THE SHORTLAND MYSTERY. Further Particulars. London, May 23.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 57, 5 July 1884, Page 6

THE SHORTLAND MYSTERY. Further Particulars. London, May 23.

The mystery surrounding the death of Mrs Laura Shortland at Blackawton, Devonshire, remains as dark asovor. During the past ten days the body has (by order of the Treasury) been oxhumed, and the stomach and other parts sent up to London for analysis. Tho result of this will be known to-morrow (Friday), when Mr Hugh Shortland is once more to come before tho Kingsbridge Magistrates. Whilst in prison lie has scorned cool and calm, written a good deal, and conversed freely with people who came to see him. For tho benefit of your readers I have been at some pains to glean from tho Devonshire papors and othor sources a comprehensible- story of tho caso. Tho main facts, of courso, you know, but they gavo no in dication of tho motives which may possibly have moved tho accused. Hugh Rutherford Shortland belongs to a respectable "county" family residing near Plymouth, and was educated in that city, but lie accompanied his fathor on his emigration to Auckland, New Zealand, several years ago, and, according to his own account, was called to the bar there. Ho has since voyaged to and from New Zealand several times. Shortly after his arrival in England last year .Shortland took up his aboelo at an hotel at Toybridge, and at once began to make himself ecoentricly prominent in connection with a local railway scheme, for which lie wished to substitute apian of his own- Ho addressed several open-air meetings *it Modbury, but his curious behaviour on these occasions reduced tho business to a farce. Tho general impression created by Mr Shorthand's demeanour in public, and letters to the press: was that his mind had been thrown a little oil' its balance, but there was nothing in his ordinary conduct to indicate insanity. The last public meeting he addressed was convened to consider a monetary venture which ho entitled "a Company for tho Purchase of Lands, Meats, and Cereals in New Zealand." Shortlands eccentricity man fe&ted itself in other ways than in advocating his curious railway project. It, appears that the man Ryder, known as "Modbury Bill,' 1 was instrumental in procuring Mr Shortland an introduction to the lady who afterwards became his -wife, it seems that some lime early in the year Shortland, who had seen Miss Dimes, and conceived an all'oclion for her, persuaded .Ryder to oomey a lcttor fiom him to the young lady. As a result of this communication the pai tics met, and after a little while Shortland was allowed to visit Oldstone as the accepted .suitor of Miss Dimes. How ever it originated, the courtship had gone on for about three monthb prior to the marriage, and the young people seemed to be very much attached to each other. MissDimes's friends had no objection to the match, but they had no idea that the wedding was coining ofl'&o soon, and they were considerably annoyed — especially the father — that it should have been c fleeted as it was, in a semi-clandestine manner. At the inquest, you are aware, all the exidence tended to show that the death of Mrs. Shetland was accidental. Suicide seemed to be out of the (|uestion, as for murdei — ■where could be the motive? Mr Shortland was miles away, en route for Now Zealand, moreover, he and his wite were on the best ef terms, ; in fact, still " Honeymooning.'' Tho local police at once instituted inquiries, with a view, if possible, to clear up the mystery surrounding Mrs Shortlands death. Neither the police nor deceased's friends were qnito satisfied with the result of the inqueft. Mi Dimes, bi other of the deceased, a professional gentleman of London, come down after the inquiry in order to carry on personal investigations on the ■'-pot, and the police also worked hard to find a clue. To make tho subsequent action intelligible, the nature ofMrShoitland's Brindisi letter should be given a little more fully. The letter was not lead in its entirety at the inquest, but it was impounded by the coroner, and it now turns out to be of the utmost importance, for it can be proved that tho writer did no post it at Bnndisi, and that he never lelt England ; in fact he was hiding in Modbui3 r from the time of his wife's death to the time of his arrest. The letter, which is undoubtedly in the prisoner's handwiiting, assiues his wife that he is on the way to New Zealand, "hurrying on at tho fastest rate," and promises that ho will endeavour to be " soon home again." The major part of the letter consists of a rather incoherent mixture of endearing expressions with reference to the business upon which the writer is supposed to be travelling. \Vm. Ryder, sen,, Mrs Ryder and their ' daughter, a girl about nineteen years of age, all admit that Shortland had been .staying in their house since April 10th, tho day, it will be remembered, on which ho paid hi.s last visit to his wife at Oldstone, but this docs not exactly accord with Mrs Dimes'.s .statement at the inquest, that letters w ere received from him dated from Ivybridge up to the 14th. All the Ryders, however, are very positive that Shortland remained in their cottage the whole of the time from the 10th of April to the day of his arrest, and upon this they rest their belief that "Mr Shortland couldn't have had anything to do with tho murder, if the poor dear thing was murdered at all. Mrs Ryder, a decentlooking body, seemed perfectly horrorstricken at the turn things had taken, and both the old lady and her davghtcr seemed to be willing to take the most solemn oaths as to their lodger's innocence. Young Ryder was arrested for being concerned in the murder, but released after a short examination, it being^ shown that he po&tod the "bogns" Brindisi letter without any idea of its significance. Shortland having been committed to prison, the next scene in the drama was the discovery of footsteps in the bed of the pond. A close examination of tho banks of the pond in which the body was found failed to establish any indications of a struggle. This examination, however, was confined to the banks, the idea being, that if foul play had occurred, the traces of violence would be found on the embankment close by where the body stood. No one seems to have thought of examining the bed of the pond around by tho edges, where the water is comparatively shallow. The other morning a man named Bond, brother of a farmer occupying an estate near Oldstone, prompted by curiosity, and probably having somo theory of his own on the point, went down to tho pond and spent a good deal ot time looking abont there. Eventually he noticed some dis-tinctly-marked footprints, those of a man, at a distance of about two feet from the water's edge. These footprints were ob served near the oak tree on the right bank, at a point several yards from the spot where the body of Mrs Shortland was discovered. These indications that a man had apparently been in the pond naturally gavo rise to much comment in tho neighbourhood. Tho fact was communicated to the police immediately on their arrival at

Olclstone yesterday ; and Superintendent Dore, accompanied by his assistant, at once proceeded to the pond and saw for themselves what Mr Bond had observed. Ihey seem to have satisfied themselves that these indentations in the mud and gravel bed were actually the footprints of a man. It would, of course, be premature to say that the police have as yet formed a distinct theory upon these materials, but it is be lieved that they are likely to follow up the clue thus obtained by a more systematic and complete aearch of the pond and its neighbourhood than has yet been made. Possibly the pond will have to be drained bofore the inquiry is completed. The footprints occur in a little shallow bay on the side of the pond near the oak tree already mentioned, the gnarled branchss oj which overhang the water and form a striking feature in the scene as viewed from the walled path. The theory popularly entertained in tho locality is a plausible one. The appearances presented by the body when found are stated by MiDimes to be declared by competent judges consistent with the administration of chloroform before immersion. When the body was taken out of the water a white substance —at first supposed to be a bit of paper— was seen floating just above the spot where tho deceased's head had been. This proved t© be froth such as generally exuded from the mouth of a drowning person. This would seem to dispoco of any idea that Mrs Shortland was dead before her body reached the water, but is not irreconcilable with the notion that she may have- been chloroformed. Granting that tho deceased was chloroformed, and her body then thrown into the water, the presumption is that the footprints at oho edge of tho pond were those of a man who had suddenly rushed away from the scene, and making straight for tho laurel belt on his way to the fields outside, accidentally stepped into tho water, Considerable doubt is entertained as to whether a postmortem, however carefully conducted, can possibly establish tho chloroform theory. A good deal of surprise has been expressed that a lady of such prepossessing appearance and good social position as Miss Laura Dimes should havo given her hand in marriage to such an eccentric and impocunious person as Shortland : but it is to be remarked that the Dimes family have always lived in strict seclusion. Very few visitors wero received, and the young ladies of the family never had much opportunity for enjoying social intercourse.