A FIEND.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 179, 6 August 1901, Page 2

A FIEND.

OUTRAGE AND MURDER. [By Telegraph—Press Association.] Masterton, last night. Robert Douglas, who has been in gaol for nearly three years on a'life sentence for assault on a girl at Opaki, near Masterton, has confessed to tho gaoler at Lyttelton that he murdered Mrs Suzannah Tain in October, 1898, at Mikimiki, eight miles from here. Mrs Pain went out with Douglas mustering cattle, and the latter came home alone, saying she had sent him back. She was afterwards found face downwards in a shallow stream, and as she was subject to fits, it was supposed that she was accidentally drowned. After Douglas’ conviction suspicion was aroused, and the body was exhumed, but nothing was found except a small bruise on the head, which the medical evidence went to show might have occurred accidentally. The accused has been formally charged with murder, and remanded.

Robert Douglas was charged at tho Magistrate’s Court to-day with tho murder of Suzannah Pain, at Mikimiki, on October 2nd, 1898, and was remanded without tho case being gone into until Friday next.

LATER INFORMATION,

HOW MRS PAIN WAS MURDERED. HELD UNDER WATER UNTIL DROWNED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, last night. It is understood that Robert Douglas, in his confession, states that he was walking with Mrs Pain on the hills when a dispute arose. He hit her on the head with a stick, and finding that she became unconscious he put her in the stream and held her body under water until she was drowned.

It transpires that after the body of Mrs Pain was discovered one of her boots was found several chains away.