THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4028, 15 January 1875, Page 3

THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

(From the Press.)

The most horrible murder ever perpetrated in •Canterbury was [committed on Saturday afternoon in Lyttelton. A girl named Isabella Thompson, about thirteen years of age, left her home in Dainpier's Bay about 4.45 p.m., for the purpose of proceeding to the new school buildings to get tickets for the pic-nic to Kiccarton, in connection with the opening of the Borough Schools. She arrived at the schools at 5 p.m., left that place at 5.15 p.m. and was seen again -about 5.30 p.m., in company with a man, described as being of a. medium height, wearing grey clothes and a French peak cap. The boy ■who saw her, Frederic Murie, states that he saw the girl and man go down into a gully in Canterbury street, above Mr H. R. Webb's. house, -and nearly opposite Captain Sprout's, and that after remaining there about five minutes, they returned and walked up Ripon street The girl was crying, but walking along•side the man. She was never seen alive again. About 6.15 p.m. two boys, named respectively John Baily and David Simmons, went after some cows in Ripon street; a refractory cow went up close to the Rev. F. Pember's fence, and of course the boy Bailey followed it; glancing through a hole in the corner of the fence, he saw a white cambric pockethandkerchief, and looking further, out of curiosity, he saw what he thought was a drunken man lying there. Both then went away, and told a boy named Rouse about it. He went up with his elder brother, and lookiog through saw the face was blood-stained, and that it was that of a dead girl. The younger boy was sent for the police, who were there by half-past six, and an examination was made. The girl was lying with her clothes dragged from the lower part of her body, and her drawers torn to pieces. The dress had also been burst open at the waist, and up the left breast, her head was lying down the hill, and her throat was cut from ear to ear. The murderer, no doubt, had attempted to violate her, and when she called out, had seized her by the throat with his left hand to stifle her screams, and with his right hand cut her throat from right to left. He had cut the right side superficially, and close under the chin, to spare his hand, but the left was cut to the bone, thu head being nearly half severed from the body, which when found, was blanched, every drop of blood having been extracted. There were two transverse cuts running into one, and the weapon used was probably the larger blade of a penknife with a rounded point. The officers immediately took the corpse to the station and placed it in one of the ceL's. Dr Rouse was sent for at once, and examined it, and even then, about seven, the abdomen was still warm, and he gave it us his opinion thaf she could not have been dead much more than an hour. She was identified by her father, who is a shipwright in the •employ of Mr Hawkins. The place where the murder was committed was in Ripon street. which runs from Canterbury street to Oxford Street. The upper siie of this street is occupied by a thick gorse fence at the end nearest Canterbury street, enclosing the parsonage garden, and a post and rail fence, which runs as far as the new cutting in Oxford street. The street is unformed and rough, and there is no house but the on the upper side, and that is partially enveloped in trees. On the lower side, however, :are several houses, son c of them situated exactly opposite the scene of the murder, which was at the corner in the middle of the street, where the govse and poat-and-rail fences joined. The street being only a chain wide, fliese houses were within that distance of the spot, and a family were actually moving into one of these houses ■that afternoon. The parsonage was farther, but .one of the servants had been sitting in the pre.cise spot where the deed was done till after 4. p.m. Xothing was found on the spot but the .handkerchief, on which was the stain of blood, .as though the knife had been rubbed on it, and the girl's hat. When the body was first dis.covered, it was a wonder to all where the blood .could be, but it was soon seen that the murderer had scraped the dead gorse together and placed it over it, as it was evident that he had then thrust the body of his victim lower down nearer the hedge from the outside of which the head ■was seen. There is.a gap in the fence abo^e the .corner where they-must have gone into the gar,den, which is full of fruit trees. The two tickets that the girl had procured at the schools were found lying within a foot of the corpse. A man named Alfred Osborne was on suspicion, and afterwards discharged. John Mercer, formerly .cook on the schooner Canterbury, now stands charged with the crime.