SUSPECTED MURDER. Brutal Outrage at South Melbourne.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 54, 14 June 1884, Page 6

SUSPECTED MURDER. Brutal Outrage at South Melbourne.

Melbourne, May 26. A woman, whose name is unknown, was found lying dead in a swamp at the back of the Trades Hotel, South Melbourne. From marks on the body, the case appears to be one of murder, and this suspicion is confirmed by traces of a struggle which took place close to where the body was found.

Later. — The woman's body was discovered in the main drain which crosses the Sandridgo Road close to the Castlemaine Brewery, near to which the crime was committed. Not many yards from the spot where the body was found the ground was soaked by the recent rains, and bears unmistakable signs of a violent struggle having taken place. Yesterday the footprints of several persons were plainly visible round a place where the body of a woman had been pressed against the soft earth, and here was found a woman's hat, and near by a poition of feminine apparel and a pocket-handker-chief. The detectives were early on the scene, and the black trackers were sent for to examine the footprints, which are very numerous, and lead in all directions. The body, which bore no special marks of violence except in one part, was that of a middle-aged, stoutly built, strong, healthy woman, whose features are familiar to some of the South Melbourne police, but they are unacquainted with her name. A female resembling the deceased, and supposed to be identical, was seen in the company of four or five half -drunk young fellows on Saturday night close to the spot where the outrage took place. Three of these larrikins have been since arrested for insulting behaviour, but there is no evidence, so far, to connect them with the more serious crime which has created a great sensation in South Melbourne.