A Serious Charge.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5257, 13 May 1895, Page 4

A Serious Charge.

ALLEGED MURDER OF INFANTS. fPBB Press Association.] DUNEDIN, Mat 11.

At Win ton, this morning, the police, after a olose eoarch of tho premises of the Deans', commenced to dig up the garden, finding the bodies of two baby girls, which answer the description of those left: in charge of Mrs Deans. As the bodies were quite fresh, it is assumed that their burial had been quite recent. The Deans were arrested on tUe charge of murder.

The woman Deans, arrested at Wiaton for child murder, ia believed to have made away with another child.

Mat 12,

One of tho bodies found in the garden of the Deana at Winton has been identified as that of a child which the woman Dean had on April 30. The police theory is that when the woman gofc oub of the train with the child at Dipton she killed the child and placed the body in a large hat box ahe was carrying. She then joined tho train and proceeded to Lunasden next day. She travelled by the Waitnea Plains line and caught the expreaa to Dunedin at Gore. Between Milburn and Clarendon she received another child, and getting out at Clarendon is supposed to have disposed of it and placed the second body in the hat box. She then joined the evening train south, and after stopping at Clinton for the night made her way home. Tiie grandmother of the latter child and a woman who had charge of it for some time left for Clinton yesterday afternoon, and were to drive with Detective M'Grath to Winton to identify the body. The woman ia believed to have carried on a baby-farming trade for years. She left Christchurch because the police had interfered in a case in which ehe had received a child from a young woman and her mother. The child was being badly treated, and the police, learning of it and tracing' the mother of the child, ineiated on its being taken away. The extent of the trade carried on by the Deanß can only be ascertained by those who entrusted them with children coming forward and g'ving information to the police.

INVEECARQILL, Mat 12.

There is not much new to report regarding the alleged child murders. The garden at the Larohea House, occupied by the Desna at Winton, has beea further searched by the police. The only thing of a suspicious nature found, was a small skull, but it is not certain yet whether it is human. The older infant, whose body was found in a flower plot, was in Mrs Dean's custody for four or five days before she started for Milburn, via Lumeden and Goce, and it went with her. The doctors who have examined the bodies found no distinct traces of violence. There are a few marks about the neck of the month-old baby, but these may have aiisen from decay. The grandmother of thia child identified its clothes in Deans' house. It is supposed that the infants were stifled by holding a cloth over their faces sufficiently loner. Charlet Dean was at one time the holder of a large area of land at Etal Creek, Wairaki, but gave it up Borne years ago. He is a very old resident. Mrs Dean is his second wife, and wa3 the widow of a doctor. It is said that Bhe gives her age bb forty-eight, but she looks older. She is well educated.

A preliminary letter to a relative of tbe Hornsby baby made great professions of kindness to, the child, spoke as if tbe woman had a good position,' and said that the person to» whom it was addressed would understand the yearning of a woman, who had loat all her children, for the love and care of a little one.

Dean is Bometrhat affected by his arrest, but the woman was unperturbed. She denied, stoutly that she had ever seen the person from whom she is said to have received the Mornaby infant. While doing so Detective Herbert noticed her surreptitiously fumbling with some clothing which she stuffc i into a bed. Detective Herbert pulled it out, and the woman identified the articles as the clothing the Homeby infant wore when she handed it to Mrs Dean, who thereafter maintained a stubborn silence.

The people of Winton long had suspicions of foul play, and the police were keeping an eye on the woman, but had great difficulty in approaching her, as she declined to register her hope, although once fined for keeping children without a license. It is probable that an effort will be made to connect her with another infant whose body was found some time ago.^ The police also have information tending to show that Mrs Dean blackmailed single women whom she knew liad given birth to children.