Starved to Death.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 209, 9 January 1894, Page 3

Starved to Death.

In Collingwood (Melbourne) on the 19th of December, an old woman was found in an empty house in Derby street in the last stage of starvation. Her moauings attracted the attention of a woman who was passing by the bouse, and she hastened to discover the cause. Looking through the front window she saw a woman in au indescribable state of raggeditess and filth lying on the floor. There was no article of furniture in the room, and the woman lay on the bare boards: Word was at once sent to the police, and Constable Armstrong was quickly in attendance, and found that she was in a dying condition. Her only clothing was a worn-out jacket and the tatters of an old soreg skirt. There was no underclothing of any kind. It was clear that whatever disease the woman was suffering from, she was at least starved to a shadow. The skin seemed barely to cover her bones, and her eyes wero sunken deeply in her head. A cab was procured, aod the woman lifted into it, but she at once showed signs of collapse, and was dead when the hospital was reached. Dr Player, who examined her, said that she displayed all the appearances of having died from starvation, but he could cot say absolutely that that was the cause of death. It is quits uncertain how long the unfortunate woman had lain in the vacant house where she was found but there are no appearances of her having been there for any length of time. It seems probable that, feeling exhausted, she crept i&lo the empty house for rest and shelter. When the last mail left Melbourne, uotbiug had transpired as to her identity.