THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

Evening Star, Issue 3712, 15 January 1875, Page 3

THE LYTTELTON MURDER.

The ‘Press’ of the 11th inst. contains particulars concerning the above beyond those published in our telegrams. It appears that the murder was committed on Saturday afternoon. The deceits d left her home in Dampier's Bay about 4.45 p.m., for the purpose of proceeding to the new school buildings to get tickets for her parents for the picnic at Riccarton, She arrived at the school at spm., left than place at 5.15 pm . and was seen again about 5.30 p.m., in company with a man described as being of a medium height, wearing grey clothes aud a French peak cap. The boy who saw her sta’es that he s j.w the girl and man go dow into a gully in Canterbury street, and that after remain ng there about five minutes, they re urned and walked up Ripon street The girl was crying. but walked alongside the man. She was never seen alive again. About 615 nm. two boys, named respectively John Baily and I’avid Simmons, went after some c >ws in Ripon street ; and, glancing through a hole in the corner of the Rev. Mr Pember’s fence, saw a white cambric pocket-handker-chief. and looking further, out of curiosity, on® saw what hfe thought w s a drunken man lying there. Bth then went aw; y. and told a boy named Rouse about it. He went up with his elder brother, and looking throu hj saw the face was blood-stained, and that it was that of a dead girl The younger boy was sent for the police, who were there by half past six. and an examination was made The girl was lying with her clothes dragged from the lower part of her body, and her torn to pieces The had aso been burst open at the waist and up the left breast, h*r head was lying > own the bil ! , and her throat was cut from ear to ear The murderer no dou'ff bad attempted to violate her, and when she called out had seized her by the throat with his left hand to stifla her screams, and with his right had cut her throat from r ght to left. Dr Rouse gave it as his o( inion that should not have been dead more than an hour. She was identified bv her fa'her, who is a shipwright. The murder was committed in Ripon street, which is unfoimed and rough, and there is no house but the pareo age on the upper side, and that is partly enveloped in trees. On the lower side, however are several houses, some of them exa ;'ly opposite the scene of the murder, which was at the corner of the street, wher; the gorse and the post an .rail fences joined The street being only a chain wide, the houses were within that distance of the spot, and a family were actual y moving into ono that afternoon. Nothing was found on the spot but the handk refaief. on which wa the stain of blood, as though the knife had been rubbed on it, and the girl’s hat. When the body was first discovered it was a wonder »o all where the blood could be, hut it was soon seen that the mur erer had scraped the dead gorse together, and place i it over It, as it was evident that he had hen trust the body of his victim lower down nearer the hedge, from the outside of which the head was seen. The two ticketsj that the girl had procured at the schools were found lying within a foot of the corpse. Th* c< mmotion at Lvttelton was very great. AT business was stopped, everyone seeming to be paralysed at the enormity of the crime.