GHASTLY TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1923, Page 4

GHASTLY TRAGEDY.

STRANGE DEATH OF GIRL. BODY FOUND IN RIVER. " THREE ARRESTS MADE. Sy Tel“lraph.—Pres. Awn.—Copyriclit. « . Melbourne, Feb. 3. *" “ While dragging the Yana River the police discovered the decapitated body ol a young girl in a bag. The head was found in a second bag. The decoro* position of the body indicates that the girl had- been dead for .some months. The police had been searching for a coffin reported’ to be thrown from a bridge by two men the previous night. Received Feb. 4, 5.5 p.m. Melbourne, Feb. 4. A doctor, who made a post mortem examination on the body found in the Yarra river, stated it "was too much decayed for him to be able to give the cause of death. The head had not been severed, but had apparently dropped oft’ when the body was removed from its original resting place. Three women—Hannah Mitchell, Margaret Mitchell and Margaret Milward—have been arrested. The first named is charged with murdering in November a girl named Bertha Cqughlan and the other two with being accessories after the fact. All were remanded.

The police evidence showed that Miss Coughlap came to Melbourne from Omeo to receive medical treatment, and she wont to the house of Nurse Mitchell. Next day the nurse secured a car and, it is alleged, took a body, supposed to be Miss Coughlan’s. and hid it in a gully 45 miles from Melbourne. The police, acting on certain information received, discovered where the body had been removed from the gully, but lost trace of it until Friday night, when they received a telephone call from a man stating that he had seen two men dumping a big package from the Anderson Street bridge into the Yarra. Dragging resulted in the discovery of the body.

At the time of arrest Hannah Mitchell was out on bail in connection with a sensational shooting affair in December last.

Miss Goughian was the daughter of a well-known resident of Omeo. Her relatives were not aware that anything untoward had happened -to her, as they supposed that after visiting Melbourne to receive attention to her eyes she had gone on a vwit to friends. The police believe the body was twice, if not thrice, removed to new burial places before being dumped into the river.*