SHOCKING MURDER IN LYTTELTON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 13, 15 January 1875, Page 4

SHOCKING MURDER IN LYTTELTON.

• (From the Lyttelton SfVmes.) Lyttelton was thrown into a state of intense excitement on Saturday afternoon, by a rumor that a double crime had been perpetrated there. At first the report was discredited, but on inquiry it was found to be true that a most barbarous murder had been committed, the victim being a young girl but thirteen years of age. The facts, as far as at present ascertained, are as follows .—The murdered girl was a Miss Isabella Thompson, aged thirteen years, the daughter of a shipwright employed on the tunnel wharf. She left her home in Dam pier 'a Bay about a quarter, to five on Saturday afternoon, to proceed to the new Borough school to procure tickets for the forthcoming school picnic at Riccarton. These she obtained, and left shortly after five o'clock. About six o'clock, two boys, named J. Bailey and C SiramondSj employed driving cows, iA saw in a paddock, near to the Rev. F. Peraber's garden, a white pocket handkerchief. On going towards it, they saw in an opening leading into the garden, somethini* that they thought at first was a drunken man, but which afterwards they saw was a girl lying dead. An alarm was immediately given, and tbe police pn arriving found tbat murder had been committed. The body pre- . sen ted a pitiable sight, the limbs from the waist were exposed, the drawers torn, and it was found that the girl's dress near the breast and waist had been rudely torn away, 'showing ttmt a •desperate struggle bad taken place. The throat was cut from ear to ear, evidently with a blunt knife, as two cuts on one side of tbe throat had been made. The right hand was covered with blood, and the hair was full of gorse blossoms. The legs showed marks of ill-usage, one bruise baying < evidently been made by a boot. The cuts on tbe throat clearly show . that it must have been held whilst the deed was being perpetrated. That such a villainous deed could be perpetrated in broad daylight without some one knowing something of the matter was thought to be incredible. Little by little, and link by link, the child's goings were traced, ood yesterday the police arrested in Christchurch a man named Alfred Oeborne, who has lately been discharged from gaol, and charged him with tbe crime. The excitement in Lyttelton was intense on Saturday, and hundreds of persons yesterday visited the scene of the murder. The gap in the fence is large enough for two persons to sit in. It is supposed that the murderer lured his victim to the place.