A MYSTERIOUS DEATH.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 236, 18 December 1888, Page 2

A MYSTERIOUS DEATH.

A SHOCKING AND EXTRAORDINARY

CASE. Melbourne December 5. One of the moat painful and mysterious cases of death which has ever occurred in the colony came to light on Friday last* Mr Lewis, the well-known theatrical manager, resides on the St. Kilda road. In the household was one servant girl named Fanny Perry, aged twenty-three, and on Friday last her dead body was found on the premises under very singular and mysterious circumstances. The girl Perry came to Mrs Lewis as a general servant last Christmastime, and was with her until August 23rd of this year, when she obtained a fortnight’s holiday, and left with the intention of visiting her mother, who resides near Talbot. Subsequent enquiries have shown that she did go there, and while there endeavored to negotiate for the sale of some land which she held jointly with her sister. On September 2nd she resumed duties, at Mr Lewis’. Prior to her departure on this holiday she had been a cheery, lively, happy natured girl, but after her return, she appeared to have some trouble on her mind, and her old heartiness seemed to have gone. On the 25th October Mr and Mrs Lewis, accompanied by their son, visted the Theatre, and the girl was left in charge of the house. When they returned home they found the place in the usual order, and concluded that the servant had retired to rest prior to their arrival. Next morning, however, she did not put? in an appearance, and an examination of her room showed that her bed had not been slept in. Mr Lewis re- j ported her disappearance to the police, and f communicated with the girl’s friends. No information as to her movements could be gained. On the 23rd of November, while Mr and Mrs Lewis were sitting together in the evening, they heard moans coming from a large corrugated iron shed .erected by Mr Lewis when he retired from the management of the Bijou Theatre as a storeroom for large quantities of scenery he owns. Knowing that the store-room was continually overrun with rats and cats, it was concluded that one of these animals had been unfortunate enough to become jammed between two pieces of the scenery and was unable to escape. The moaning ceased after a brief duration, and nothing more was thought of the matter until last Friday, when the smell from this shed became very offensive. It grew in noisomeness until it became almost unbearable. Mr Lewis, junr., returned on Thursday, and his father and himself determined to overhaul the scenery and endeavour to ascertain the source of this annoyance. They moved large quantities of the flats, but one piece defied their united efforts, and Mr Lewis, junr., climbed up to the top of the mass to see what was the cause of resistance. To his horror he discovered lying on the top of the scenery the dead body of a girl in an advanced stage of decomposition. The body was lying on its back with the hands crossed over its breast, and the bodice of the merino dress the girl had worn when last seen torn as if in great agony. She lay on a bed, which she had carefully prepared, of old theatrical dresses, a large quantity of which are stored in another portion of the building. This bed must have been prepared in a most deliberate manner, and must have been difficult to reach. The whole of the features were completely destroyed, and the flesh was deeply discolored. A purse found in the pocket of the dress contained £5 17s 4d in money, a silver brooch, and a pair oj earrings. By her side, on a nail in the wall, was hanging her watch. In the shed was also found a portion of the Argus of November 16th. The girl had disappeared on November 15th, and was found on November 30th. The paper being ot tb. date of November 16. h seeme to show that she was then alive, but thia is only conjecture. The closest enquiry oauuot discover any on. who saw her after October 15th. The inquest was held yesterday. The medical evidence was to the effect that the body was too far gone to enable it to be said how Tong she had been dead. There was no trace of poison or of any tampering with the girl. The dootors favored the idea that -she had died of starvation, though they could not say positively. The girl shared a piece of land with her sister, and some disagreement had taken place between them as to selling it. T|ii< appeared to be the only trouble on her mind. After returning from her holiday she told Mrs Lewis she would like to leave, for no other cause than that she wished to “ go right away—right away from everybody.” Mrs Lewis said in evidence—“ I asked her what her trouble was, but she had a way of clenching her teeth and nothing could then be got from her.” I told her to go in and have a good cry, but she threw herself on the kitchen table, and said “ It is my stepfather who is driving me to this ; I want my money, I want my money.” I laughed the matter off and tried to comfort her as much m I could. I had engaged another servant to come on the Wednesday afternoon, but on Wednesday morning before I went out she asked me if she could remain. She said, “ I might as well stay here as anywhere else.” She said this with what appeared to be some meaning, but at the time I did not take any notice of it. Her depression on the night of her disappearance was very remarkable, and th ere was a very peculiar look about her eyes. I never saw her again alive. The Coroner in summing up said the deceased had evidently been most respectable and trustworthy. She had become much depressed in consequence of the unsatisfactory position of her property ; and his long perience as a medical man and as had convinced him that young women in certain conditions of health were likely to take most irrational views of matters which they would at other times treat lightly. It was not at all unlikely that the deceased had given way to despondency to the extent of determining to take her own life by starvation. There were no indications of violence having been used towards her, so that any theory that she had been murdered was quite untenable, nor were there any sighs of poisoning. The post mortem examination revealed conditions which bore out the theory of starvation, and he would not say that the examination absolutely established that as the true solution of the mystery that surrrounded her death, but it pointed to it as being most probable. The circumstance that the body was almost qude was also evidence in favor of that explanation, because it was a remarkable fact that in every case of death from starvation or thirst that he had heard of, the deceased had been discovered partly nude. A surveyor who, had nearly perished from thirst in an adjoining colony told him that just before losing his reason he was overtaken by an uncontrollable desire to tear off his clothes. While indications of starvation were thus present in this case, there was an absence of direct evidence to that effect, and the jury would probably be unable to express any opinion as to what had actually occasioned the death. The jury, without retiring, returned a verdict that deceased, Fanny Perry, was found dead on the 30th November, but that there was no evidence to show how death had occurred,

At the inquest held at Hamilton (Via.) on the body of Mrs Smith, who was accidentally ehot.it transpired that she was making up a bed, and her son Francis, who was in the room, saw hie pistol between the mattresses. He had not had it for soma time, and eagerly took it up to see if it was loaded. He thought it was not, and held it up and fired, the shot passing through his mother’s head, killing her instantly. He called out to his father, and then ran oft for a doctor. The jury returned a verdict of “ Accidental death." Great sympathy is felt for the young man, who is greatly respected, and it ia known that great affection existed between th* mother and sou. On emptying a city reservoir in St. Ambroia la Jaune, Laurette, the remains of eleven children, in an advanced stage of decomposition were discovered st the bottom. A Christchurch telegram states that the yacht Coquette has been wrecked near Akaroa, and three young man were drowned. At about ten o’clock on Friday night at Auckland an old man named Micha. 1 McDcrmolt shot a woman named Kate Kennedy or Mara Patterson through the breait, end then attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself. The woman died on Saturday morning. She stated that she went to McDermott'S house and asked him to shout, whU Ml ducedarwiyeif and find M &«t