FURTHER PARTICULARS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10359, 14 May 1895, Page 7

FURTHER PARTICULARS.

The womau Minnie Dean, of Winton, who is at present confined in the gaol at Dunedin, Where she was lodged on Friday night alter having been brought in custody from the south, T- J-"*' the murder of two separate ohildren who had been, entrusted to her care. The woman was arrested by Detectives M'Grath (of Dunedin) and Herbert at Winton on Thursday last,.when the charge preferred against her was that of having, on or aboufc the 3rd inst., murdered ah infant named' Eva' Hornsby. On Saturday morning, however, a close search was made by the police of. the premises of the Deans at Winton, and upon the garden being dug up the bodies of two female infants were brought to light. As;the bodies were quite fresh, it is assumed that the burial must have taken place very recently. One of the bodies is said to have been identified as that of a child that had been seen in Mrs Dean's care, but "not of the infant Eva Hornsby. On the strength of the discoveries that were made Charles Dean, the husband of the woman already in custody, was arrested, and will' along with his wife, be charged with murder. ' ■< It has been ascertained that on the 30fch ult. the woman Dean brought a child to Winton, bnt where she'got it and whom she obtained'ifc from are not known, and the police are extremely anxious td obtain information on this point.l The relatives who: 'entrusted a child into 'Mrs Dean's' care, about; the date' mentioned will probably Wssist in forwarding the ends; of.* justice by communicating'''-as speedily as possible - with th_v authorities;'• *Oh the 2nd inst. the whman-left: Winton:ih the morning and joined the train -from Invercargill to Kingston: at the- Lady- Barkly'station^thV (first;station,from :Wint'ori. At*tha- time-she' bad withher a Sickly child, something under; 12 months: olifl, ahd *a large hat fcox. ! She pro-, ceeded in the train an far as Dipton, where she left the train, taking with" her the infant and. the hat box..' On the evening oE the same day she joined-the afternoon train from Invercargill. still.haying-the .infant and' the hat box,'anel travelled to Lumsdeh in a fir__-clas_'ca.riage, of which she was: the sole occupants When she arrived at Lumsden.howevervit is stated there was'no child with her, and the presumption is that she disposed of* they infant between'the Dipton and Lumsdeh stations/ She^tayed^ll night afc! Lumsden, where"-she gave But that she had come from' Melbourne.. On the following morning—that of -the 3rd' insfei-Mra'Deah■ travelled fromLumsdeh by the Wiiimea, Plains line to Gore,' where she joined the express train from Invercargill, in which she came as far aa Milburn.'"At * the latter station she* was,' in accordance^ with an "-'arrangement' made by correspondence/t 'me!.-'-by/.''Mrs'* Hornsby,'' of Roslyn, the grandmother of the'''-infant' Eva Hornsby. ,- From1 Gore to Milton-Mrs Dean had travelled second class, but at the lattoir station ■ she .took out' W first.class: t'bket' for Milburn, I where.Mrs'Horhsby-febfc into the same carriage with her; and between' Milburn: arid Clarendon, completed "the arrangements for the ?': of fchechild, who' was then given' over, with' a premium of £10. into the-possession *df the: accused... Mrs Dean". travelled on as; far as" Clarendon -with- Mv_ , Hornsby,'and there alighted, Mrs;.Ho rnsby .going, on, however, to■: Dunedin. When Mrs Dean,.with thei infant ia her arms, got out of .the train *a_ Clarendon: she would have aboufc'.half ani hour to".sparebefore the Arrival of: the downtrain for .Clinton,! which she there joined.';. Some time iftershe^ left the express train at Clarendon a man sa*w' hersittingin^the shelter shed at the station and! spoke to Her. At that; time, he says, she had ho child wjth her, but she had a. large "parcel by her side, »ud*ifc is iasseirted also .thai..whenshe' got into- the train forith'e 'south she was not" acconjpanied by a, child. 7 -She proceeded; in;. the., .train to Clinton, and on her arrival^ there a she: had; no child, v but she had. a.parceL; Next horning-,.she travelledfrom .Clinton _ to, . Oorej .and .at the - -latt°_ placetpoka-tickat,for'' Majanra,- whereamarrieddatightef ; of hers .resides. *W)ienshe left' ■Madura, ior. Winton. either on, the sameo.i* on the following day, she was carrying 7a larse parcel.1- a X ~,a- A. ■:';: ~,,.■ ..a*-.."_..■•' .; - ' •'* The first information -which - the police received respecting the disappearance' of the gf.°F?sl*y;;ln^fc-was plained by Constable King, of Milton, who. communicated with.the head ogpe.fWith.th'e'r'eßulfc'that-inquiries were at once msfcitutedaUalong the line.: Detective M'Grathand Mrs Hornsby left Dnnedin with Ihe-objeet-of enabling the latter to confront Mrs Dean and state whether she was the woman in whose care the infant, had; been .left -at Clarendon^ Detective Herbert" joined them at Invercargill. and accompanied .them, to Winton where Mrs Hornby identified Mrs; Dean as the woman, whom she had met at Milburn, and to whom she hadbanded over ,the infant. Mrs Dean's_ replies to the inquiries pf the police not being satisfactory, she -was,, as already stated, arresfced.on a charge of murdering the child. The clothes which fche.child was actually wearing:. when, ifc was > handed over by Mrs Hornsby..and the-. shawl in which, it was ! wrapped up were found in the accused's house and identified. aa--.

. After thewoman was arrested there was reason to believe that the body of the child Hornsby had beenconcealed aboufc Clarendon, and the accused, on bsmg charged before two justices of the peace, was remanded to Milton as being the nearest, place where a court is held. A vigorous search for traces of the child was instituted about Clarendon by Chief, detective O'Connor, Constable. King, and four otber.constables, and it was arranged that. simultaneously a •* search should be made in.the garden of. the' Deans at Winton. -At the latter place, as has been stated; the police discovered the., bodies of two female infants: XThese were-• buried about; 'a«■ foot; beneath the surface/ and > .both;. it is: .said, answered the description of the babies alluded to. One of the bodies found in the garden has, we are informed, been positively identified as the body pf tha child Mrs Dean took with her from her. home when she went to Lumsden on the 2nd inst. Thafc was a child which was something under 12 months old, and: the age of the other child is stated at two or three months.In order that doubts as to whether the body of the, second child dug up in the garden is, or Is not, that of; Eva Hornsby, the police took the promptest steps to enable identification before the body should undergo decomDOsition, and Mrs Hornsby, the child's. grandmother, ahd Mrs Bennett, a nurse in whose care it was at Port Chalmers for three weeks prior to its being handed over to Mrs Dean, leffefor the south, in company wifch Detective M'Grath, by the 4.20 p.m. train..on Saturday, withtheintentionof driving, on: Sunday, to. Invercargill, whither, the bodies were to be removed for the purpose of post, mortem examination. Mrs Dean has. been remanded to Milton, where* she is to appear ion Thursday, but an application will then be made for her remand back to Invereargill. An inquest on the bodies will be opened at Invercargill without delay, so that the bodies, after being- viewed by the jury, may be again interred, but as soon as the preliminary proceedings are over an adjournment will be necessary. A "- • .- The police have had Mrs Dean under their surveillance for some considerable period. It has been known that on various occasions children have been entrusted to her care from various parts of the island, but as the children are in most cases illegitimate and their parents have not chosen to make any inquiries about them, and as fche accused has been iv the habit of doubling along the railway lines in a very confusing manner, the authorities' have had considerable difllculty in dealing with her. On two occasions, it is' alleged, they have traced children to her possession but have not been able to trace tham beyond her possession. In these cases, we are informed, she has said in answer to the inquiries of the police, that she has parted with the children, bnt in neither case were the police able to trace the people to whom; according to her account, they were sent. In another case wifch which Mrs Dean was connected the police had occasion to interfere at Christchurch. She had gone there and taken possession of an illegitimate child, with which she received a premium of £30. The keeper of the boarding house in which sho was staying, however, complained to the police thafc she was cruelly neglecting the child, and, having ascertained the name of the mother—a resident of Wellington—the authorities compelled Mrs Dean to restore the infant. It had altered so much for the worse, ifc is stated, in the course of three days that the mother was unable to recognise it. The way in which Mrs Dean has come into communication with the relatives of the children she was entrusted with has been by advertisement, in which she has represented herself as wishing to adopt; children, and as being " childless " and " the wife of a respec- ■ table farmer," and applied to herself some other attribute which might lead parents to ouppose tbey would secure from her a desirable home for their children. Ifc may be added thafc some time ago Mrs Dean was charged before Mr Rawson, S.M., at i Invercargill with a breach of "The Infant Life j protection Act 1893 " is failing to register her j

houso as a house for the reception- or adoption of children, and the magistrate fined her in the sum of fourpence!

(Feu United Peess Association.) Invercargill./Hay 12. There is nofc much hew to report; re''the alleged child murders. The gardeu: afc Larches House, occupied by the Deans at Winton, was further searched by ths police, fche only thing of a suspicious nature found being a small skull, bufc it is nob certain yet if ifc is human. ; The older iofant, whose body was found in a flower pot, was in Mrs Dean's custody for four pr ii. o days prior to her departure for Milburn, via Lumsdea and Gore, and went with her. The doctors who have examined the" bodies found no distinct traces' of violence. There were a few marks about the neck of the monthold baby, but theae may arise from decay. The grandmother of this child identified its clothes in Daan's house. It is supposed that the infants were stifled by holdiug a cloth over their faces sufficiently long. Charles Dean was at one time holder of a large area of land at E.al Creek, Wairaki,! but gave it up-spine years ago.: He is a very old resident. Mrs Dean is his second wife, and was tha widow of. a doctor. It is said she gives her age as 48, but she looks older. She is well educated. - '■ "'•' '-'-

A prelimihairy letter to a relative of the Hornsby baby made great professions of kiud- | ness to the child, spoke as if the woman had a good position; and - said that she; could understand the yearning of a woman who had lost all her children for her love and cara of the little one. Dean is somewhat affected'by'"the arrest, but the woman was' not at all affected^ She denied stoutly, that she had, ever: seen the person from whom she received the Hornsby infant. While doing so Detective Herbert noticed her surreptitiously fumbling with some clothing which she stuffed into the bed. Herbert pulled itOiit, and the woman identified the article's as the clothing the Hornsby infant wore when she handed it to Mrs Dean, who thereafter maintained a stubborn silence. The people of Winton ipngmad suspicions of foul play, and the police were keeping an eye on the woman, but they had 'great difficulty in approaching her, as she declined to regist'erher house, although once fined for keeping children without a license. ■ ■'.'*. a It is probable that an effort will be made to connect her wifch another infant'found some time ago. a '■£•9?'P*-*.?***** •*-}'■? have information'tending to show" that Mrs Deau blackmailed: a single woman whom she knew had given fcirfch to children. ' '■""": '"'■ '■''!''■