Murder or Suicide

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 89, 21 January 1890, Page 3

Murder or Suicide

(Chnstchurcli -Telegraph's correspondent) Melbourne, January 6. What appears to he a mysterious case of suicide has happened at North Melbourne. On the. 2ud inst. the dead body of John' ! Frost, manager for Jas. Pry and Sons- at Naphaha, was found m . Ard^n street, near the railway station. The body was lying face downwards m a pool of blood in the road, and in the neck were found two wounds, which had cvi« d6titly been caused with a sharp instrument such as a long bladed knife. An adjacent paddock is enclosed with a substantial four- railed fence, and on the panels immediately opposite where the body was lying there were extensive blood stains. Spots of blood were also found inside the paddock. On one of the heaps of road metal stacked here and there were also blood stains, and the fence at the side of the paddock was also smeared with blood. Near the road metal a walkingstick was picked up, and inside the paddock a gold watch was found, both of which were stained. A small penknife was also discoyered, but it had no traces of blood upon it. No other weapon, of a description likely to have caused the wounds could be found in. or about the place, and this, combined with the story told by one of the residents in the locality, that screaming was heard in the paddock during the night, led the police at first to believe that a murder had been committed. The nature of the wounds and other circumstances did not support such a theory, and it is now considered that the deceased committed suicide.