A LONDON MYSTERY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1090, 20 April 1883, Page 3

A LONDON MYSTERY.

A very ghastly story of crime awaits its solmioii from such intelligence and ex- ■ perience as the L union police may be able to conceiffrate upon it. On the llth December last a small box, which was in fact an did starch box; and might have been one on' of many hundreds, was left at the shop of Messrs Davies and Evans, oil and colour merchants, in the Cambridge Heath road, with instructions that it was to be forwarded by Messrs Carter and Paterson, the well known carriers, to a lady of the name of Creen, residing in Abbey road, St. John’s Wood, who would duly pay the carriage. The box was forwarded in accordance with these directions ; but Mrs Green could not be found, although every necessary search tor her was made. The package was then sent to the central depot of Messrs Carter and Paterson for lost and missing goo,ds ; and after some weeks the manager, from circumstances which came to his notice, burst open the lid, and found the body of a young girl. There has been a medical examination, the result of which, roughly, comes to this :--The body is that of a girl between thirteen and fourteen years of age, and apparently of a gentle position in life. Care has been taken of the teeth, which have evidently been managed from lime to time by a dentist. The hair also baa been well attended to. There are no marks of violence upon the ho ly, but there are appearances which indicate that death was due to starvation. No traces of poison have been f.mnd, but the inquest is adjourned that a chemical analysis may be ■ made. The body hail been thrust into the box with great violence, and was rolled apd doubled'up upon itself, while the box was very tightly corded The receiver who took in this parcel witn its horrible burden knows nothing more than that it was brought by two men, one of whom was apparently respectable and wore a tall hat, while the other, who actually carried the parcel, appealed to be a wateiside runner of ei rands. Beyond this there is absolutely no clue to what is beyond all question a very foul and, it is to be feared, a very cruel crime. Considering this scanty evidence, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that tlie case is one of murder. Every now and then the body of a child is discovered, and an inquest is held, which, practically, results in the conclusion that the remains have been hidden or thrown away to save the expense of a funeral. In the present case there can have been no such motive. The poor girl, it is clear, had been delicately brought up, and those who were in charge of her were not in need of mouev. Her remains were packed into an old starch box, because such a parcel was one not at all likely to attract special attention. It was brought to a small shop where, amid the bustle of tiitiing sales, the receiver would not take any very special notice of strangers or of packages entrusted to his care. It was con signed to an addiess mmy miles away in an entirely different quarter of London. That the girl has not been killed by violence the medical evidence sufficiently shows. Whether she has been poisoned remains to be ascertained. The medical opinion that she has been starved may mean that either food has been denied her, or that she has refused it The probability is that she has been decoyed away for some vile purpose, | and has died from terror and agitation and distress in a state little short of actual imprisonment. This is the only solution which at first sight fits an hypothesis into all the circumstances. But the strange thing is that there shonld be no one to identify the ho ly. If a young, girl is enticed from her home her parents miss her. They tell everybody in the neighbourhood, they communicate with the police, and the moment a body is found they are sent for to see if they can recognise it. In the present case no one appears to have missed this poor child. There has been no advertisement for her, there have been no inquiries made for her, the police have not i be n put upon her track, and when we couple this with the fact that she seems to have been gently and carefully brought up, if is difficult to a v oid suspicions of a very terrible kmd. The evidence of crime, however, as opposed to any theory of misadventure, stands uncontradicted. Some person or persons had oossesaion of the girl’s body, and with considerable violence crammed it into the box, nailed the box down, corded it up, and either carried it or got it to be carried to tne receiving house. Hence at once is guilty knowledge of some act so tenibly wicked that we cannot ’ think of it. Whether the child was suddenly killed, or whether she sank nnler some slow process of torture, will probably never be 'known. The one fact certain is that those who murdered her are still at large ; and that the London police, acting under the direction of the superintendent of criminal investigations, have offered a reward of £5 for the man who carried the box.— London Observer.