Untitled

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 613, 22 October 1913, Page 5

upon Bernard Ken no his hut about; one ami :• •[•■'' from May field. Bi.'.i . *'* ■!."'-• "■*- through, verv whiu -.■:_ ..'.-.-'£'; ■ told Kennedy tnat be v O. { and was going to fie l\ i he left scon nfterwaids A vigorous search > i-i ton i luted, special attentiun In in ]mu '~> the course of the Hinds mm lot search was not without icsjlf 1 i traces of the missing t>ia.i were i< u ri in the midst of an almost impenetrable tauple of high gores in the river bed. It was plain that he had attempted to commit suicide, a bottle, which had recently contained poison, being discovered. The neck of the bottle had been broken off and the contents swallowed. ARREST OF BIDDLE. Biddle was arrested by DetectiveSergeant Fahey, of Timaru, and Detective Gibson, of Chrißtchurch, at 8.45 on Sunday morning, on a charge that on Wednesday evening last he murdered Rose Anna Lilley. The suspected man was in a very weak condition, and made no resistance. The scene of the arrest is only one and a quarter miles at the most from Mavfield post office, and about half a mile from Biddle's smithy, and two miles from the scene of the murder. STATEMENT BY ACCUSED. Biddle made a statement to the detectives, but the reporters on the spot were not able to laarn anything of its terms beyond the fact that it was "significant." Biddle was brought up to his smithy in a gig by the detectives at 10 a.m. As he was in a wretched dtate, and wet through, a change of underclothing was procured, and after the doctor had made a cursory examination of him, an<l had stated he was all right, except for weakneaa pojsibly due to exposure and hunger he was given some stimulants and allowed a short rest in his hunk in the whare beside the smithy. Biddle was lodged in the Ashburton lock-up at 2.5 p.m. He was kept there all the afternoon—probably for medical treatment, owing to his weak condition, though the police refused to give any information in this or any other respect. A PATHETIC STORY. A pathetic story is connected with Mrs Lilley's four children. They were left alone in the house from Wodnes day evening. The eldest, a boy, aged only eight, looked after himself and the others. On Wednesday night, the Thursday and Friday he washed, fed and dressed them, and also boiled feed for the pigs. The boy states that on Wednesday night Biddle called and told Mrs Lilley that Mrs Montgomery, a neighbour, wa; ill, and that he had been sent to ask her to go over. She dressed and left the house in company with Biddle. A HORRIBLE SPECTACLE. HUSBAND'S SAD STORY. The telephone message received at the Ashburton police station from Mayfield at an early hour on Saturday morning was not of an alarming nature, nor sufficient to lead to the belief of anything more serious than that Mrs Lilley had been found dead. The message did not state whether the death was due to natural causae or not. The spectacle the police wit nessed on arrival at the scone oi the tragedy was horrible, and many other persons who had to visit the scene during the day received a groat shod;. Mr Lilley, 'the husband of the dead woman, on being questioned, stated that when he first saw his wife lying down in some tussocks and appertained that shew as dead, he bad not bud any susnicion of foul play. He had left homo en the Sunday previously, and it; wan owing to a message he received fom Ivloutogmery, :; neighbour, that h,- 1 returned home »n Friday evening. He asked fir hi? wife and bis eight-year-old boy told him the.i she had gone away to Hi" leou-gemmy s house on YVednosdav, and ha; not returned. When be first found the body of his wife he thought der-ih inn! been from natural causes: and vdmii be del finally discover thai there had been foul play he received a terrible shock. verv much emaciated man. with deem su;:l: eyes. He f- in a wry weak state, bag,; []]„-. eeadiibm v'as not. such pital. RESULT OK POST-MOKTEAI. It; is understood that :: post-mortem examination war, made en She body ot iei'3 Lilley en Sunday morning, which disclosed an even more horrible tragedy than was ;■!; first rupj posed to have been the case Tie-re I were many bruins" about the body. ; and one boot was off. If looked re though the unfortunate woman lire \ hurriedly sot out of bed. She wat ! rnly partially dressed. At tlie Ashburton pdioo conr f <>; i this morning, imfore three local jus tices, Alfred Morttan Biddle was for i mally charged with the wilful murde;