SORDID STORY

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1924, Page 5

SORDID STORY

j THE CESSNOCK CRIME. "PRONE AND BLEEDING." JONES COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. (Received 9.5 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. An the inquest concerning the death of Patrick Murphy, the victim of the Cessnock tragedy, Andrew Jones was committed for trial on a charge of murdering Murphy. In a statement Jones said that Murphy, who was drunk, made an improper suggestion to him and tried to j drag him into the bush. A fight followed. He knocked Murphy down and left him lying on the ground. He came back later and found him still prone and bleeding. He dragged him to the creek intending to get water to restore him to consciousness. The body slipped into the creek. Jones tried to get him out, but owing to the darkness failed. lie got frightened and. went away. Details of the tragedy, as cabled on August 4, showed that John Nelson, a miner, went oil a shooting expedition and was proceeding through the bush | when in passing a stagnant pool he was i horrified to find the body of a man boating in the centre. He immediatei ly returned to Cessnock and informed the police, who with difficulty recovered the body. TJie corpse was fully clothed, but hatless. The man's age appeared to be about forty-five. A letter in a pocket was addressed to "C. Murphy." On the right eye and side of the head were diseolourations indicating he had been struck with some blunt instrument. Although these facts were alone insufficient to lead to a belief that death was caused by foul play, two months ago school children returning home found lying in the bush, three or four hundred yards from the pool, an ordinary carpenter's hammer and a man's felt hat. Both articles were marked with dry blood stains. Examination of the spot by the police disclosed marks of a struggle and further blood stains. The children's find also coincides with the time the body is beleieved to have been thrown into the waterliole. The scene of the tragedy is a lonely part of the bush. The pool is hemmed in on all sides by dense undergrowth. The water is stagnant, and is the breeding ground for millions of mosquitoes and kindred pests. The spot is seldom visited.