A SUSPICIOUS CASE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3439, 6 October 1885, Page 3

A SUSPICIOUS CASE.

(By Telegraph.) DtTNBDI!*, Oct. 5. Mrs Georgina Butler, whose death formi the subject of an enquiry this afternoon, wai orerflfty years of age. She wbs known to b{ intemperate, and lived m a small three' roomed cottage m South Uunedm, with hei daughter, aged from twenty-fire to thirty and the latter's two children. The daughtei i» Mrs Edward Brown, and was a witness ir the notorious Wain case. Her husband is al present at Ashburton. On Saturday morninf Mrs Brown alarmed the neighbors with th< intelligence that she had found her mothei dead m bed. The woman was discovered lying dressed upon a small stretcher bed shi occupied. She was quite dead, her heat turroended by a pool of blood, but then were no signs to raise a suspicion of violence i.t first it was supposed the deceased, beinj » woman of drunken habits, bad probablj broken a, blood vessel. T>t Hacken made i pott mortem examination, acd found th( woman's skull fracture'l, apparently by i blow from some blunt instrument, and then were other wounds about her head, hands &c. Mrs Brown's statement is that ehe lef her mother and retired to bed at one o'clocl on Friday evening, and did not see her agair till she discovered! her dead body. Tho tw< women were 1 drinking on Friday evening, bu' the daughter does not say that any visitoi was at the place. No arrests have been made Medical examination shows that tho woundi on Mrs Butler could not hive been self-in flirted, or the result of a fall. Tho wall o the room opposite the bed was bespotterec with blood, showing that she was attacket where she lay. Both women were drinking and the daughter is unablo to give an intelli pble account of her actions on Friday. .... . Latbb. ,, A i™ ""quest on Mrs Butler, the evidence effect tWv. 8 "^ MoD^""" wm to tfa. tho wo 7™ b ° WM caUcd '"■ ne foun( the woman lyi n? on the bed with her clothe. spurt, being „ high as two feet above th, »t^^^-^_^^ fell W the scuHcry., the kitch/n? _£FK ?ound a pillow-slip with a spot of blood on it and a girl s pinafore under some clothe., witl a good deal of blood on it, and a dress im prover also under the same clothes witl blood on it. ' Dr Hsckenin hi» evidence described th wounds and etated that there were a foi

female's hairs m the Sneers of each hand and a piece of bed tick, andamoug the hairs were what appeared to be the bristles of a brush similar to a dußting brush which was produced. The daughter, after being cautioned, also gave evidence, and stated that when she got up on Saturday morning the back door was shut but not locked. She then found her mother dead. She denied that any quarrel existed between her mother and herself. The blood on the pillow-slip was from her little girl's nose, but sho could not account for that on the pinafore. The inquest was adjourned.