THE WEST HAM OUTRAGE AND MURDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8222, 5 April 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE WEST HAM OUTRAGE AND MURDER.

THE POLICE INQUIRIES. Although the clues are very slight, the police and detectives are proceeding in their endeavours lately to trace the murderer of the little girl Amelia Jeffs, who was found dead in an empty house, No. 126, the Portway, West Ham. On the discovery of the crime speculations were indulged in as to whether the girl had been drugged by means of a chloroformed handkerchief, and conveyed to the house in an insensible condition, or whether the murder and outrage had not been committed outside the house, the body being afterwards hidden where it was found. More discoveries, however, established beyond doubt that the girl, if she did not enter the house of her own free will, was at any rate in a sensible state after her arrival there. In the thick dust that was on the floor of the room in which the ghastly discovery was made there were found distinct impressions of the girl's boots, the heels being close together. The footprints arc of such a character as to show that she stood firmly on her feet without assistance, no other marks being observable in the immediate vicinitv. "The girl seems to have stood in a corner of the room where the dust was thickest.

AT THE INQUEST. Dr. He Grogono, surgeon of police, deposed : On Friday last I was called to 120, Portway, and went there, in the company of Inspector Thompson, and in the cupboard of the top front room, under the roof, I saw the body of the deceased lying upon the floor. I entered the cupboard by the light of a policeman's lantern. I saw the body was quite dead, and had it removed into the room, aud there cursorily examined it. I saw that the deceased had been violated. I noticed a mark of constriction round the throat. There was a scarf (produced) round the throat, folded, and not tied. There had been blood and froth at the nose and mouth. I then had the body removed to the West Ham mortuary, and. carefully examined it externally. There was a slight bruise on the left knee ; the face was swollen, the pupils <f the eyes dilated, the tongue was swollen, being pressed tightly against the teeth ; there was a deep constriction round the throat, and where it crossed behind there was a slight bruise. In the constriction were particles of wool from the woollen scarf. On the same day I made a post-mortem examination. The brain substance was quite healthy, but congested. The left lung adhered to the chest walls in places ; the result of an old pleurisy. The lungs were gorged with blood ; the right side of the heart was half full of blood, the left side nearly empty. The stomach contained half a pint of fluid. The cause of death was : Suffocation from strangulation. Her appearance was consistent with death having taken place on January .'sl. Witness added, in answer to specific questions, that there was nothing to show that deceased had misconducted herself with any person previously.