INQUEST ON THE MURDERED WOMAN AT INVERCARGILL:

Evening Post, Issue 253, 29 November 1865, Page 2

INQUEST ON THE MURDERED WOMAN AT INVERCARGILL:

On the l fl th instant the inquest was held at the Golden Fleece Hotel, when Samuel Farrar deposed that the body lying at his house was that of his wife ; never knew anything wrong in her conduct ; waß sent for by a boy on horseback the previous day to Oteramika, where he had been at work. Dora Walker, being close to deceased, saw her alive at nine o'clock on the night of the 15th in her own house; arranged to call one another next morning; went to call her in the morning, found the door ajar, asked if she was awake, and receiv-

ing no answer pushed the door open, and on looking in saw the body lying on* the floor, with its feet towards the door, and close to it ; she had only her night-dress on ; called two persons, and we went in together, and found the three children asleep in bed ; saw a hat on the top of her bed, and a stick under the side of the deceased ; did not hear any noise in the night 5 the bedclothes were no« disturbed ; never saw the hat and stick before ; never knew her to be later than nine o'clock in town ; and never saw her intoxicated ; I never saw her with a black eye ; I had been out washing on Tuesday and she took care of my baby : we had one pint of beer together ; deceased and her husband lived happily together; was sure there were no marks on her face when she left her in the evening. John Hart deposed that about half-past seven o'clock on Wednesday morning the last witness called him, saying, " She is dead— she is dead," and he went' towards the house of the deceased ; saw the body, and noticed a slight mark on the nose ; it was frothing at the mouth; one of the women wiped the froth away 5 the body was just warm ; ssw the deceased the previous evening, about half past five, going into Boxal's store ; she was well ; M'ConneU lodged in witness's house for about fifteen months, but was not acquainted with deceased to his knowledge ; has seen deceased the worse for liquor, but not during the last two years 5 never saw any rowdy or drunken persons about her house ; never saw her in a fit ; never saw Mr. M'Connell speaking to deceased. Mr. Commissioner Weldon applied for an adjournment, which was granted to 11 a.m. on Monday, the 20th. The inquest was resumed on Monday, when the husband of dee'eased being recalled, swore that he slept with twelve or thirteen others on the night of the 14th, at Mr. Hamilton's station, Oteramika ; he turned in about 9 at night, and got up at five nuxt morning. Dora Walker, re-called : I found a nightcap outside the door of deceased's house; deceased was in the habit of sleeping with a night-cap on ; the bed clothes were as a person would throw them back to come out of bed. John Hart, recalled : There was some matches on the chair near the door when I went in, and some spilled on the floor; I did not see any blood on the floor. Sergeant O'Keefe said that at about halfpast twelve the hat and stick produced J were pointed out to him by the witness Walker; the stick was under the body, and the hat was on the roof of the bed ; I identified them aa Mr. M'G'onnell's, and took possession of them ; I subsaquently, in company with Detective Thompson, saw Mr. M'Connell at the Prince of Wales; he denied being at Mrs. Armstrong's the previous night : I said, " I found your hat and stick there" ; he again said he was not there ; I said I knew them, and he said, " Right right ! I was there, has anything wrong occurred?" I said she was found dead ; he said, " Good God, you don't say so;" he said he had been there about five minutes, and she was all right when he left ; he said it was betwsen twelve and one when he was there, that Mrs. Armstrong opened the door, with a lighted lamp in her hand, that he laid down his hat to get a light, that the lamp went out, and his stick fell down, he could find neither hat nor stick, and he went home without either ; there was no one in charge of the body from vine to twelve o'clock. Dr. Monckton said — I am a surgeon, resident in Invercargill ; about noon on the 16th inst. I received a Coroner's warrant for a post mortem examination on the body of a woman found dead the previons ! day in a home in Spey-street; I called at the Police Station on my way and went up to the house; Sergeant Morton, Mr. Thomson, and Mr. Deck, were there ; the woman was lying on her back ; there were bruises about her shoulders, and a bruise inside her thigh; I saw a bruise on the bridge of her nose, which I found was recent, a swelling on the top of the head and another above the right ear ; I cut I across the scalp from ear to ear, tnd found

extravasted blool at both swellings on the surface of the bone, thereby showing that blows of great violence had ' been inflicted ; I removed the upper part of the skull, and found extravasated blood on the dura mater, showing rupture of a vessel or vessels by violence ; The death I believe to have been caused by compression of the brain, proceeding from blows on the head, caused by any blunt instrument ; the stick before the jury might have caused such appearances. W. Wilkinson, landlord of the British Hotel, Esk-street, said— Mr. M'Connell was at my house on the evening of the 14th; be left about half-past eleven; he was not sober, but knew what he was about; on the morning of the 15th I saw him in Dee-street, when he said, "I have got into a mess throngh my hat and stick being found in the house where the woman was found ; I called on my way home to light my pipe, and the wind blew the light out and my hat off ; I leant my stick against the house, and could not find my hat." R. Fernard Wottom said : On the afternoon of the 16th instant, Mr. M'Connell came into Mr. Munro's shop and said, " I am a very unlucky fellow ; I was going home late last night up Spey-street, and called at Mrs. Armstrong's to get a light, as my pipe had gone out, and she brought me a lamp or light, and the wind blew it out, and my hat off; neither she nor myself could find my bat, and I let my stick fall, and she has been found dead of appoplexy this morning;" I said, "you must have been drunk ;" he said, " I was tight ;" he said it was an awkward thing, as he would be a witness on the case ; I said I hoped he would be nothing more. William Martin proved that Farrar, the husband of the deceased, slept at Mr. Hamilton's station, at the Bight, on the night of the 14th instant, on which the death of the deceased occurred, distant from Invercargill twenty miles. On the request of the jury, Dr. Grigor was called, who, being sworn, said .- I saw the body of the deceased after the post mortem examination ; a person falling with all his weight upon the handle of the stick produced, would leave a mark or abrasion of the skin ;- the body would of course fill according to thg position in which it was when it received the blow ; the appearances described by Dr. Monckton on the head are not consistent with any disease. Tne jury, after an hour's deliberation, returned the following verdict :: — •' That Catharine Farrar met her death by extravasation of blood on the brain, caused by a blow or blow 8 ; and that strong suspicion pointed to David Bennet M'Connell as implicated in the death of the deceased. M'Connell was then committed on th« Coroner's warrant, charged with wiltul murder.