SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3778, 3 December 1907, Page 3

SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Murder of a Woman. Horrifying Details. Perth, Dec. 2. A shocking tragedy, perpetrated a week ago, has been brought to light. The victim was a woman named Clark, who had been living with a gardener named Moore at Belmont Park. Moore confessed to the crime. The manner in which he disposed of the body, by burying it six feet deep in the kitchen, was so complete, that but for his subsequent ) actions the crime might never have been sheeted home. The couple quarrelled frequently, and the story told to the neighbours was that the woman had x cleared out. On the night of the .murder the woman was heard to say, “ Oh, Jack ! Oh, Jack !” The neighbours subsequently had suspicions and informed the police. The latter examined the kitchen of the. house where the two lived, and prodded the soft earth of the floor with a stick, which Moore sharpened for them for the purpose. Moore accounted for the boxes of women’s apparel in the room by stating that they were left by his previous housekeeper, Mrs Pearson, whose whereabouts will also be investigated. The search with the pointed stick revealed nothing, because it was only three feet long. A second visit was made by Inspector Connell. He found Moore restive and unable to sleep, his stretcher being over the soft earth of the floor on the spot where the body was subsequently found. When confronted by the Inspector, Moore confessed to the murder. He said: “We had a row. I Was sitting on the box reading a Tamper, when she came in. She said «Good-bye.’ A few seconds afterwards she came back into the room with an axe, which hcd been hidden for some time previously. She made a swipe at me. I ducked and missed the blow, and then jumped up and punched her. Then I grabbed her by the throat and strangled her, and there she is. She is down there,” he said, pointing to the floor. He burned her boots and clothing and buried the body naked, covering it with lime. The body has been exhumed in a shocking state.