ATROCIOUS MURDER IN HOKITIKA

Grey River Argus, Volume X, Issue 777, 10 January 1871, Page 3

ATROCIOUS MURDER IN HOKITIKA

[west coast times, jan. 9.] An atrocious murder was committed in Hokitika on Saturday evening. The victim was a girl only eight years old, named Mary Jane Molaumby. The suspected murderer is a "colored" man, named Anthony Noble. The murderer first violated his victim, and then cut her throat with a sharpened tomahawk. The deliberate design with which the double crime was committed, and the atrocious conduct of the murderer in all particulars, make it one of the most remarkable crimes that have been committed in the colony, and it has very naturally been the cause of much public excitement. Thanks to the activity and detective skillfulness cf the police, the man to whom suspicion points as the guilty person is already in custody, and, although circumstantial evidence only is available, sufficient facts have been ascertained to justify the hope that, in due time, the actual murderer will be convicted and his crime avenged.

The scene of the crime, or of its commencement, is a cottage in Sewell street North — the street which runs immediately parallel to Revell street. Its usual occupants were a man named Molaumby, his wife, and three children, all girls, aged eight, five, and three years. The father usually finds employment as a laborer, but has for some time been in delicate health, suffering from opthalmia. The mother has lately, assisted in earning their livelihood by washing. They were a quiet, well-conducted couple, fond and careful of their children, and very great sympathy is felt for them on 'account of the calamity which, through the committal of this shocking crime, has overtaken the peace of their humble household. The murdered child was their eldest— an interesting, timid young creature, between eight and nine years of age. On Saturday evening, the mother and father, having put their children to bed, left their house to proceed into town to make some purchases. They did so about nine o'clock, bolting the back door of their cottage, and locking the from, door. The two elder girls were left in their usual sleeping-places — a sofa bed — one occupying one end of the sofa, and her sister the other. The youngest child slept alone, in its mother's bed in a different room. While out, the husband proceeded to Mr Cassidy's respecting some employment which he was to receive, and Mrs Molaumby returned home, accompanied by an acquaintance, McGirn, a milkman. To her surprise, both doors of the cottage were found open, or, at least, unlocked and unbolted; and to her alarm her eldest child was missing. Still more to her alarm, spots of blood were seen upon the bed, and upon the floor. The younger child could give no account of her sister, and the circumstances being so strange and suspicious, the neighbors were immediately alarmed, and a search outside was made for the missing child. A neighbor, Mr Forrester, lamplighter, gave information to Detective Browne, and he at once sent for Inspector James and Sergeant-Major O'Donnell, of the Westland police, who proceeded to the house. A number of people had by this time assembled, and, with candles and lanterns, search was made for the child in and around the enclosure at the back of the cottage. Ouiside of the fence, at the corner furthest from the cottage, and among some rushes by which the swampy ground is overgrown, was found the dead body of the child, lying in a pool of blood, and presenting a fearful gash in the throat. The body was still warm, but there was not the slightest symptom of life. In fact, the wound in the throat and an injury on the head, the apparent result of a violent blow, were of so serious a character that death must have almost immediately followed their infliction. Though it was bright moonlight, satisfactory search for any further evidence of the committal of the fearful ci'iuie iwHich it' was plain had r bejm perpetrated^ could not; $h'en "be made, and, other members of the police force having been- sent for, the ground .was guarded until daylight — Inspector James, SergtMajor O'Donnell, and Detective Browne remaining up all night, prosecuting enquiries as to the probable perpetrator. After daylight, a" thorough examination of the neighborhood was made, and some distance from the body, or about a few yards from Sewell street, Constable Headrick found a tomahawk among the rushes. It was apparently by such an inetrument that the gash in the throat was inflicted, but on first examination no blood was discovered either on the head or handle of the tomahowk. A more minute examination, however, revealed gome blood hetween the socket of the axe and the handle and, from the appearance, the head and handle seemed to have been ■wiped before the instrument was deposited in the bunch of rushes where it was found. There was a ptculiarity of the axo which was at once observed l<y the police, and wh'ch led to the steps which they afterwards took, and to the subsequent arrest of Anthony Noble. It was a left -handed axe — (hat is to say, it was so made that it could onl/ be used by a man accustomed to the iise of the left hand. This Bimple ciicnmstance directed Detective Browne's suspicion t© Noble. ' Noble had previously been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for a brutal assault upon a w <nsan near the Hau Hau Irani way, and to three months' imprisonment tor Weeny — rape being the presumed object of the assault for which he was convicted; and it was remembered that, in working, he was accustomed to use the left hand. The circumstance was corroborated by a carpenter acquainted with the habit of persons of the same craft. Acting upon the suspicion thus excited, the police proceeded to . Revell street north, where

Noble had been living, bub he was not to be found. It wai ascertained, however, that, during the Christmas holidays, ho had been engaged to cook at the Butchers' Arms Hotel, Revell street north, and thither the police proceeded. There the information was received that he was located in a small house in the yard of the hotel — Mr Dowell, the proprietor, having permitted him to occupy the place until he should fipd a situation elsewhere. This was about a quarter to eight o'clock, and when Detective Browne entered the yard, he came to the door of the small house, dressed, but having no coat on. He was spoken to on the subject of the incident of the previous night, and remarked, " What a shocking murder it was." Detective Browne put a question to him as to the whereabouts of his carpenter's tools, and he replied that Mary — the female servant in the Butchers' Arms Hotel — had his axe, and he rushed away excitedly, as if to call the woman in question, when Sergeant-Major O'Dounell informed him that he must consider himself in custody. On entering the I house, two bunches of keys were found on the bed, and Detective Browne found a pair of trousers, partly concealed, rolled tip, and completely saturated, as if only recently in water. On examination blood stains were discovered on different parts of these trousers, and the left-hand cuff , of a coat found on the premises, and recognised as having been worn by Noble, was also stained with blood. Upon his vest, likewise, after he was brought to the policestation, small blood- stains were discovered, and we believe that, on his underclothing, blood wasdetected by Dr Dermott, though presenting the apparance of an attempt having been made to wash it out. It ■was observed as somewhat remarkable that, while the trousers were marked, there were no stains on his boots, but on subsequent search of his cottage, a pair of socks were found which apparently had been worn without boots, and upon the instep of which there was a small blood-stain. When arrested he had a fresh pair of socks on, and a new pair of moleskin trousers. When charged by Sergeant- Major O'Donnell with wilful murder, he exclaimed, "Oh, God !" and became highly excited, but made no denial or admission of the charge. Since his arrest, the police have been indefatigable in prosecuting further search and inquiry, and we understand that several other circumstances have been discovered which point to Noble being concerned in the murder, and these will, no doubt, be adduced at the inquest, or at the further examination into the circumstances which is likely to take place in the Resident Magistrate's Court. One item of evidence is that of the servaut woman Maiy referred to, who stated that she saw the prisoner on Saturday putting a wedge into the handle of his axe ; and it is significant that the axe found near the body has a new wedge in it, corresponding with a piece of wood which the same woman states she saw the prisoner using when making the wedge. We understand that there is also evidence of Noble having been in the neighborhood of the cottage in or near which the murder was perpetrated, about the hour the crime must have been committed.

The suspected murderer is about 35 years of age, and upon the police-sheet recording his discharge from prison he is described as a native of Baltimore, in America. Though sentenced to three years' imprisonment for the assault, of which he was convicted, his sentence was commuted to two years, and lv? was liberated from prison on the .12th February last, since which time he has been at work in various capacities in or about Hokitika. It is not known that he had any acquaintance whatever with the parents of the murdered child, or had at any time previously been in the house, but the mother of the child is at pre«ent in such a sad state mentally that nothing can be ascertained from her as to any of the surroundings of tho shocking crime by which she has been bereaved. Whoever may have been the author of this deplorable tragedy, it is evident that he must have taken advantage of the absence of the parents on Saturday evening to enter fhe house by the front door, for the opening of which he had provided himself with a suitable key. Having thus obtained access to the house, he seems to have not only violated the child with indescribable brutality, but to have struck her on the head a blow which would probably of itself have been fatal, and to have followed that up by a stroke at her throat with the edge of the axe, causing the fearful wound which the dead body of the poor little thing now presents. Whether the murder was completed inside or outside of the house does not exactly appear. The child must have either been bleeding to death or dead before he removed her from the house, as there are blood stains on the floor between the bed and the back door, and especially near the back door, but the principal flow of blood was at the spot where the mutilated body was found. During yesterday, many persons from all parts of the town were attracted to the scene of this sad murder, and it is needless to say that a very intense feeling exists as to the horrible nature of the crime, and as to the proper fate of its perpetrator. It is consolatory, so far, to the public, that the police have been so energetic in the detection of the criminal, and so successful in arresting thus early the one person againßt whom, whether innocen' or guilty, the evidence is most strong. It is only to be hoped that, however circumstantial the evidence may be/ and against whom it may be, it will he sufficient to close the career cf the perpetrator of what is undoubtedly the greatest outrage that has yet happened in Hokitika. (For continuation of hews see 4(/i Paye.)