The Winton Baby-farming Horror.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 17, Issue 17, 31 May 1895, Page 3

The Winton Baby-farming Horror.

: * PROCEEDINGS AT THE CORONERS INQUESTS. TSE DEAHB IN COURT. STRONG CHAIN OF EVIDENCE. THE PROCEEDINGS ADJOURNED. The coroner's inquest at Invorcargill in the supposed child-murders in connection with tH Dean baby-farnvng cases at Winton, occupied the attention of Mr C. E. Kawsoo, coroner, at Invercargill! on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, of this week. Intense interest was manifested in tbe proceedings throughout, the Court beiDg crowded (several ladies were present), and eager knots of speotators blbo crowded round the doors at each adjournment, in the hope of getting a glimpse of tbe accused Mr and Mrs Dean as they left Court. Daring the hearing the two sal together on a form in froat of ibe dock, which cut them off from tbe public gaze. The husband followed the evidence with a lively interest, while the female accused preserved a perfectly calm demeanor throughout. From tbe reports of, the proceed'ngs in the Invercargill papers, we cul! the following digest :— INQUEST ON THE BODY OF EVA HORNSBY.. The adjourned inquest on the body of the ch'ld Eva Hornsby, discovered buried in the garden of " The Larches," at East Winton, was resumed at Inverca p gill, on Monday, but only aga»n to be adjourned. Mr Eawson presided as Coroner, a?d the fol'owiog were the jury : — Messru J. W. Ba ; n (Foreman), N. Johnson, J. Lennie, D. Eocbe, A. McEwan, nod A. A. Christophers. Mr Hausu applied for an adjournment tiU the following or some other suitable dpy, to enable Mr Han lon, who was acting for Mr and Mrs Dean, to be present. . j Mr T. M. Macdonald, on behalf of the Crown, said he could offer no objection ; indeed, he had agreed to consent to the adjournment, because the Crown bad no desire to in any way interfere with the convenience of the persons charged. The Crown was quite prepared to go on, as had been promised. He suggested an adjournment till Thursday, so as to obviate tbe necessity of a further adjournment. The inquest on the body of the other ch ; ld, Dorothy Edith Carter, was fixed for Tuesday. Alter some arguing, ' during which some of tbe members of the jury loudly complained at being very much inconvenienced at the frequent adjournments —Mr Roche remarking "it was a disgrace that they should be put to this trouble to suit the convenience of a Danedin lawyer" — tbe inquest was adjourned till Monday next, at 10.30 a.m. INQUEST ON THE BODY OF DOROTHY EDITH CAETEB. The inquest on the body of the infant Dorothy Edith Carter, found buried in the garden of " The Larches " near Winton, the residence of Charles and Minnie Dean, was resumed on Tuesday. Mr C. E. Bawsoo, SM., was Conner, end the following were tbe jury :— Messrs W. H. Hall (Foreman), J. D. McGruer, J. E. Watson, Walter Searle, E. Erskine, and J. H. Eingsland. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr T. M. Macdonald) appeared for the Crown, and examined the witnesses on behalf of the police. Inspector Pardy was in attendance. Mr Hanlon, with him Mr Hanan, watched the proceedings on behalf of Minnie and Charles Dean, but did not question any of the witnesses. The following evidence was oalled :— JjOuisa Cox, wife of Henry Gox, of Chris tchurcb, deposed : My daughter Mary Louisa Carter, a married women, had ft g'rl child on the 23rd May, 1894 ; it was named Dorothy Edith. I made arrangements through Mrs Izatt to bring the chid to Bloffi to meet a lady named J^Lts Gvay. I was to br»'ng the baby /&owd with a letter for Mrs Gray, care of jߣrs Cameron, private hotel, Bluff. I did bo, leaving Christ church on 27th April flast, in s.B, Manapouri. Arrived at the jSluffontbe gOtb, I there found Mrs Gray in the sitting room of tho hotel, and she took the baby. She did not say where her home was. She asked what the baby' 8 name was, and I said Dorothy JSditb. She asked if it was necessary to give tbe baby the bottle, and I said " No, the baby wiM eat and take food out of a cup as well a« I can." The lady said the baby would have a good home, and -would be well token care of, and would Jtave plenty of milk and plenty to amuse jiaer ' that it had pretty hands and beuutir ful eyejs. I gave Mrs Gray some clothes with tii© baby; it was in very good Jwaitb, My daughter had charge of the baby since its foirjib, and I had assisted in nursing it, I had never given the child any laudanum or anything of that sort. On the 25th May last I was at the fopcrcargill caol with Detectives Me Orath and Herbert, and saw the lady there whom I had met at thft Bluff as Mrs Gray. J. then knew her as Mrs J)ean, and I see jker now in Court. Tho <dr,e«i produced is the one the baby had /m wUen " Mrs Gray " took j]b at the jßloff. I *%$o recognise other articles of clothing wbutb the baby wore at the jbime, Mary Cameroo, daughter of Mrs Gorman (formerly Mrs Cameron), gave corroborative evidence as to the meeting of Mrs Cox and " Mrs Gray " at her mother's hotel. She continued :— I told Mrs Gray, in answer to a question, when the trains went. I asked her if she canN fr° m Invercargill and she said, "No I came from Clifton this morning," She told we that the lady to whom tha baby belonged was ill, and she had had to come for it. At one time I lived in Dipton Wb^n Mrs Gray camo into the hoLe at the Bluff, her face was familar { % fkm»vr I h a( * seen k flr °" en before, out I did pot know her name. I see her Court ,noi«r, and saw her in gaol on Monday, the -20tb, She was then called .' #Irs £>can« #1 ... Margaret jCajneroa, sister f>t the previous witness, h,cx evidence, and also deposed that Mrs ,Gn»y tP'd hot that the baby had some sores on it, a.nd tb/at she was going down to the chemist t<j> get something for it. i George Ernest Froggatt, chemist al Bluff, said a woman called at his shop or SOth Apwli and purchased <tt worth oi

laudanum. She said she knew how to use it; she was not going to poison herself. She signed the poison register in the name of M. Gray. Esther Wallace, aged 15, deposed : I have been living with Mr and Mrs Dean for five years last April. On Monday, 29th April, Mrs Dean went to Bluff ; she said she was going for a child about twelve months old, which was coming by tbe Manapouri, and she returned homo next day. I met her at the Gap Road railway siding in the evening — a little to tbe south of Winton. She had a child with her and a parcel. I said "Is this the child you went for ?" and she said " Yes.'' I carried the baby part of tbe way, and she the parcel ; we took turn about. At home, after awhile, the parcel was opened ; it contained baby's clothes and a piece of new oilcloth. The child remained there till Thursday morning, 2nd May, when I took her to Lady Barkly railway siding, which is north oE Winton on tbe way to Lumsden and the Lakes. Mrs Dean went with me and the child, and had with her a tin box and a hand bag. I carried the tin box part of the way ;it was light. The tin box produced is the one in question ; it was no heavier then than now. I left Mrs Dean, the baby, box and hand bag at Lady Barkly siding. I did not know where she was going ; she did not tell me. I left the siding before the train from Invercargill to Lomsden arrived there, but I saw it arrive after I left. Mrs Dean said she would be home on Saturday night by tbe Invercargill train, and that she would get out at tho Winton station. I went to the station on the Satu*c'ay evening and met her. She bad with her a tin box. a brown paper parcel, a newspaper parcel with flowers in it, a parcel wrapped in a red shawl, and the hand bag. She had net the baby she took away. The red ehawl parcel and the brown paper parcel I took over to Mr Moore's butcher's shop. Mrs Dean told me to do so, and to tell Mr Moore that Mr Dean would call for them that night. MLvs Dean did not go with me to Mr Moore's, but remained at the station. I returned to the station, and then went home with Mrs Dean ; no other person went with us. ! I carried the tin box part of the way ; it waß heavier then than when I carried it to the Lady Barkly siding on the Thursday morning. I said to Mrs Dean, " The box is heavy." She said, "Yes; there are bulbs in it, with a lot of earth round them," and added that she got them from Mrs Cameron, of Mataura. Mrs Dean carried the box part of the way, I taking the bag and the newspaper parcel. In going to The Larches we so through a paddock near the house. When crossing that paddock Mr* Dean told me to put the tin box in the rushes till morning, Baying;it was too heavy to fetch up that night. I put it among the rushes, which were higher than the box. We then went home. The newspaper parcel containing tho flowers was left in the garden by Mrs Dean. The hand bag was taken into the house. This was on Saturday, 4th May. Mrs Dean told me she had given the baby to a lady ; she did not mention the lady's name, or where she lived. I saw the box again on Sunday, about 11 a.m.; Mrs Doan told mo to bring it in. I found it in the place wher« I left it on the Saturday night. Mrs Dean met me at tho gate, and took the box in her hand. She took it into the house, into her room, and put it under her bed. Mr Dean was at home. The box was locked, and there was some string round it. It was padlocked when I took it from Mrs Dean at Winton Station. When I handed it to Mrs Dean at the gate on Sunday morning it was still padlooked, and still tied with the string. I have never seen the contents of tho box. On the following Wednesday I saw the box ogam. It was lying open at the front door. There was only some garden soil in it, the same as now. The two parcels left at Mr Moore'u were brought to The Larches by Mr Dean on the Saturday night. They had not arrived when I went to bed, but I knew Mr Dean had gone for them, as I heard Mrs Dean tell him to go. I saw the parcels on Sunday morning. They were opened in my presence by Mrs Pean, after 11 o'clock. The shawl parcel contained bnby's clothing. Some of them, I can say, were worn by Dorothy Edith. I helped Mrs Dean to dress the child on the Thursday morning before leaving for Lady Barkly. There was another lot of baby clothes in the parcel which I had never seen before ; they were clothes for a smaller child than Dorothy Ivdith. There was a pink shawl in the parcel which Dorothy Edith wore when she was taken away. I never saw tho red shawl before I met Mrs Dean at Winton. When Mrs Dean returned on 3Cth April there were five children in the house, four of them beinsf about si? years old, and a baby boy a fortnight old, Before that a young woman named Maggie Cameron had been living there; she was there when I went to the place five years ago. She was not in tbe house when Dorothy Edith was taken there; she left about two months before, and relumed on Saturday, 11th May, On Thursday, 9th, I saw Defectives McGrath and Herbert at the house. Mrs Dean was at home, and when the detectives west away they took her with them. They also took the clothes that wore for the smaller baby. On the Saturday following, I saw Detective Herbert again at The Larches, when he took away Dorothy Edith's clothes. I went with Detect ive Herbert on that i day (Saturday, 11th) to the police station ; at Winton. I there saw two bodies, and ■ recognised one of them as the body of i Dorothy Edith ; the other body I had , never seen beforo. When I saw the i body of Dorothy Edith, there was a piece , of pilcloth round it, which J recognised ' as having been on tho kitchen table at i The Larches. I last saw the oilcloth on i the table the day before I went to Lady t Barkly j it disappeared on that dav when i I was away at WintoD, When J camo ; home that day, there was a new oilcloth \ on the table, und the old pieco was not 1 there. The oil-cloth produced is like the i piece that was on tho table, and afterI wards round the body of the child Dorothy Edith. William George Everett, guard on the , Invercargill-Kinpston railway lino, re- • membercd a f«malo passenger joining tho I .train .4 Lady Barkly station on Thursday, t 2nd May, taking a first-cluss ieturn ticket to Lumedcn. She had a young t child with her, a tin box, a bag, aud some l wraps. She asked if she could break hei f journey at Dipton, and 'como on bj

fcho evening train ; and she left at Dipton. That Jady in the Court (pointing to Mrs Doan) is the same. John MeKellar. rabbit inspector, saw TVlrs Dean get in the train at Lady Barkly on the 2nd ; he had known her for eight years. She had a baby with her, and a tin box similar to the one produced. Thomas Baker, painter at Dipton, saw a woman leave a first-class carriage at Dipton on the morning of the 2nd. She had an infant with her, and the tin bos now in Court. She asked if he would take the box to the hotel, and ho said he would. He asked where she came from, and she said, " Off the boat," adding that she was going on to Lumsden. He showed her into the private parlour ; saw her again in the evening, between 6 and half-past, and heard the child crying. Accompanied her to the evening train, and handed the child to her. George .Ayling, licensee of the Railway Hotel, Dipton, deposed to the witness Baker bringing a lady to his hotel, who, he said, had come off the boat, and wanted accommodation till the evening train. She had a baby, and a tin box. Witness asked her if she would like any ccroflour or other food for the baby, and she replied that the baby was ailinp, and had not taken anything for two days ; that the baby was sick and not able to I continue the journey. That is the lady (Mrs Dean) now in Court. Charles Davip, guard of the evening train, said that Mrs Dean, whom he knew by sight, joined the train at Dipton. She had a child and a hat box. Before arriving at Caroline he went through the carriages, when there was no one in the same carriage with Mrs Dean, except the child, who was lying on the cushion. Shortly before arriving at Caroline, he again saw Mrs Dean and the box, but did not notice the child. He was bußy at tbe time. After leaving Caroline he went through again, and then there was no one there but Mrs Dean. He saw the box on the seat, but did not notice the baby. S&w her at ten minutes to eleven on the fo'iowing morning, on Lumsdon platform. She went to Gore by the Waimea line ; he saw her enter the train, and she then had the box, but no baby. James Aitken, a youth living at Lamsden, was at the railway station at Lumsden on the evening of the 2nd. A woman tapped him on the shoulder, and asked him to carry a tin box for her to Crosbie's hotel. Ho did so, and she gave him sixpence. The woman had not a baby with her. The box was far heavier than it is now ; it took him all his time to carry it. Catherine Healey, cook at Crosbie's, eaid she showed tho lady in Court (Mrs Dean) upstairs to Wo. I bedroom, at Mrs Ccosbie'B request, on the evening of the 2nd. She had a tin box with her, which witness carried upstairs; it was then heavy, but as it is now, it would not be heavy. Evelyn Powell, housemaid at Crosbie's, carried a tin box downstairs from No. 1 bedroom on the morning of the 3rd. It was like the one in Court, but was a little heavier. Mrs Dean, who occupied No. 1 bedroom, had no baby with her. William Crosbie, son of the licensee of the Lumsden Hotel, carried a tin box to tho station on the morning of the 3rd ; it was something ltke the one in Court, but it was then heavier. Mrs Dean told him to put it in the train going to 3-ore. Thomas Martin, railway guard, knew Mrs Dean. She was a first-class passenger that morning (the 3rd) from Lumsden to Gore. Did not think she had any child with her. Jeannie McKay, Clinton, said that on a Fi'iday evening Mrs Dean came to her aunt's place by the train, wh'ch arrived from Dunedin at 20 minutes past 9. She had no baby or child with her. Remembered seeing a red shawl with travelling straps round it and a paper on top. Could not say what siza the bundle was. She said she had come from Invercargill that morning, had gone on to Clarendon by the express, had returned by the evening train to Clinton, and was going on by the south train, which left at six in the morning. Margaret Cameron said she had lived with Mrs Dean for about 14 years. Knew Mrs Dean's handwriting, and the signature "M. Gray " in chemist Froggat's poison register was in her handwriting. Catherine Cameron, wife of Hugh Cameron, of the Mataura Hotel, Mataura, deposed : — On Saturday, 4th May, I saw Mrs Dean. She breakfasted at our house. While at breakfast she had a little conversation with me about flowers. She asked me if I would give her a few slips, and I said I would. There were marguerites on the table. She said she had come from Clinton. After breakfast I went with her into the garden, and gave her marguerites, pansies, and a few other flowers. I left her with the gardener, telling him to give her slips. She brought the flowers to the hotel, and afterwards went out, asking witness where tho postoffice was. I afterwards saw her go towards the railway station with a brown paper parcel, which she had not with her when she first came to the hotel. She eamo back to the hotel afterwards and had lunch, but did not bring the parcels. I did not give her any bulbs. She Baid she was going to Invercargill by the express. She told me she had left all her parcels at the railway station. Joseph Limerick, gardener for the previous witness, aaid he gave Mrs Dean Rome slips of flowers, but no bulbs. The flowers produced were like those he gave her. Wednesday, May 29. Constable Barrett ', said that on 11th May he went to The Larches, accompanied by Detective Herbert, Constables M(Donou»h, Mcllvenoy, Rasmussen and Burrowes. On their way they met Mr Dean, and Detective Herbert had some conversation with him. They then went into the house. Mrs Dean was not there; she had been arrested. They then scattered over tho grounds to search. (Witness then detailed, in similar terms 1 to what has already been published, how ' they dug up tho garden, and found the 1 bodies of two female children ; also the subsequent proceedings as to the bodies being taken to the morgue at InvercarDetective Herbert, guvo corroborative • evidenco. Ho added that lio sout Con- > stables Easmusseu and Mcllveney to 1 nrrest Dean at a place wbere ho (Dean) • had told witness he could bo found. 5 Thpy returned with Dean. The babies p had been kid aside, and were lying on tho T ground, Rasmussen said to Dean:

" This is a nice thing." Dean replied : " My God, I suppose I'll be brought into this. I know nothing about it." Tho police also found in Mrs Dean's bedroom under the mirror a small bottle labelled " Laudanum," and containing about half a teaspoonfal of liquor. Next day, the 13th, he took possession of another bottle labelled •• Chiorodyne " and another labelled " Neil's Cholera," both containing liquid. Ho handed the bottles to Professor Black in Danedin on the 20th. Constable Rasmnssen's evidence corroborated that of tho two previous witnesses. Sergeant Macdocell deposed that the morgue was locked after the two bodies bad been placed in it, and witness took possession of the key. A post mortem was performed on Monday, the 13th, by Drs Macleod and Youn?, Dr Hunter being also present. Dr Macleod examined tho bodies externally on Sunday morning, and Mrs Hornsby and Mrs JBennett inspected them in the afternoon. These persons were admitted to see the bodies by witness, and inspected them in his presence Immediately after the post mortem, at which witness was present, he handed the key of the morgue to Detective McGrath, and instructed him to take charge of the bodies. Mr Macdonald said that the evidence was now complete, with the exception of the medical testimony. Two of the medical witnesses might be called at once, but it would be impossible to close the case without the evidence of Professor Black, Dunedin. It would be best to have all the medical evidence taken together. He was very sorry to have to ask for an adjournment, but he thought the jury would recognise the gravity of the inquiry, and wou'd put up with a little inconvenience in consequence. He therefore suggested an adjournment till next Tuesday afternoon, at half-past two or three o'clock. The other inquest which had been adjourned till Monday would be finished by then. The inquest was accordingly adjourned till Tuesday, 4th June, at 2 30 p.m.