The Baby-farming Case.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 6, Issue 5, 7 June 1895, Page 2

The Baby-farming Case.

Invercargill, June 4.

The inquest on the body of Eva Hornsby was resumed this morning. The evidence of a grand-daughter showed that Mrs Dean represented herself as childless, and was very anxious to adopt the child, whom she registered as her own. She received £9 10/- with the child. Later. The inquest on the body of Eva Hornsby, the infant found buried in the garden near Dean’s house, at Winton, was continued to day. The evidence showed that Minnie Dean got the child and £9 10/- from its grandmother between Milburn and Clarendon on the 2nd of May, that she left the train on the offside, and that the child was not seen afterwards alive. Letters which Mrs Dean wrote to Mrs Hornsby were also produced, and the child’s clothing found in Dean’s house was identified by Detective McGrath. The woman admitted that she got the child between Invercargill and Dunedin in the month of May, but said she was acting as agent for a person at Milton, to whom she handed it. Evidence was given that she had no baby at Milton, and did not leave her seat at that station. The woman who had kept the infant identified the body by a birth sore, by a mark of an accidental burn on the hand, and also its clothing. The inquest concludes tomorrow. June 5. At the inquest on the body of Eva Hornsby to-day, the medical evidence was to the effect that death was caused by asphyxia. There were two marks on each side of the skull which might have been caused by the pressure of a finger and thumb. The organs were those of a healthy child. The appearances were not inconsistent with suffocation by external means. The Crown Prosecutor stated that the _ organs had been sent to Professor Black but that no indication of poison had been found. The jury, after ah hour’s retirement, returned a verdict that in their opinion the child had been wilfully murdered. Later. The inquest on the Christchurch child, Dorothy Carter, was also completed to-day, the jury returning a verdict against Minnie Dean. Pro fessor Black deposed that a quantity of opium had been recovered from the internal organs, sufficient to cause death, and the medical evidence was to the effect that the post mortem conditions were consistent with death from opium poisoning.