THE OAMARU MURDER CASE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1400, 6 November 1886, Page 2

THE OAMARU MURDER CASE.

Oamaru, November 5. Agnes Sargeaon was charged at the B.M. Court to-day with having murdered her infant on or about the 20 h September last. T he body it will bo remembered was found much mutilated in a hole in the garden of the house accused lived In Accused was defended, and pleaded “Not Guilty.” the evidence taken showed that the accused was delivered of a female child on the IS'.h of August last, and that the child was in healih when it was boro, I but for two or three werks after it lo jked very ill, and a neighbor told accused she should obtain medical advice. The accused did so, and thereafter the child appeared to improve. The accused told one of the witnesses that she did not intend to register the birth of the child ; she would leave that to the person that adopted it. One witness said the child had been neglected ; that it was dlriy and wet all over. Previous tn the disappearance of the chi d the accused had asked a person to write a letter to a Mrs Scott, care of Mr Smith Meadow bush, East Taler, When asked by the neighbors where the child bad gone to, accused said the person written to had called a d taken It away the previous night, and (hot it would be better looked after where It had gone to than she could do for it. Accused told one of the witnesses that she was a widow, that her husband had been a sailor, but bad died in London lately. Some time after the baby was born, accused removed to a two-roomed cottage on the outskirts of the town, and it was from this place the accused said the child had been taken away. The landlord of the house said the accused had borrowed a spade and a tomahawk from him, and they were pat through his fence next morning. The next day accused told her landlord she was going to Dunedin that afternoon. The body of the child was subsequently found in a hole In the garden alo- g with a quantity of night soil, and presented a shocking appearance, the legs being cut off and the head and chest much hacked. The evidence of Detective O’Brien was to the effect that be saw the accused in Dunedin after she left Oamaru and spoke to her. He afterwards made enquiries as to the woman who was said bj the accused to have taken the child away irom Oamaru, but could find no one of that name at the address given, and on returning found that accused had disappeared. Be came back to Oamaru and searched in the garden of the cottage where accused lived and found, buried in a hole, in the m oner already do cribed, the body of a cniid much mutilated. On the same day ha left in search of accused and next saw her In charge of the police at Clinton. At the ' unedin railway station a Mrs Home spoke to accused, aact he heard accused say, Yes, it is Tripp’s,” and also, “I am ready to die.” The case was adjourned till to-morrow.