SHOCKING MURDER.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2132, 3 November 1875, Page 4

SHOCKING MURDER.

An inquiry has been opened before Mr B. Ross, coroner for the county of Suffolk, into the cause of the death of Fanny "Pleasant Clarice, a domestic servant, at Brantham, near Ipswich, who was the subject of a murderous outrage on Sunday evening, August 15, and who died in the course of the following week. It appears that the deceased was a good-look-ing girl, aged twenty-four, of better education than most persons in her position, and some months ago she attracted the attentions of Frederick Earnest Page, a son of Mr H. C. Page, a respectable farmer, living at Brantham-hall, Brantham. Frederick Page did not live with his father, being a clerk in the employ of Messrs. Lay and "Wheeler, wine merchants, Colchester, but was in the habit of spending his Sundays at Brantham, and he used to walk with the deceased in the evening, and he also corresponded with her. Lately, Page's elder brother, Eobert, was also attracted by the deceased and found favour in her eyes. She intimated to Frederick that she desired- to break off with him. This seems to have excited him, and on Susday, August 8, he waylaid Eobert and Fanny Clarke when they were walking together, and demanded from her the letters he had written to her, and. accused her of having had improper intercourse with him and with her master. She was a good deal upset at this, and seems to have thought of sending the letters to his father, but eventually^ she sent them to him at Colchester. Robert Page who had made^an offer of marriage to deceased, then consented to an interview between her and his brdther on Sunday, August 15, but in the note to her in which he gave his consent he urged her to make it as short as possible. Accordingly, on the Sunday evening named, deceased obtained the permisson of Mrs Green, her mistress, to go out, and half-an-hour later she was seen walking with Frederick Page on the back road to East Bergholt. Just before nine o'clock Mr Green and a man in his employ were standing in the former's farmyard, when they heard sounds, described as resembling some one striking a straw-stack, in the direction of the East Bergholt back road. Some ten minutes later the deceased staggered through the yard covered with blood, which was flowing from four wounds in her head, and sank downinsensible. Medical aid was obtained and the surgeon found that several of the wounds penetrated into the brain. She never-recovered consciousness, and died on August 18. THe medical men at first thought the wounds had been caused by. a sharp weapon, but a post-mortem examination showed that they were shot wounds, and two bullets were found in the brain, while a third had passed completely through the head. About nine o'clock the same evening the prisoner, Frederick Page, was met by several persons on the Bergholt back road, walking hurriedly along, and subsequently a pool of blood was found about thirty or forty yards up a lane leading from that road to Mr Green's farm, and it was evident that here the murderous attack was made, there being marks of blood at intervals between that spot and Mr Green's, showing where the deceased halted on her way home. The distance she must have traversed is 390 yards, and it is marvellous how, after being shot through the brain, she could have dragged herself so far. Frederick Page reached his father's house at five minutes past nine. His father and brother noticed that he had a wild look. He went up .to bed with his brother Eobert, who said, " What have you done? For God's sake tell me! It will be much better for you." The prisoner then made a communication to JJobert, which the coroner declined to receive in evidence, and pointed to a win-dow-sill, where Eobert found a revolver, one barrel of which was loaded and several had been discharged. The brothers went down stairs, and the prisoner repeated to his father and mother what he had told his brother, but the evidence was not received, it being objected to by the prisoner's solicitor. In consequence of what his son had told him. Mr' Page went to the lane that same night and saw the pool of blood. The next day the prisoner was taken into custody and admitted that he had been with Fanny Clarke on the Sunday night. The jury returned a verdict of " wilful murder " against Frederick Ernest Page, and the coroner issued his warrant for his committal. The case is the more distressing in that two of the principal witnesses are the father and brother of the accused, who is onejof a family of fourteen children, and the family is well-known and much respected in the locality.