MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN SYDNEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4998, 31 March 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

MYSTERIOUS DEATH IN SYDNEY.

(From th e Sydney Mfi-hing Herald, March 6.) Mr. Shiell commenced an inquest at Ackland’s Hotel, Moncur and Piper streets, Woollahra, yesterday afternoon, respecting the circumstances attending the death of Elizabeth Waudby, who was found dead in her house, in Spioer-street, Woollahra, on Sunday morning, under extraordinary circumstances.

George Waudby, residing at Durham Cottage, Spicer-street, Woollahra, trade a plasterer, deposed that the deceased was his wife, about 35 years of age, a native of Nottingham, England, and had been iu the colony 13 years. She left a family of three children living. During the last three years the deceased has been given to habits of intemperance. She and her husband lived on good terms except when she had been drinking. At 5 o’clock on Saturday evening she was found by her husband at home in a state of intoxication. She went out alone that night about 6 o'clock, witness remaining at home, and returned again about 9 o’clock, worse for drink. Witness went to bed between 9 and 10 o’clock, leaving his wife in the kitchen. She seems to have both left and entered the house through the window. Witness could not say how long she had been out on the last occasion, as he did not hear her enter the house. Shortly after he had gone to bed he Heard a rattling of the pans in the kitchen, and on waking in the morning, which was about 5 o’clock, he called his wife’s name, but got no reply. He then went to look in the children’s bed and in the adjoining room, but she was not there. He then proceeded to the kitchen, where he saw the deceased sitting on the floor, with her head resting on the chair. There was a lot of pans and buckets lying all about on the floor. Witness touched his wife with his hand ; but finding that she did not reply, he concluded that she was asleep. He then touched her face, and found that it was very cold. It was too dark to see distinctly, and witness struck a light, when he found his wife was dead, in the midst of a great deal of blood on the floor, extending from one side of the kitchen to the other. The deceased was partly undressed, the clothes being on the chair on which she was reclining. Witness removed her to another part of the kitchen where there was no blood. A neighbor was then called in, and the police were communicated with. Deceased was never locked but or turned out of the house, but he had a quarrel with her on Saturday on account of her beating the children. About 18 months ago the deceased brought a charge against a man for attempting to commit rape upon her. Witness did not observe any instrument in the kitchen that would have caused a wound from which such a large quantity of blood could have flowed, nor could he account for a large bruise on the hip of the deceased. Sergeant Long said that about half-past five o’clock on Sunday morning he received information that Mrs. Waudby had been found dead, and on going to Mr. Waudby’s residence saw the deceased in a sitting position on the floor, surrounded by a large quantity of biood, which had apparently run from the opposite side of the kitchen to where the body was ;on the centre of the floor was an iron washtub, which contained a quantify of suds and dirty water, and in this was a kind of rug, partly inside and partly outside the tub. The woman was only partially dressed. The husband pointed out where the body had been found, about a couple of yards from where it was then lying. The husband could not tell witness how this blood came to be on the floor, for he did not like to disturb the body by examining. Subsequently Dr. Quaife came and examined the body. There were some recent marks of blood outside the door, which were said to have been produced from a wound on a child’s head who had been beaten with a broom handle. Waudby said that his wife had gone out on the previous night and had returned home drunk, and that she had been drunk almost every night Witness had known the deceased for the last two years, and during that time she had been addicted to drunkenness. Dr. Quaife made a post-mortem examination of the body of the deceased, and found that terrible and unaccountable wounds had been inflicted on her person, and that death had been caused by hemorrhage from such wounds. The case was adjourned till Wednesday morning, to enable the police to make further inquiries.