FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY AT TOOWOOMBA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1117, 20 July 1865, Page 6

FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY AT TOOWOOMBA.

The Toowoomba correspondent of the Brisbane Courier, in a letter dated 22nd June, writes respecting the murder of Mrs Curtis as follows:—" In the ear!v part of the session, Mr Groom drew attention in the Assembly to the unprotected state of our town, and solicited the Government to place more police in Toowoomrja. Up to this date, however, this appeal has been disregarded; and the untimely death of the unfortunate Mrs Curtis', under circumstances that makes one's blood chill to record, is laid at the door of the Government, who ought, before this, to have ascertained the necessity, or otherwise, of more police being stationed in our townThe circumstance!! of this dreadful tragedy. which has caused ?i sensation far beyond the murder of Mr Owen, are as follows:— On Monday evening lust, between the hours of>cven and eight o'clock, screams of 'murder' and cries of 'help' were heard at the upper end of Ruthven street by the people residing there, and subsequently it whr ascertained that two females had been assaulted in the locality by some ruffian or ruffians, and most indecent liberties taken At a later period of the evening two men, returning from Mr Fisher's tannery, when near the hospital fence, stumbled over something in the path, which, on examination, proved to be the body of a female. An alarm was given, and, by the help of friends, it was conveyed to the hospital, and Dr Stacy sent for. On examination he declared life extinct, although the body was quite warm. Up to this point no one could identify the body, nor was nny suspicion of foul play enterfaiiK-d. We now turn to another Kccne. About six o'clock, on Monday evening, Mrs Curti*, a young ■woman only twenty-tight' year* of age, only three weeks :igo confined, lefc her young infant, and her little boy two years old, in cure- «;f a ','•> ii'ltbor, v.hiii; p'.w went into the town to ss.ll nome butter, and purchase sfime littie necessaries lor her family. Hour .-ficr hour p;i'«(.d, and Mrs Curtis did not return. On Tuesday morning word was s-ent in that Mrs Curtis had left her home on the previous -evening, but had not returned, and inqui;icn wen; at once set on loot to ascertain iier whereabouts. On examimtion, it proved that the body of the female found by the fence on the subsequent evening was that of the unfortunate Mrs Curtis. How came she by her death? was the question; but this was soon set at repf by the medical examination, which sufficiently proved, by the marks on the Mouth and throat, that she had been f:e:z.'d from behind by some scoundrel, who, in the perpetration of a nameliss coH-b!oo''ed offence, had strangled her. She went to Mr Phillip's store, sold her butter to him, purchased some groceries, called at Wonderly'n (chemist) shop by the way home, and shortly afrer inu-a have been seiz-.'d from behind and cruelly and brutally outraged and murdered in the main street of our town. Among her parcels wot? one of f-tareh; and where the struggle firrt took place was made evident by the starch being found on the ground, and she had been dragged, evidently by the nee!: and head, a distance «.f thirty yards, tracked by the particies of starch, to the spot where her dead body was found on the previous evening, and where al-;> her p;irc;ta of groceries which she h id purchased lor her little children were found on the following morning. A jury was empanelled on Tuesday morning, but the inquest was adjourned until to-cbv, when it wa< again resumed, rind further adjourned until next Tuesday. The perpetration of this dreadful crime, in the principal street of the town, has created the meatest excitement, and crowds of persons 0:1 Tuesday visited the spot where the fatal deed was committed; and also the hospital, where the corpse of the unfortunate woman lay. I believe upwards of LIOO has been raised in a short time by our leading tradesmen, as a reward for the detcciun of this atrocious crime. At present no one is safe who moves out after nightfall. We have only two police for day «m\ night duty, and it is impossible to "expect two m- n to be at ■work at fill hours day and ninht. The remains of the unfortunate women were consigned to tiic g.ave this day amid the universal regret of r;!! classes; indeed, a more mournful procc-sion was never witnessed in our 10>w). AH the shoos in the line of the procession were wholly or partially closed, ami hundreds of people of all classes followed the lunrse to the cemetery as a mark of sympathy fir the dreadful death of the unfortunate deceased."