FEARFUL TRAGEDY IN DUNEDIN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVI, Issue 953, 7 July 1883, Page 3

FEARFUL TRAGEDY IN DUNEDIN.

MURDER AND SUICIDE, v

[By Telegraph.] (From our Special Correspondent.)

Donedin, July 6th. Shortly after six o'clock thi3 evening, the residents of Manor Place were startled with the intelligence that a murder and suicide had been committed in the locality. It seems that at about that hour, Mr D. Cargill and his brother were conversing at the corner of Lees-street, and their attention was attracted to a flickering light some 50 yards up Manor Place. They looked upon it as proceeding from some children playing* with crackers, until they suddenly heard a loud report as of the firing of some explosive material . Hurrying up the street to the spot where the sound came from, they were horrified by finding a man's body hanging over a fence alongside the street-line, and the body of a female lying prostrate at the man's feet, both bodies being headless, and the pavement strewn with brains and covered with blood. The sight was sickening beyond description. The bodies, which presented a most ghastly appearance, were removed to the morgue by Constable Parker. On enquiry, I learned that the victim of this terrible tragedy — the first of its kind in the Colony — waa Mrs Stephenson, and that the murderer was her husband. George Timothy Stephenson. Mrs Stephenson is well-known in Dunedin. For some time past, she has occupied the position of head-milliner at Messrs Saunders, M'Beath and Co's ; she was a daughter of Mr Stenhouse of Mait-land-street, and has been separated some time from her husband. The parties, as is well-known,, have been on bad terms for so.me time, and Stephenson, through being denied access to his children, of whom he has two, has been known to entertain feelings of revenge towards the unfortunate woman, and her

parents. In the month of May last, he was charged, at the instance of Mr Stenhouse, at the City Police Court, with threatening conduct, and was then bound over to keep the peace. It is said that he has persistently doggpd -the footsteps of hia wife for weeks. It is surmised that this evening he followed her home from her place of business, and overtook her in Manor Place. Of course, what transpired at their meeting can never be known, as no one was near at the time. It is believed that dynamite was the explosive substance used. The affair has created the greatest excitement in the neighborhood.