DAIRYMAID MURDERED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 570, 24 January 1929, Page 13

DAIRYMAID MURDERED

BODY HIDDEN IN MANHOLE CLAIRVOYANT'S V ISION. One o£ the most remarkable, mysterious, and sensational crimes ot recent years has been revealed in a remote district oC Cumberland, where workmen who were cleaning out an underground reservoir found floating in the water the body of a pretty 19-year-old dairymaid, who disappeared from her home a month ago. That the girl was murdered, and her body then thrust into a manhole —a heavy, bolted lid being lifted for the purpose, and then replaced without leaving any trace—was established by evidence given when the inquest was opened. The girl, who was named Sarah Jane Borbett, was a fair, shinglehaired girl, and had been employed as a dairymaid for two years by Mr. Robert Gill, of Arlecdon Farm, some distance from Highley, Damplugh, where the manhole in which her body was found is situated. She left the house at some time between 7 and 7.30 on the evening of Tuesday, October 16, to call at her father’s home a mile away to fetch a pair of clogs, which were being repaired. From that moment all tr*ace of her was lost. On the night when she disappeared, her father, Mr. John Corbett, said at the inquest that he waited for many hours for her to return, but she never arrived. Definite proof that the girl had been murdered was given by Dr. Henderson a police surgeon, who had made a post-mortem examination. He said the indications were that the girl had been in the water for about a month.

"Her clothes were ballooned up round her waist, which shows that she was put into the water feet first,” said Dr. Henderson. "On the top of the girl's head was a jagged wound two and a-quarter inches long. The skull had been badly fractured. This was sufficient to cause death. It is possible that a wound of the sort could have been inflicted with a clog. "It is not possible that the girl's injuries were caused by falling into the manhole. The girl had stopped breathing when she w-as put into the : water. In my opinion, she was killed by the blow that fractured her skull. There was no sign of an attempted ; outrage." I The murderer had to remove a ost i wrought iron hatch, securely clamped by a crossbar fastened with bolts, to I push her feet downwards through the ; "2-inch aperture into the subterranean ; reservoir. Mr. Gill, the employer of the dead | girl, said that he had heard that the girl had been keeping company with a young man, but he did not know who he was. The coroner adjourned the inquest for a month. A remarkable story of a clairvoyant's vision is told in connection with the crime. Dour days after the girl ■ disappeared, a local clairvoyant said that while in a trance she had seen Miss Corbett lying under a pile of stones. She gave the name of the alI leged murderer.