CHARGE OF MURDER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1090, 31 March 1911, Page 5

CHARGE OF MURDER.

OLIVE MOODIE ACQUITTED. By Toleeraph—Press Association—Obsyricht (Rec. March',3l, 0.50 a.m.)' Melbourne, March 30.. The retrial of. Olive' Moodie ■on, a charge 'fbf '/the mitr'der of her mother' by poisoning'restllted'.in'"ah acquittal. ''.'.. V The above ca.se has excited much, interest in Melbourne, and is a most unusual one. Olive Moodie, tiged 28 years, was arrested On November 29 on the charge of having wilfully murdered her mother, Elizabeth Moodie, between November 12 and 23.' On Saturday, November 12, the family lunched with Olive, eating some tinned tongue and cucumber. At the theatre in the evening Mrs. Moodie and her daughter Lily, aged fourteen, were seized with violent headaches, and on returning home the mother became very ill. The sisters Annie and Alma also became ill. On the Thursday Annie suddenly collapsed and died, and Alma died on the following Saturday. At the inquest gastritis was given as the cause of death in 1 both cases. On Monday, November 21, Mrs. Moodie was declared tri be out of danger by Dr. •Altmarin. At i o'clock the next afternoon he was called in and found his patient in a very bad state. She sank rapidly, and died at half-past seven the same evening. Olive, had been the sole nurse of her mother and 6isters in their private dwellings; and also visited her sister in Alfred Hospital.

The circumstances of Mrs. Hoodie's sudden.attack were so extraordinary, that Dr. Altmann called in Dr. Wilkinson in joflsultation. A post-mortem and subsequent analytical examination showed that arsenic had been swallowed. The police were communicated with, and it was ascertained that the accused woman had purchased arsenic. The bodies of the two sisters were exhumed, and in • each Dase considerable quantities of arsenic were- found in the intestines.