Alleged Murder.

Manawatu Herald, 15 November 1902, Page 2

Alleged Murder.

Further developments in connection with the recent sadden death of Lottie Ancell, aged 23, of Wellington, in a chemist’s shop at Waipawa took place at Napier, when Inspector MacDonell and Detective Marsack arrested Thomas Frederick Moore, a chemist, on a charge of murder, and liia housekeeper, Mary Ann Mills, with complicity in the act. The young woman Ancell, who was book-keeper at the Clarendon Hotel, Napier, left town by the express train on the 30th October, with, it was stated, the intention of proceeding to Wellington for a short holiday. She broke her Journey at Waipawa, for which place, it seems she had really taken out her ticket. The next heard of her was that she had died suddenly, of what appeared to be convulsions, resulting in asphyxia, in Moore’s chemist shop. It was stated she had entered the shop for the purpose of resting, having stated (so Moore alleged) that she felt unwell 1

At the inquest, the medical evishowed that deceased was enceinte. Dr Ross certified' that the woman had apparently not been operated upon. A verdict of death from natural causes was returned.

Since then close investigation have been made by the police. The medical fraternity have been somewhat baffled by certain disclosures which presented to them entirely new features in, it is stated, the performance of an illegal operation The result of minute analytical observations, however, is now the arrest of the accused and his housekeeper. Moore is an old man, unmarried. He is not a chemist by examination, but practised under the Act which registered chemists who had been carrying on business for a number of years prior to the passing of the Act.