrancy, vraa brought before the court and remanded on his own surety until the following Monday (yesterday).