A MASTERTON SENSATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3675, 27 February 1899, Page 5

A MASTERTON SENSATION.

, HUMAN' BODY EXHUMED; - j • MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. ’ j An event unprecedented in the history of Masterton foot place in the local cemetery .on Saturday morning, says tin “ Daily Times," when the body of the late Mis Susannah Pain was exhumed fo further examination. ' Since the conviction of Robert Douglas for criminal ssSault at the recent, criminal sessions of the • Supreme. Court, various rumours' have been' afloat- regarding the manner in -which Mrs .Susannah Pain met her death, she having.bsen last seen alive in convict Douglas’s company on the'22hd of October last. Finally, it was deemed .advisable by the Department . of Justice in order, to allay .popular , excitement whichhad been growing in intensity ,since tho commission of the Opaki outrag'e, tc exhume the body of the deceased woman who, according to tho verdict at an inquest held on' her body, met her death by drowning while in a fit, and hold a further examination on the remains. Accordingly the coffin, was removed. t( the Mastorton morgue early on Saturday pending the arrival of, Dr Tears, Police Surgeon,' of /Wellington, by the morning train. Dr; Butement, who gave, evidence at the inquest to the effect that deceased! died from asphyxia, due to drowning, and further stated that, as she was subject'to fits, the fatal accident probably occurreq during a seizure, was also present at thij second examination, which took place oi| Dr Teare’s arrival. An undertaker ptejsent' having removed the coffin lid,, the doctors proceeded to complete their gruojsome task by.amputafing the skull. , j Our contemporary is nob quite correct in staling that the exhumation was nnprece'idented in the history of Marsterton.- ‘As a matter of . fact,'a‘ corpse was that place at the' time when." the severed band mystery" created a . sensatipA throughout the cplony, it being erroneously thought at the time that a hand bag been' removed, from a newly-buried body lying in the local cemetery. - j i Wa have ascertained that Dr Tears waS unable to find any sign of sn injury having been inflicted on the head of the corpse. It is understood that it was expected that a'shot of bullet wound' would be found there. A faint bruise was discovered op the front portion of the amputated. heaflc-r which might have been caused'naturally, tho deceased having been subject to fits -f----but nothing more. ,