A MURDER CLEARED UP AFTER TWELVE YEARS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 644, 5 March 1870, Page 4

A MURDER CLEARED UP AFTER TWELVE YEARS.

Readers of the mail news will remember that amongst the telegraphic items published; was a statement that a man named George Dyer had given himself up to the London police as the perpetrator of a murder committed about December, 1857, just 12 years ago, on the Mia-Mia Creek, Newstead, near Oastlemaine, Reference to the Yidctrum Police Gazette 6i January 28, 1858, shiows-.that I+LOO reward and free pardon to-an accomplice were offered for such information as would'lead to the apprehensiph:and' conviction ' of ; the person or persons who murdered a man whose remains were found in a waterhole on the Mia-Mia Creek, Newstead,. near Castlemaine, at a spot 'distant about 25 yards from the main road leading to Carisbrook^' in January, 1858. The body was found oil the 9th of ' January^ 3858j with six deep wounds on the top of the skull as if done with a pick, and the left cheek was also smashed. From the position of the body it appeared that after the man was murdered the body had been put in a sack, which was then filled with stones, the sack tied round the neckiof the b >dy, and the whole parcel thenjthro.wn into the waterhole. The body appe'Sr^d to have been about four or five month's in the hole, but subsequent inquiries. led to the belief that the crime > fjfttl -been "more recently committed. T^6»!fdtiwing telegram was received by* -tiijl^^ailr' just arrived, at the Melbourne detective office, in relation to the : matter, from Superintendent Thompson, Bow strett, London, dated 19th January last ;-r-" George Dyer, aged 47, is dh custody, oh his confession that about Christmas, 1,857, he killed, George Wilson, an English sailor, in histent, on the Loddon, and threw the body into a well close by. Dyer arrived hi Melbourne from England in August, 1853j

lived in Smith streot, Collingwood ; then in North Melbourne, Loddon, Auckland, and back to Melbourne. Thence to Liverpool by Groat Britain. Remanded for your inquiry. Telegraph result." Detectives Mainwaring and Hudson, who were in the Loddon district at the tim?. the murdered body was found, made great exertions to disoover the murderer, but without offect, and from their knowledge of the facts as elicited they believe that Dyer is really the culprit, and not the victim of a self-accusing morbid mania. Detective Mainwaring informs us that with reference to the orime having been committed in December, 1857, it was shown at the inquest that a few weeks previous to the finding of the body, on a Saturday night, , cries of "Oh, oh, you b— — - murderer" had been heard comingfrom the direction of the waterho'e, but that brawls in which such expressions were constantly occurring being very frequent at that unsettled time, no notice was taken of the matter until the persistent howling of a strange dog at the waterhole attracted attention, and led to the discovery of the body, There were then very few inhabitants at Newstead, whioh was on the Loddon River, about 15 miles from Castlemaine, and the waterhole was about a quarter of a mile from the township. The dog, whioh was a large one, about two years old, of a brownish color, was supposed to belong to the murdered man, and was taken all round the district, but without being recognised. It was ultimately brought to Melbourne, where in the course of years it got lost sight of, probably falling a victim to some dog-shooting corporation officer. The murdered man, who looked like a laborer and was a young mail, was never identified, and it is important that it should be ascertained who George Wilson was ; and, therefore, it is the duty of any one possessing or believing himself to possess information about him or Dyer, especially if of a nature to show what relatiou the two bore to each other, to come forward and assist the detectives. Detective Mainwaring is now on the track of a person named Dyer, who may turn out to be the man who has Confessed the crime, but nothing very decisive, can be done until further details, with a descrip. tion of the self accused nmrderer, are received by the next mail. At the time of the murder the country was in a very disturbed state, and numbers of desperate criminals were at large, so that the work of tracing any individual's wanderings must be very slow and tedious. It is probable that Dyer may be sent out here.