A SERIOUS CHARGE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10652, 13 May 1895, Page 5

A SERIOUS CHARGE.

ALLEGED MUEDEE OF INFANTS. £Esb Pbess Association.] DUNEDIN, Mat 11. At Winton, this morning, tha police, after a close search of the premises of the Deans’, commenced to dig up the garden, finding the bodies of two baby girls, which answer the description of those left in charge of Mrs Deans. As the bodies were quite fresh, it is assumed that their burial had been quite recent. The Deans were arrested on the charge of murder. The woman Deans, arrested at Winton for child murder, ia believed to have made away with another child. Mat 12. - One of the bodies found ia the garden of the Deans at Winton boa been identified as that of a child which tha woman Dead had on April 30. The police theory is that when tha woman got out of the train with, the child at Dipton she hilled the child and placed the body in a large hat bo* she was carrying. She then joined the train and proceeded to Lumsden next day. She travelled by the Waimea Plains line and caught tha express to Dunedin at Gore. Between Milbura and Clarendon she received another child, and gattingout at Clarendon is supposed to have disposed of it and placed the second body in tha hat box. She then joined the evening train south, and after stopping at Clinton for the night made her way home. The grandmother of the latter child and a woman who had charge o? it for soots time left for Clinton yesterday aftermiottj and were to drive with Detective to Winton to identify the body. The woman is believed to on a baby-farming trade for left Christchurch because tha interfered in a case in which caived a child from a young her mother. The child was treated, and the police, tracing the mother of the on its being taken away. The extent of the trade the Deans can only be who entrusted them with forward and giving INVSECAEGILL, There is. not much new to lugi itho “

garden at the Larches House, occupied by | ‘the Deans st Wiuton, has bees further i searched by the police.' The only thing of | & suspicious nature found, was a small | stall, but it ia not certain yet whether it is? human. The elder infant, whose body was found in a flower plot, was in Mis Doan’a \ custody for four or fire days before eh® started for Milburn, via Lumsdan and Gore, and it went with bar. The doctors who bare examined tho bodies found no distinct traces of violence. Thera arc c. few marks about the nook of the month-old baby, but these msy have orison from decay. The grandmother of thin child 4dsntifiad its clothes in Doans’ house. It is supposed that the infants were stifled by holding a cloth Oyer their faces sufficiently long. i Charles Dean was at one time the holder of a large area of land at Etal Crack, Wainki, but gave it up some years ago. Ho is a very old resident. Mrs Dean is his second wifOj and was the widow of a doctor. It is said that she gives her ago as forty-eight, but she looks older. She is well educated. A preliminary letter to n relative of tho Hornsby baby made great professions of kindness to tho child, spoke as if the woman bad a good position, and said that tho person to whom it was addressed would understand the yearning of a woman, who bad lost all her children, for tho love and care of a little one. Dean is somewhat affected by his arrest, but. the woman was unperturbed. She denied stoutly that she had ever seen the person from whom sho is i said to have received the Hornsby infant. While doing so Detective Herbert noticed her surreptitiously fumbling with some clothing which she stuffed into a bed. Detective Herbert pulled it out, and the woman identified the articles as the clothing tho Hornsby‘infant wore when she handed it to Mr* Dean, who thereafter maintained a stubborn aileaco.

■ Tha people of Wiuton long had suspicions of foal play., and the police wero keeping an eye on the woman, but had great difficulty in approaching her, as she dselided to register her house, although onco fined for keeping children without n. license. It is probable that an effort will "be made to connect her with another infant 1 ■whose b.cdy was found some time ago. Tha police also have information tending to j show, that Mis Dean blackmailed single | women whom she knew had given birth to | children.