A TRAGEDY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 935, 5 May 1883, Page 2

A TRAGEDY.

A tragic affair occurred near Manchester on February 12. On the arrival at Radcliffe of the express passenger train leaving Ducie Bridge, Manchester, for Bacup, at 2.30, the door of one of the first-class compartments was found open. There was no one in the compartment, but it had evidently been recently occupied, as an overcoat and two umbrellas were lying on the seat. There was no clue to the ownership of the articles, nor was there any further indication that anything extraordinary had happened ; but about three o’clock some platelayers who were at work in the tunnel about two miles from Victoria Ducie Bridge, found, scrambling on the line, a respectably dressed middle-aged man, who was afterwards ascertained to be Mr J. Kay, a retired tradesman residing at Radcliffe. It

was found that his skull was fractured, his face bruised, and his clothing soiled as if he had been dragged along the line. He gave no explanation of how he. came to be in the tunnel, and he was sent to his home. Some railway servants, who went into the tunnel to look for the things which Mr Kay said he had lost, found the mangled body of a woman lying across the rails along which the train from Manchester to Radcliffe had passed. Her legs had been run over just below the knees, and almost completely severed from the body. She was still breathing, but insensible, and in that condition was removed to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, where she died shortly after admission, without having gained consciousness. , The woman- was afterwards identified as Mrs Kay. It appears that Kay and his wife had been to Manchester to transact some business at Brooks’s Bank, and left the city together by the 2.40 train. They were in a compartment by themselves, and although several passengers were in the next compartment no disturbance was heard by them in the tunnel. After reaching home Kay only gave rambling replies to any question put to him. It is said that six or seven years ago both he and his wife attempted to commit suicide. The deceased was fifty-one years old, and her husband a little older. The affair remains a complete mystery.