ORMONDVILLE MURDER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 64, 14 February 1884, Page 2

ORMONDVILLE MURDER.

« . Tiie Complete Narrative. Tbe Inquest. Horrible Details. Verdict of Wilful Murder. [" Woodvilie Examiner.] One of the most tragical crimes ever committed m the Colony was perpetrated at Ormondville on Sunday night, when a man named Edwards murdered his wife and four children. The deed was evidently premediatod and the details of the crime arc perhaps the most harrowing overheard of under the circumstances. For some time past Edwards has been threatening the lives of his wife and children, and his threes culminated on Sunday m the horrible tragedy which we are about to relate. About 3 o'clock on Monday morning Edwards went to the house ot a neighbour named Planke, also of one named Pike, and at each he asked for the loan of a gun to shopt himself, also for a drink of water. OC course the gnn was refused, and he then asked to bo allowed to enter his neighbour's house, but at that hour m the morning neither of them were inclined to open their doors and he went away again. The request excited the curiosity of both neighbours, who thought there must be something wrong, and they went m search of him. Not succeeding m finding him, Planke went to the Makatoko police station, distant about a mile and a half from Edward's house, and having aroused Constable Schultz, he said " Edwards is at it again. He came to my house asking for a gun and a drink of water. He tried to force his way into my house ; but the door being closed T took no notice of him and he cleared out." Constable Schullz went out and as he did not hear him on the line,he was afraid he had fallen thi'ough the bridge, he went down the line examining the bridge and the crossings over the line through to Ormondvillp, but did not see anything of Edwards. On the way back to Makatuku he asked Pike to wait for him till he wont down to see whether he was at home. He knocked at the bedroom window and called for both Edwards and his wife, and goi no answer. He then noticed the door was half open. He then struck a match and went inside, and found the floor covered with blood. He then then went outside and called out to Pike and Planke to come up, as there was something wrong. They came and all three went m together. In the bedroom they found the mother and baby lying dead on one bed, and three children on another bed,also dead. The following are the names and ages of the murdered ones : — Mary Ann Edwards, wife of accused, aged 33 years. Robert Edwards, son, aged 7 years. Ella Edwards, daughter, aged 5 years. Arthur John Edwards, son, aged 3 years. Maud Emily Edwards, youngest child, aged 12 months. Each of the deceased seem first to have been stunned by a blow from a billet of wood. Their throats were then cut from ear to ear. The bodies of the wife and child lay as though they had been murdered while asleep, and their throats out where they lay. The mattrass is soaked through with their blood which had percolated to the floor beneath. The presumable manner m which the children wore killed is horrible to relate. There was a calfskin mat lying on the floor alongside the bed. On this there was a tremendous.quantity of clotted blood, and it is believed that the mvi defer, having stunned the children with the block of wood, tuak eaoh one up separately, and sitting on the mattvass of the mother's bed, cut their throats, holding them over the skin mat while they bled. Having thus despatched the children he laid their bodies side by side on their little bed. At the iuquest prisoner denied this supposition, saying that the blood on the mat was his own, he having held his head over it while he attempted to cut his own throat. From the quantity of blood this statement bears the appearance of absurdity. Mrs Edwards was fully pressed, as though she had bean much disturbed by her husband) & n( i k aa * consequently not gone to bed until sleep overcame her, when she had lain on the bed to rest. There was the trace of a blow about the middle of the left arm, also bruises on the left haud. Tbe body lay on the left side m a pool of bload x the face covered with blond,, and the left shoulder mu,ch, bruised. The eyes wer« closed but bruised, and there was a fracture of the skull bono over the right eye, and a much more severe extended fracture over the left eye j also the mark of a blow Qver the jaw, deceased having been struok three or fqurtimep. The throat, as also m the case of the others had been put from left to right, and windpipe and artery were completely severed. The ejdest boy had marks of severe bxnjsos on the left side of the head. The wind pipe and arteries were severed by the cut of the throat. The second boy was heavily bruised on the head, and the neck severed to the vertebrjg. The throats of the girl and. baby were similarly severed, The billet of wood with which the blows were struck was discovered m the house, also the knife and a grindstone. The wood was an ordinary fire-stick about 2£ft. long and 2-|in. square, and was party burned ; and the blows on the mat trapses are distinctly marked by the black charred wood. Prisoner had carefully prepared it for its horrible work, having out with his knife a round handle on one end of it. The knife was an ordinary whitehandled table-knife, and had . been thoroughly sharpened by repeated grinding!* on the atone after cutting the throat of each. This is evident from the blood and hair on the .stone. The next work was to find the culprit. Constable Schultze, seeing the position of affairs, feared he had hidden m the bush, and aroused the inhabitants of Makatuku to make a search. They willingly complied, ami every effort was made to discover tho murderer. Eventually Edward Planke, who was travelling the railway line, noticed his dog attracted by something under the bridge, and prisoner knowing Planke well, asked if that was he. Planke replied and told him to come out. Edwards replied that he had killed " the old woman and the kids'* and he would be arrested.. Planke replied, " Oh nonsease, they won't touch you, come away." Edwards then came

out. "When he saw Planke and Pike coming up ha threatened to jump off the viaduct info Llie bed of the stream. They however seized him and he was taken to the lockup. His clothes were saturated with blood and his throat "was found to be cut into the pipe, though no arteries were severed. Prisoner said he had intended to kill himself too, but he found it " sore. ' Later on prisoner said hi* reason for catting the throats of his wife and children was that they were going to burn him. This seems to have been a ballucinuunder which he usually raved. Mrs Edwards. was a .smart, rather handsome woman, and was a widow when she married Edwards. Sho.has one son by her first husband living at : Waipawa, and she was much respected m the district. Prisoner is well connected m the home country, and was regularly m re- . cepl of remmiUances, and which .h 0 usually spent m drinking. He has been m a delirious state from drink for some time, and has been considered unsafe to be at large. Constable 3chullz had him twice arrested on a charge of lunacy, but on each charge the case was dismissed, the medical gentleman certifying that he was of sane mind. On one occasion he put a- keg of ; gunpowder under his wife's bed and endeavored to explode it, the poor woman shrieking m her agony of terror, On several occasions: he had. presented a loaded gun at her with the avowed intention ef shooting her. Another strange deed was to strip the baby naked and place it on a block of wood ynth ane ax m his hand to split it m pieces he said, when it. was rescued by the mother. The other day Edwards tried to throttle a neighbour. < Edwards was at one time engineer on board a steamer m the East Indies, and there he had a siiffstvoke, since which the drinking of spirituous liquors has sent him raving mad. He arrived m. Napier by the Halcione m 1872 and was for a time lineman on the Napier line, but was dismissed on account of his drunken habits. He has a freehold of 40 acres at Ormondville. He is about- forty years „ of. age. Prisoner will be charged with the murder at .the sitting of the Ormondville Cburfc to-morrow. He has 'no idea of his position and seems-to be unable to, recognise his crime. '"'