SUPPOSED SUICIDE THEOUGH JEALOUSY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2393, 17 November 1880, Page 4

SUPPOSED SUICIDE THEOUGH JEALOUSY.

The Dunedin Police are at present investigating a strange affair. On Saturday a man reported to a constable that he had seen a woman’s dress on the reclaimed ground, opposite the New Zealand Wood ware and Timber Factory’s premises. The constable, on proceeding to the place, found a woman’s dress and jacket lying close to the water’s edge. In the dress pocket was a letter; also a purse containing a gold locket, a silver locket, a brooch, an earring, and two sleeve studs. A search was made along the water’s edge, but no trace of a person was seen. Inquiries were also made from the men who had been working on the reclaimed ground since three o’clock this morning, but they had seen no woman about the the place during that time- The dress and jewellery were removed to the police station, and during the forenoon they were clearly identified by two persons as the property of Mary Prescott twenty years of age, and the dress was sworn to as having been worn by her on Friday night. The police being unable to find any trace of the whereabouts of the woman, a search with drags for the body was commenced. It is said that the woman had been jilted in a love affair, and that she threatened to do away with herself. The letter referred to was written in a bad hand, on the slips of a copy-book, the head-lines of which had been torn off, and was as follows : “November 21.

“ dear father and brothers, and dear little sister, when this reaches you i shall have passed dark river death, for father, i tired of life and the world’s cold care, and friends are false, for friends have been ni} r ruin, i have been made to suffer more than i can bear, and while i existed everyone all have been my bitter foes, father forgive your wicked erring child, teach my brother and sister to walk in God’s holy ways, that they may never do the sin that i soon shall do. speak of me with pity, not scorn, father forgive me, and mourn not me, for father it is better so, for it is better to bo dead than mad ; and i hope you will never find me, for it would be pain to you to look upon the face of me, who took the life god gave her. father, give all my clothes (this sentence is uncompleted); tell all my brothers to forgive me, and, dear sister, forgive i, your wicked child, Maky I’jjjjscoi.”