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Press, Volume LX, Issue 11496, 31 January 1903, Page 7

not euspect anything, and let it go until the following Sunday, -when I observed there was no smoke coming from the chimney. After dinner on Sunday I went over with a friend and found the house all locked up. I looked through the kitchen window under the side verandah, but could see nothing. I heard nothing and returned home. On New Year's Eve I went over again in company with another friend, and was satisfied that my father had not come back, as the pla<*e was etill locked up. On Friday my brother-in-law arrived from Mitcham and went to my brother Tome place. Two of them proceeded to father's house,' which was Still locked up. They noticed a bad smell coming from the kitchen, and tnen they went for Mounted-constable Schumenn \vho broke open the house and found father's dead body lying on the floor of the bedroom, just off the kitchen. I cannot suggest any motive for the murder. We were all on speaking texme with father, notwithstanding disagreements that had arisen." THE DISCOVERY OP THE BODY. Constable Schumann's task was disagreeable in the extreme. The body of the old flman was found lying ooa its back on the bedroom floor in an advanced state of decomposition. It was clothed in a singlet, and wae lying witn >bhe feet pointing towards the foot of the iron bedstead, which constitutes the furniture of the room. The body wae black and swollen, and ihe man must have been dead a week wth«n tlie discovery wae made. Over the head of deoeaeed a branbag and some bedclothing had been thrown, and on raising these Constable Schumann found that the face had been battered. The place was freely beepattered with blood. Lying under the left shoulder of the body was a small iron hammer 'half buried in clotted blood. In an adjoining iutohen the constable found an American axe with its handle eawn off. and to it blood and hair were adhering. On a shelf was an enamel dish containing blood and water, and on the floor a towel bearing what looked: like bloodstains, all of unbioh. euggeet clean/ring operations after the murder. Juet inside the door of tne kitchen the constable picked up a piece of a woman's apron strin<g. ■ In the bedroom the otacer also found a locked box oontaining tine old man's papers and will. Xhe key wae missing. FAMILY RELATIONS. Inquiries instituted in connection with the terriDte crime reveal the existence of unhappy relations between the murdered man, (ins wife, and: children, and these account for the lonely life followed by the deceaeed. Deceased possessed a fiery temper, and at times would give way to drink. In fact, ihe had been fined £l at Stirling West lor insobriety and indecent language, and itad taken the punishment out in gaol. Hi» widow, who is about seventy years of age, had not lived with him for three yeara on account of ais violence. The Court records give fuxtier evidence of family feuda, but it was always the father who lost the case. One cause of disagreement was taw-- Mrs Cullem and the children are Roman Catholics, while the deceased waa not an adherent of any ohurch; out there were other reasons why a family separation was unavoidable. For a man in vis station in life Cull en might be reckoned to <have enjoyed affluent ciroumetaaces. "I am sure," said bis widowto a reporter on Sunday imoroitog, "that he was not right in his mind. When he wae coming out to &outh Australia he suffered a severe sunstroke, whilst engaged iielipimff the sailors in the rigging, although he did not tell me about that until recently."