THE OAMARU MYSTERY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 545, 15 July 1882, Page 20

THE OAMARU MYSTERY.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Oamaku, July 6 ; binding it impossible to get any information from the police in reference to the alleged murder near Papakaio, the “ Mail ’* yesterday gent a special reporter to the district to make inquiries, the result being that the following information was obtained :—Alexander Beattie and Sarah Adams, the murdered woman, who Wds also known as Adamson, came to the district between six and seven years ago, from Southbridge, in Canterbury. Beattie entered into business, but failed, and then took employment on the farm of Hall Bros., near Georgetown, where Beattie and the woman lived for three or four years. Both were addicted to drink, and frequently quarrelled when in liquor. About nine weeks ago they took a small cottage in a lonely gully, near Peebles, nrd within about 120 yards from the spat where the -body was found. Beattie, about five weeks-ago* was still working at Georgetown, and returned home unexpectedly on a Saturday night, and not finding his paramour- at home,, went to the house of a /man named Barney- Carroll, about half a mile away.' Here Beattie found the pair drinking together. A “ scene ” ensued, during which Beattie ill-treated the woman, and threatened the life of Carroll. Carroll laid an information against Beattie, who, two-days afterwards, was fined and bound over to keep the peace. Beattie then returned to his work at Georgetown, aad, so far as is known, did not again visit his paramour at Peebles. The Sunday following the woman went up to Georgetown, apparently to heal the breach, but Beattie declined to have anything more to do with her, saying that she was a rottenhearted woman. She was driven home late at night by a farmer, and the day following disappeared. Beattie afterwards stated that he bad made a thorough search for her, and that he believed that she had gone off with a pedlar named Ohrystal, who was in the district.. The woman had made no friends in the district owing 'to her drinking habits ; and people, Accepting Beattie’s statement that the woman had gone away as very probable, did not

make any search. Nothing more seems to have been heard of the matter until about a fortnight ago and about a fortnight after the woman’s disappearance, when Beattie reported the matter to the police. No search seems to have been made then, and it was by the merest chance that the body was found on Sunday. The place where the body was found is near an abandoned coal-pit, in a gully, over half a mile from the nearest habitation —a place seldom visited by anyone. On Sunday morning, while looking for a horse which had strayed, a man named Warwooa, m crossing the creek, discovered the body, wmch was lying almost in the centre of the crae *, and, with the exception of the. feet, and one shoulder, covered by seven or eight inches of sand. Information was sent to town to the police, and some time afterwards the body was removed. So far as can be. ascertained, the body seems to have been lying on its back, with both feet close. together, and one arm held out in front of the face, as if in the act of warding off a blow. The hair was dishevelled and the dress partly off the body, j Round the throat a handkerchief was tied pretty tightly. It is stated that on the elbow of the arm held in front of the face wa3 a wound, that there were three: or four wounds on the head, and that the throat was cut in two. places, but upon these points no thoroughly reliable information can be obtained, a 3 the doctor who made the 'post mortem examination declines to give any particulars. It is also stated that tho police have found several things stained with blood, amongst them being a small bar of. iron, but the police will not say whether this is correct. p telegraphed yesterday, Beattie has been arrested and charged with murder ; but the « Mail ” reporter did not obtain any information tending to connect him with the woman s death. They were not, so far as could be a'.cwtained, seen together after the right previous to the woman’s disappearance, when Beat ie declined to return home with her. The supposition that murder has been committed seems well-grounded, and the police appear fully satisfied upon that point. What evidence they have to connect Beattie with the crime is not known, but that the murder was not committed for the purpose of robbery is shown by the fact that the body when found still had on a brooch, rings, dec., while nothing in the cottage close by - had apparently been disturbed. Mr Hall, one of Beattie’s employers', states that, to. b'S knowledge, Beattie did inot leave the .farm neat Georgetown, several miles distant from the place where the body was found, from the time he returned after the law case, until four o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday, after the woman is said to have disappeared. The woman is said to have been the daughter of a doctor in Armagh County, Ireland, and that she was the wife of a lawyer in the same place, but this statement, which was frequently made by Beattie when in liquor, is discredited. She was apparently a well-educated woman who had been brought up well, and who always dressed remarkably well, but, as already stated, she was addicted to drink, and made few or no friends in the district. • . 1 The body was buried yesterday at Papakaio, without the slightest ceremony, the only persons present being Constable Sexton and a local publican, who drove the horse and cart conveying the body to the grave. The Coroner’s inquest will be resumed at Papakaio on Monday, when twenty witnesses will be examined. * ■ , Pukeubi Junction, July 10.

The inquest on the body of Sarah Adams, found in a creek near Papakaio on July 2, commenced at Peebles this afternoon. Evidence was given /of the accused, Beattie, having, about the time the woman, disappeared, left a bloodstained razor with, a local hotelkeeper, saying that his wife had been cutting some fowls’ necks with; it, and asking the hotelkeeper to clean it. He had been at the hotel about the time of the woman’s disappearance, and remained a’l night. The hotelkeeper said he had heard Beattie had gone cut of the hotel during the night, but could not say positively if he had done so. LATEST PARTICULARS. Dugald Allen, the first witness, said he had never heard of any quarrel between Beattie and the woman until the one that occurred about Barney Carroll. ; Beattie left a bag of men’s clothing with witness, and Mrs Beattie called and took it away about a week afterwards. Beattie called again, and left a small bottle of solder and a razors and said Mrs Beattie had been cutting fowls’ necks with the razor, which was a favorite of his, having brought it from Home. He asked witness to clean the razor, which was stained with blood. He had • had the razor about' three weeks, rolled up in paper. He put it in a desk, and afterwarde gave it to the constable in the presence of Dr. De Lautour. It was exactly in the same condition as when he received it. Beattie was at the hotel on Sunday week or a fortnight after the row with Barney Carroll, and stopped that night. He saw him before he went to bed ; saw him again about 1 o’clock and afterwards at about 2 or 2.30. He could not fix upon the date when Beattie was at the Hotel Witness had first heard of Mrs Beattie being missing about a month ago. He could not say positively whether it was before or after he heard Mrs Beattie was missing, but he thought it was after he heard about it that he gave up the razor, because either the constable or Dr. De Lautour asked for it. The idea of giving it up to the police before that did not strike him. Both Carroll and Beattie stopped at the hotel the Saturday night after the row took place. Carroll left on Sunday. Witness believed Beattie remained all Sunday, but he could not Bay that he remained at the hotel that night. The witness was cross-examined at some length, and then John Mar wood was called. He said that on a Friday, about a fortnight after the row took place between Beattie and Carroll, he was told that Mrs Beattie was missing. On Sunday, the 2nd inst, he discovered her body about 9 o’clock in the morning in going down the bank to cross the creek. He then saw a small portion of a woman’s skirt and portion of an arm, and having made sure that there was a body there, he left. All the body, except a part of an arm and a hand, and a portion of the boots was covered by gravel. The body was not covered by water, and no water was running round the body except at the head. He saw a place where there was a fall of gravel below the body. About the body and in the stream the gravel was intermixed with gra«. He gave information to the police, and assisted the constable to remove the body. He used a shovel to cut a water way round the body to remove

the shingle. Beattie had been at his house five or six times after the row, and before the body was found, and, in reply to a question by witness, said he did not know where his wife was. In crossexamination he said he could not say whether •r not the body had been buried by hand, but was inclined to the belief that the gravel had been washed over it. There was a small waterfall at the head of the body, and this caused the hole. He did not see a spade or shovel lying about. There might have been a hole there large enough for a person to drown before the gravel was displaced. William Henry Scott, surveyor, deposed to making a plan of the spot where the body of the woman was found. He had examined the place where the gravel had fallen, and was of opinion that it might have been removed artificially with a shovel or spade, and that it had been a natural slip. His reason for thinking this was that, if it had been undermined, the bank would have fallen down in a lump, and that had not happened. It might have been washed down by a heavy flood of water, but he did not think this had happened, as the ground was equally steep, and this wa, held by herbage. There would have been f.tfrrows, of which there was no appearance. A third way was, that springs might have been found behind it, and the ground was held down, but the water would now have been oozing out. • The outline generally at the upper edge looked as if a shovel or. spade had been ,u3ed, but he could not find any actual trace of these. Another reason for believing that it was done artificially was, that there were footprints in the position in which they would be ileft by a person using a spade. They were not fresh foot-marks, as moss was beginning to grow on them. If any gravel was placed near ■the body it would be washed off by a flood, probably leaving a deposit on the north side, but scouring out where the body was. H» could not say whether the gravel had been artificially placed on the body or not. .His con-; elusion was that the gravel, or a portion of it, had been taken from the scar. A fresh would have tended to uncover, rather than cover, the body, especially towards where the head w. / lying. There are twenty-five witness"! to be examined, and the inquiry will probably st for some days. Peebles is fourteen miles from Oamaru. ■ The evidence of Dr. De Lautour, who made the post mortem examination, with reference to' blood marks on the articb ; produced, is as follows :—‘lae b uses cou’d not have been on the body a fortnight before death. They must have b<;en inflicted within a short time of death. Witness had tested the iron chemically with Dr. Day's test, which gave the redition of blood, and microscopically he found that there were one or two corpuscles similar to blood of mammals. Tbe spots on the carving-knife have the same results as the iron bar ; the blood on the razor gave the blood te. t chemically, and on microscopic examination witness found mammals’ blood, some striped muscular fibre, and arid woollen fibre; The blood from the handle of the razor gave the chemical test, and also gave the absorption bands faintly. In the spectrum analysis the position o£. these bands correspond exactly with those, in his (witness) own blool. The klood on the chips from the floor of tho hut gave the signs of mammals’ blood. He also tested a piece from the inside of a large frieze ulster coat, which was found in the hut, some stains on- which appeared to have been washed out, which gavesigns of mammals’ blood, as also' did a i-heet found there. i ‘ ' By the Jury : Witness had examined some fowl’s blood on a razor, after some hours’ exposure, which gave signs of blood by the chemical test and by the spectrum analysis ; but microscopically it Bhowed the fowl’s blood .quite distinct from , tie blood on the other razor. He examined the hair found on the handkerchief. It resembled human hair, but he was not prepared to swear it was so; ha compared it with hair cut from deceased’s head, and found them very similar. He examined some blood on a pair of moleskin, trousers found by Constable Livingstone, which gave all the reactions characteristic of mammals’ blood, but very faiutly under the spectroscope ; the spots on the trousers were all below the knee.

Pukeuei Junction, July 11.

The inquiry touching the death of Sarah Adams was continued at Peebles to day. The evidence produced went to show that, on the 17th of June, the woman wa3 alive but in a very excited and nervous state ; that she repeatedly told one witness that her husband intended to kill her. This witness said he did not believe the statement, and therefore had not repeated it to any one. When Beattie was told his wife had said that he intended to kill her, he changed color, started, and appeared alarmed. The evidence of several other witnesses was given, all tending to show that the deceased was in great bodily fear of her husband, and had said that, he was going to kill her. The jury returned the following verdict “ That Sarah Beattie, or Adams, came by her death by the bands of some person or persons to the jury unknown.”