MURDER AT ASPINWALL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XIII, Issue 557, 5 March 1868, Page 2

MURDER AT ASPINWALL.

(From tbo Panama Star and Herald.)

A most horrible and mysterious murder was committed in the Howard House, Aspimvall, on the night of Sunday the 19th inst, the particulars of which so far as we can learn are as follows On the 4th inst. two men, Carlos Fernandes, who formerly resided in this city, and his partner, dealers in cigars, arrived at Aspinwall by the steamer Barcelona, from Cuba and took up their residence at the Howard House, where they carried on their business until the crime was committed. The parties seem to have been little known in Aspinwall, and as they each day appeared in the dining room of the Hotel, accompanied by a female who also came in the Barcelona, they attracted some notice, and frequent inquries as to who they were occurred without eliciting any satisfactory information, hut the impression became general that the female was the wife of 080 of the men. On Saturday evening Fernandez’s partner informed the manager of the hotel that they had taken a house in town, and wished to commence moving their things early next morning, at the same time he paid the account due to the hotel. About -4 o’clock on Sunday morning a heavy wooden box, some three feet square, in which cigars had been packed, and which had been lying in Fernadez’s room for some time previous, was taken from the hotel and carried to a house in one of the back streets. This sudden and early departure from the hotel, created no suspicion of any kind till sometime durintr the day when a servant entered the room and full!id the place saturated with bloods •that souiu foul deed had been committed during the night w«s evident, and an eilort was at once made to gain a clue to the dark deed. Suspicion arose as to the contents of the heavy case carried out of the house that morning, and on inquiry it was found that it had been carried away from the house in which it had been placed by a couple of negroes, who put it in a boat and coareyeU it to the other side of the bay. The box was picked up during the day and brought back to the city, and on being opened it was found to contain the mutilated remains of Fernandez. The murder, it is believed was effecned by suffocation, and it was necessary partially

to dissect the body iu order to roll it up into a bulk sufficiently small to be placed in the box.

The authorities seem to have taken this matter up in their usual bungling style. The partner of Fernandez was permitted io uecanip unmolested, and but little if suv effort seems to have been made to capture him. A person who recently arrived here vras, we believe, placed under arrest on Tuesday, on some slight suspicion of bis having been implicated in the’murder, and has been sent to Aspinwall. Fernandez is said to have had five or six thousand dollars in his possesion at the time of the murder, and it is supposed that the crime was committed in order to gain possession of the money. It is almost incredible that such a dreauful deed could have been perpetrated in a public hotel full of Jinmates and situated in the centre of Aspinwall, without the slightest alarm having been given, but such seems to be the fact.

Yesterday afternoon we applied to the Prefect in this city for further information in regard to this heinous crime, and received the unsatisfactory reply that he could not furnish any. Later in the day we received some correspondence from Aspinwall stating that Jose Maria DeCastro, the partner of the murdered man Fernandez, and the principal in the crime, had been arrested near Monkey Hill. At the time of his apprehension a belt was found on him containing some §1,500 in gold, DeCastro was taken to Aspinwall, where an investigation was held, the result of which is published below, together with a portion of the evidence of Q-aspard Adriana, who was arrested here and sent to Aspinwall on Wednesday morning. The remains of Fernandez were interred by the authorities yesterdy morning, and we are informed that the fifteen hundred dollars found on the murderer has dwindled down to five hundred odd dollars. This is rather suspicious, and reminds us of the manner in which criminal justice has been administered in this city in years past.

Colon, January 24 1863 Yesterday the examination of Jose Maria DeCastro, one of the murderers of Don Carlos Fernandez and his principal friend and companion, was continued. On being interrogated by the judge, he at first maintained a dogged silence to the questions put to him. Ho seemed very much depressed and complained of headache. After several minutes of sullenness, he commenced by admitting that on the morning of Sunday last he had occasion to go below awhile, aud that on his return to the room which he and the murdered man occupied together in the Howard House, that he found Don Carlos Fernandez assassinated in his bed—that he gave no alarm, but that he obtained an empty packing case in which he deposited the unfortunate man, and that he then looked around in the street for some men to assist him in disposing of the remains. That lie does not recollect from whence the box came, nor does ho know who the parties are that he engaged to assist in removing the body from the Howard House, and that he had a few days ago quarrelled with Don Carlos relative to pecuniary matters. Ho could give no reason for making bis escape in the clandestine manner in which he left Colon, and that he ran when pursued by the soldiers because he had money with him, and was afraid they meant to rob him.

On being confronted by the two men who removed the box from Ujo hotel to the house of Frederick DaCosta, the runner of the said hotel, ho refused to recog niso them, but they assert most positively that the arrangement for carrying the box was made by DeCastro himself—and they pretend to have been innocent of the con -tent* of the said box. It is quite clear that the blood of the murdered man oozed out of the box when deposited on the steps of DaCosta’s house.

It was Mr Nixon, an employe of the P. it. R. who on his way to dine on Monday weak at the Howard House, saw the empty case in which the remains of Don Carlos were found, taken out of the house of DaCosta, and conreyed to the Howard House. Mr Nixon entered the house at the same time with the empty package. The package was recognized by Mr Nixon after it was found with the remains, as the same box taken from DaCosta’a shop and carried to the Howard House. This package was one of five cases cigars which arrived in the Barcelona from Havana, and were deposited by Don Fernandez at the house of DaCosta, all bearing the marks and numbers of the unfortunate deceased.

The examination of Gaspar Adriana, the accomplice of DeCastro was also commenced, but nothing of importance was elicited from him.

Upwards of fifteen hundred dollars in American eagles, Spanish and Colombian monej, was found in a belt on the person of the prisoner DeCastro, without doubt the funds of the murdered man, as DeCastro was known to be without means

* p.m, —bince niy last I have heard that the belt found on DeCastro on if contained $583, according to returns by the authorities to Mr Rice the American Consul. Although the belt when handled at Lyon Hill, the spot where DeCastro was captured, wm by experts kn to contain fron ten to fifteen hundred dollars.