INQUEST ON THE BODIES.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 81, 3 July 1866, Page 2

INQUEST ON THE BODIES.

We stated on Saturday, that the bodies of the murdered men, when brought into town on the preceding evening, were lodged at the fire-engine house, near the Government Buildings. There they remained until the funeral on Sunday. The Coroner's jury sat on 30th June, in the Provincial Hall, and the following are the particulars of the inquest :—: —

On Saturday, an inquest on the bodies of Felix Mathieu, James Dudley, James DePontius, and John Kempthorne, washeld in the Provincial Hall, at eleven o'clock in the morning. The jury was composed of the following gentlemen : — Foreman, Nathaniel Edwards ; Messrs. Henry Drew, John Lockett, Francis James Blundell, Frederick Huddlestone, William Akersten, James Townsend Lowe, Alexander Sclanders, James Watkins, Walter S. Mortimer, Samuel Robinson, and Frank Nairn.

A large number of persons attended the examination of witnesses during the early part of the inquest.

Patrick Birrell, being sworn, said : I saw the deceased, John Kempthorne, Felix Mathieu, James Dudley, and James DePontius, at about one, p.m. on the 13th instant. I saw them on Franklyn's Flat, on the Maungatapu. They were all sitting down having something to eat on Franklyn's Flat. They bad a pack-horse with them which they were feeding. Mr. Kempthorne rose up and spoke to me as I came near to him. He called out " G-ood morning" tome. I said " Good morning, Mr. Kempthorne ; where are you off to ? " He said they were all for Nelson. He then asked me what o'clock it was. I said it was between twelve and one, very nearly one. I said "Do you expect to reach Nelson to-night ? " He replied " Oh yes, we expect to be in in good time." I then said " I must push on and get into Nelson." He then called and asked me if I had the horse back I had lent him. I met a man and a woman a quarter of an hour afterwards, about a mile this side of Frnnklyn's Flat. I don't know them by name. The man seemed to be a digger. I met a party on horse-back, nearly a mile farther on. I also met another party on foot this side of the Maungatapu. I asked him where he was off to, and he said he was having a look at the country. He came into town with me.

By a Juror : I did not Bee any of the prisoners the same day. By another Juror : I arrived at Dwyer's at about three.

William Fletfc, being sworn, said : On Friday morning, the 29th, at a quarter past ten o'clock, I found Felix Mathieu lying on hia back in a place where a tree had been uprooted, about half a mile from Franklyn's Flat, in the direction of Nelson ; on the right hand going from Nelson, and about half a mile off the road, and about 400 yards on the Nelson side of a creek, the third creek from Franklyn's. It was uncovered, lying on the back. The breast was bare, the arms tied behind with a strap, and the legs also tied with a strap. There was a wound on the left breast, and a ring on one of the fingers. I was also present when the others were found. Dudley was the next I saw ; he was lying on his face. I saw no wound on him. His hands were not tied. He was not covered. His body lay about twenty yards from Mathieu. Dudley appeared to me to have been strangled. One might have walked within three yards of the body without seeing it, the ferns which were concealing it being about three feet high. The next we found was Kempthorne, about twenty yards from Dudley. He was nearer the road than Mathieu. The bodies were lying in a line along the side of the hill. Kempthorne's body was lying on its back, near a large rock ; the left knee was bent upwards, his arms were by his side, but not tied. A pocket handkerchief was tied round his neck. It appeared to have been used for covering the face. There was a wound behind the right ear. His watch was in his pocket, detached from his chain. The next was DePontius, lying abouteighteen yards nearer the road ; he was lying on his face, and covered with stones, which were piled on him. There were about a dozen large stones on him. I did not see any wound on him, as another constable took charge of the body. The constable's name was Marten.

By a juror : I saw the track of a good many men going up the creek. The branches of the trees were broken, and the fern trampled down. I found Felix Mathieu, but not the others. The bodies are the same now lying here. By another juror: There was a handkerchief round tlie neck of Dudley. I moved it, and saw the mark on the neck. It appeared as if it had been twisted.

George Davies, being sworn, said : I am a miner. I live about two miles from Deep Creek. I have seen the bodies lying in the engine-house here, and identify them as those of Kempthorne, DePontius, Dudley, and Mathieu. I saw the men about a fortnight since. I saw them alive about last Sunday fortnight. They were then on the Deep Creek diggings.

Francis Longbourne Vickerman, heing sworn, Baid : I am a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, residing in Nelson. I examined the body which was pointed out to me as being that of James DePontius. I found a pistol wound on the back of the skull on the left hand side. There was also a wound, apparently caused by a bullet, in the inner corner of the right eye. The lower jaw was fractured on the right side. The forehead and scalp were discoloured by bruises. The bodies were not uncovered, consequently I am not aware whether other wounds existed. I passed my finger into the wounds. I should judge that one wound was caused by a 6hot fired very close ; the other by a shot fired at some distance. I saw no marks of gunpowder about the head. The fracture of the jaw was apparently caused by a blow, as there was no external wound. The next that was pointed out was Dudley. He had a mark round the throat as though he had bten strangled by a thin rope; and, from the position of the mark, I infer that he must have had hia neckerchief on at the time. The mark is so straight round the neck and above Adam's apple, that I infer he had his neckerchief on. I think strangulation was the cause of death. I cttn't swear to cause of death without a post mortem examination. The next, John Kempthorne, I found had a wound at the right ear, apparently from a bullet. Part of the external ear was carried away, and a portion of the bony structure round it. I could pass my finger into the ear, and could feel the brain softened or broken down. And on the opposite side of the skull, underneath the scalp, I detected a fracture of the bone, but no external perforation. Death must have been caused by the wound behind the ear. The wound was quite sufficient to account for death. I examined the body of Felix Mathieu and found a wound in the breast, a little to the left of the region of the heart, which I believe was inflicted partly by a bullet and partly by a knife or sharp instrument. I formed this opinion because the lower edge of the rib immediately above the wound, had a temi-circular piece carried out, such

as would be produced by a pistol bullet. The incised wound proceeded from that downwards, On the man's shirt, corresponding to the place of the wound, was a round hole that would be produced by a pistol bullet, and a cut close to it which would have been produced by a knife. The two marks were about half an inch apart. I put my 6nger into the wound whicli led towards the heart. The wound was sufficient to have caused death.

At this stage of the examination the Coeonee adjourned the inquest, to enable a post mortem examination to be held on the body of James Dudley. At two o'clock the jurors again assembled, when the following additional evidence was given : — Francis Longbourne Vickerman, further examined, said : I have mado a post mortem examination on Dudley's body. There is no mark of external violence on his person, but the mark of a cord round the neck. The heart and lungs showed the usual signs of death by strangulation. The right side of the heart was filled with dark blood ; the left was empty ; aud the lungs also were gorged with blood. I believe his death to have been caused by strangulation. On further examination of Mathieu, I found a second wound by a pistol bullet, and, about four inches from it, I extracted the bullet below the left blade bone, and with it a piece of the man's clothes ; outside of the wound was a piece of burnt paper. A stab wound in the breast was made by some sharp instrument, which had penetrated through tlie covering of the heart, and wounded the heart ; the upper portion of this cut was the bullet wound referred to by me in an earlier stage of tho examination The bullet had passed through the stomach and large blood-vessels ; in the ascending vena cava I found with the bullet some tow, which I think is a portion of his coat. The bullet passed between the seventh and eighth rib, and lodged under the skin near the point of the blade bone of the right side. There was a large internal hemorrhage from tho escape of blood from the large vessels which were wounded. I looked at the other bodies and found no further injuries than those I mentioned at an earlier stage of the examination.

Charles Edward Cotterell, being sworn, said : I am a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, residing in Nelson. I have assisted Dr. Vickerman in the examination of the body of James Dudley. I found no other marks of external violence on him except those round the throat, as if caused by something having been tied tightly round it. On making a post mortem examination, I found the usual signs of death by strangulation ; the right side of the heart was gorged with blood, the left was empty j the lungs also were gorged with blood. The cause of deatn I believe to be suffocation. I also examined the body of Mathieu, and found a wound on the left side of the body. The wound was partially incised, but the lower part of the fifth rib was splintered. The large vessels near the spine were wounded. The bullet passed between the seventh and eighth ribs on the right side, without injuring these ribs, and lodged underneath the skin. There was another wound on the left side, below the angle of the blade bone; and, in following backwards towards the spine, we found the bullet lodged about three or four inches from the wound.

Mr. Vickerman here corrected a portion of his evidence by stating, that the piece of cloth found in the wound had been extracted from the second wound.

This was the whole of the evidence, the jury returning a verdict, " That, on or about the 13th June, 1866, John Kempthorne, Felix Mathieu, James Dudley, and James De Pontius, were wilfully and maliciously murdered on the Maungatapu."

As soon as the bodies of the four murdered men had been discovered, Mr. Jervis immediately rode over to Deep Creek to inform Mrs. Mathieu of the circumstance, and the bereaved lady, determining to see the corpse of her husband before it was interred, started at an early hour on Saturday morning for Nelson, arriving the same night at eleven o'clock. On Sunday morning, accompanied , by her son, and Messrs. Jervis and Moller (the man who went to fetch the horse back), she went to see the remains of her husband. It was an affecting sight, and must have moved the stoutest hearts of those who witnessed that last farewell. She was frequently visited during the day by those who knew her and her husband, all, of course, expressing their feelings of condolence and deepest sympathy for the loss she had untimely sustained.