TERRIBLE MURDER at the CAPE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 68, 9 March 1876, Page 4

TERRIBLE MURDER at the CAPE

(Home News.) '■ A Cape paper reports that a shock* ing murder has just: been committed on Maria Bosch, a girl about eleven years of age, daughter of 3an Bosch, a respectable farmer living at Russouw's Poort, near Waterford (district Jansanville.) It appears that a quarrel had arisen about the possession of as. valueless an ..article as a doll's frock; between the deceased and a colored girl named .Marianne, in the service of Mr Ti Bosch. One day last month tbe parents left the farm in the afternoon to visit some neighbors. The murderess then enticed tbe child to a remote spot on the farm, about half an hour's distance from the homestead, pretending that they would collect wild berries. According to the confession which Marianne has made to the field-cornet (which confession she now disavows), she threw Maria Bosch to the ground and completely stunned her by blows. After a short time the poor victim, regaining, her senses, prayed for life. "Don't murder me," she said, "My ma is so far from here." " No," replied the merciless murderess, " I must kill you; otherwise you will tell your pa about it, and he is sure to flog me." It appears she then got hold of a handkerchief which, tied in a knot, the unfortunate girl wore round her neck, and twisting the same, she strangled her until she found life to be extinct. The body of tbe murdered child was discovered the same night by the girl's and some of the neighbors, who went to search with a lantern. Dr Aleberg made a post mdrtem examination. The body wae disinterred in tbe presence of tbe doctor, the bereaved father, and some of the neighbors. Though it had undergone decomposition in a high degree, the marks round the neck were still plainly visible, leaving no doubt about the manner in which the murder had been committed. The fiendish perpetrator of the foul crime is now in gaol in Jansen villa awaiting her trial. {She is of Bushman and Hottentot parentage, and about fifteen or sixteen years of age. Her face shows scratches produced by finger nails, being unmistakeahle signs of the, vain resistance which the hapless victim offered against the attacks of her murderess. :