THE YARRA TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18389, 3 May 1923, Page 7

THE YARRA TRAGEDY.

SENSATIONAL TRIAL ENDS. ACCUSED'S PASSIONATE APPEAL. [FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] ; SYDNEY. April 28. The lost chapter in ono of the most sensational mysteries and criminal trial*;' in Australian annals, which "■£ became known a* the Yorra. tragedy, closed on Friday night at the 'Melbourne Criminal : Court, when Nurse Hannah Elizabeth Mitchell left the dock acquitted of a''., capital charge arising out of the death at her maternity homo of a young girl. The recovery, some .months ago, through a curious coincidence, of tho body of a young woman from the waters beneath' a Yarra bridge horrified the public, and the investigations were followed with ; public interest almost equalling the re- '■ ; cent Gun Alley crime. Loaves found in J tho sack containing the body formed 1 the; first of a series of clues which eventually associated it with the disappearance of-■ a young girl from Nurse Mitchell's maternity home and ended with extraordinary allegations by the muse'* formsr I husband, a man named lienfigli'o, that > the girl died after a certain operation, and that the body was mysteriously rei moved from place to. place in a. motor- ! ear, and disposed of after its restingi place had been changed several times for ; fear of discovery. A remarkable feature of the closing ■ scene of the trial was a passionate address from tho dock by .Nurse- Mitchell. ! She declared that she did 'all she could !to prevent the death of the girl, who i came to her in the ordinary way for j maternity attention. Home abnormality ' ' developed while she was in the house, | and was responsible for her death &i childbirth. Several attempt* were made to secure the service* of a doctor, but ! they vr«re unavailing. After the death, [Nurse Mitchell said, she became ill and | worried, and left herself very, much in I the hands of Benfiglio. her former hus- ! band. He. she said, took the body in j a motor-car to the bosh,, and there dis- ; posed of it. She did not worry much ' about the removal of the body, and did I not think it *. dreadful thing that it [should he put away in the manner < that it WA«. The add re*.* concluded with a scathing indictment of the treatment j meted out to her by her former husband. _-.