An Atrocious Crime.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXII, Issue 12415, 13 March 1908, Page 5

An Atrocious Crime.

Aa Aruthus Deevor, a fossicker, who •was camped iv the scrub to the east of the new cemetery, in Ballarat North, was passing an abandoned shaft 17 feet deep, in vale Park on the morning of January 22, he detected an offensive smell. On looking into the shaft he found the stench to be very pronounced, while at the bottom of the hole he noticed a dark object resembling a human being. The police were informed, with the result that the body of a well-dressed woman in an advanced stage of decomposition, wafe discovered across the bottbw of the shaft. The head, which was completely detatched, was Testing on the left shoulder,- and was, together with the face, devoid of any particle of flesh. The body 'was dressed in a tailor-made costlme of blue serge, and alongside were found a French sailor hat, composed of crinoline straw, which was blood-stained, and a blue silk parasol or sunshade^ with a crook handle, mounted with silver. Under the feet of the* body was found a broken mock mother of pearl necklet, and a boa of fur. Deceased was wearing shoes of- fashionable kind, one of which had come off and was found near the detatched head. Owing to the advanced stage of decomposition identification of the body was impossible. A woman named Graham, living apart from her husband, left Geelong early in December to spend a holiday in the Yandra. She had considerable jewellery. Clothing in the shaft has been identified as hers, but tllere was no trace of the jewellery. ____________