Terrible and Diabolical Murder Near Auckland

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 194, 15 July 1874, Page 3

Terrible and Diabolical Murder Near Auckland

The following was published by us as an extra on Saturday last ;

Avcki.a>’>, Saturday, July 11. rn t 0.15 p.m. C harh-s .Dyer, an old, and hitherto reportable setter of Hus province, residing at Pukiri, was brought to Auckland at, daylight this mornirm, having been arrested on a charge of wilfully mUrdcnng a woman with whom he had been ‘living mimed Eliza Battersea, on Thursday afternoon' last. An inquest will be held this afternoon. The tn urderer appears quite composed, and unconcerned. The crime was committed through feelings o jealousy. The murderer's son discovered the unfortunate woman in a sack on tho banka of the I akiri river, near his father's residence, shortly after the terrible deed had been committed. The woman was still alive, but presented a horrible spectacle. She denounced the father to the son as her murderer. Tho woman said that Dyer brutally assaulted her, threw her upon the ground, and poured kero«ine over her, completely saturating her clothes ; be then set tiro to the hair of her head, her clothes caught tire, and she was half-roasted. Dyer thou covered her up in a sack—not tied or secured in any way, threw her into the river, and she was washed against the bank where found by Dyer's son. Tho murderer’s son had the woman eared for and rode to the nearest station for a Policeman, who arrested Dyer. Tho woman died in fearful agony last night. The public are intensely excited over tho affair. [Pakiri is about 60 miles Aortb of Auckland, and the murderer is a well known storekeeper and publican in the place,]