TORQUAY. An Elderly Maiden Lady Cut To Pieces. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 4

TORQUAY. An Elderly Maiden Lady Cut To Pieces. (FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

A crime of apeculiarly atrooious character i has startled the autumnal repose of one of the : prettiest of our English sea-odast towns. Torquay is well known both for its picturesque site and surroundings and for the mildness of its climate during the winter months ; and Bablicombo, which has jusij been the scene of a terrible tragedy, is a charming marine suburb of this fashionable holiday haunt. It is fprtunately long since so frightful a crime has been reported. Moreover, as if to addto the horrible circumstances of the deed, there is no certainty whatever either as to who the assassin wasj or what possible motive he could have had* All, except the faot of the murder having been committed, is buried at present under a veil of doubt and mystery, which everybody will hope may be speedily lifted by the efforts of the police to bring the guilt of the criminal home to him. In an able leading article 'on this a>vful tragedy, the "Daily Telegraph " says s — . The evidence given at the inquest opened yesterday, suggests that two crimes were committed, both fey the Bam#hand, murder and afterwards incendiarism, the latter, probably, with a view to cbnceal all tracer of the assassination. Miss Keyse, the victim, was ; an' elderly lady, some sixty* .eight years of age, residing by herself, with four . servants, in a solitary and pic-turesquely-situated marine villa, called "The Glen," As this house was surrounded by extensive grounds, stretching down to the sea, the possibility of succour arriving in case the inhabitants of the house needed help or were overcome by a band of midnight robbers was rendered somewhat remote. Anybody, however, would have thought that Miss Keyse needed little protection, her blameless and beneficent life of private usefulness exposing her to no enmities, while the fact that a man-servant, a young man named John Lee, as well as a Housekeeper and two other servants, lived under the same roof, seemed almost to preclude all chanco of injury or peril. Nevertheless, such has not proved to be the case. This hapless lady, who, it is said, was formerly a momber of the Queen's household, living in a house once visited by the late Prince Consort and by the Prince of Wales, and surrounded by all the resources of civilisation, was discovered brutally murdered in her own dining-room in the small hours of Saturday morning, while her abodo had been set in flames in two distinct places, and the servants were all apparently sleeping upstairs unconscious of the fate which had befallen their mistress. Miss Keyse was in the habit of sitting up late, and on Friday night she is said to j have been' writing up her diary in her drawing-room until past midnight. Thej servants had retired to bed somewhat! earlier. Some time between twelve o clock and three or four in the morning she must have put aside her book with the intention of going upstairs to her room. She knew that she was the only person awake in the whole house, and that its situation was a lonely one ; but apparently she had no reason in the world to suppose that any peril \ could possibly be lurking in the pasvsages and on the stairs by which access would be gained to the story above. Yet there undoubtedly w as feomebody lying in wait for the chances of robbery, and in all proba - bility the mistress of the house was attacked at the bottom of the flight of stairs leading up to her own bedroom. At the precise spot those who were the first to penetrate into the residence later on found a pool of blood. The unfortunate lady's lifeless body was discovered lying in the diningroom, with the skull battered in, and, moreover, with the throat very deeply severed. It was obviously impossible that the case could be one of suicide. Murder it is, beyond a shadow of doubt, and murder most foul and most unnatural. Attacked from behind, and struck by a savage blow, the victim could offer no resistance whatever to her assailant. Betwoon the hours of twelve and three this fearful tragedy most likely was enacted, at a time when deep auiet would prevail both inside and outside "The Glen," and when no human beings save the assassin and the mistress of the mansion were stirring in the downstair rooms and passages. But how did th«j murderer effect an entrance into the bolted and barred residence, and what was the object of his crime ? These questions immediately present themselves, and unfortunately, they do not appear to be capable as yet of any decisive answer. One individual, however, has already been taken into custody on suspicion of having perpetrated the crime, and that man, dreadful to relate, is the young and trusty servant, John Lee. This person, against whom there are at present only the vaguest suspicions, was accustomed to sleep in the bugler's pantry. When, about three or four o'clock, the smell of fire roused the cook from her slumbers, she rushed to rouso the housekeeper, and that porson went to Lee's pantry to awaken him. She found him apparently fast asleep. As far as has been revealed down to now, there was nothing about his clothes or his room to connect him with the murder. No weapon has been discovered in any part of the promises which ia supposed to havo inflictod either of the injuries upon the doceased lady. The man -servant's arm, when he went off to '> fetch assistance, }vas undoubtedly covered with blood, b.ut that circumstance sdems to bp "satisfactprily accounted for by *the fact' of his having cut himself in putting his hand 'through a pane of glass to let out the smoke. However, all these matters will be further elucidated at the inquest, when it is. resumed, and at the magisterial inquiry into the reasons of Lee's arrest. It is enough, to say that what seems to have weighed most heavily against the accused ■ man is his questionable antecedents. If, as is alleged, he was a youth who had- been in a, gentleman's service, and robbed his employer of plate, and for that offence was sentenced to a term of aix months' imprisonment — of which there appears to be no question— then it seems extraordinary that Mies Keyse or anybody else should have consented to allow him to be, as he practically was, sole male guardian of o house tenanted by three women and containing much valuable property. The explanation that is given is to the effect that Lee, while still a boy, was known to the benevolent lady who lived at " The Glen," and that she took him into her service when released from gaol, on purpose to give him a chance of redeeming his character. Her friends, it is said, counselled her to beware of adopting this course. She, however, persisted in her kindly intention j and, if it should prove that the suspicions entertained of John Lee are correct, thon Miss Keyso has simply been the unfortunate victim of her own too great confidence and generosity. We need not say that in that case the crime acquires a much darker oharacter, as base ingratitude is added ' to its other detestable features. Still at prosont tho inquiry is only in its initial stage, and we would not

Fforia moment assume that the suspicion whioh attaches to Lee is even likely to prove wall founded. At the same time it is of the utmost importance that ladies living with no com* panions except ' female servants, and in lonely houses, should select butlers, or footmen, or gardeners, or any other male attendants who sleep indoors, with special* regard to their character and trustworthiness. This is a general maxim which may be laid down as absolutely correct, whether the subsequent investigations prove Miss Keyse's man-servant to be guilty or innocent. We must not, however, lose sight of the possibility of the murderer being a burglar who had broken into the house with the simple intention of robbing. If so, there must be some indication of how the man managed to gain an entrance ; for without such evidence the circumstantial proofs against some member of the household gather additional force. The hapless victim was, when discovered, attired only in n'ghtdress and stockings. It is thus probable that Miss Keyse, hearing a noise downstairs, may have ventured out of her room to see what the cause of the sound was. The bell-ropo in her room was broken, so possibly ncr first step was to try to rouse some of the servants. Failing in this, she may have boldly descended the stairs, and there disturbed the midnight robber in his work, and been murdered at once. It is impossible to understand what could have been the motive of the assassin if robbery were not intended. Nothing could have been gained by murdering an old lady in cold blood, unless in some way or other she had aroused the hatred of some person, and this seems out of the question. The indications are at present in favour of the theory that the asscissin, whoever he was, had planned to rob either the lady or her house, and that murder was not his primary object. Having effected his * purpose in this direction, the reason of the robbery not being actually carried out can easily be accounted for. We may readily understand that a man who merely intended to steal, and who, in horror at being discovered, added murder to his crime, would not have the heart to proceed with his original intention. On the contrary, it is quite evident that the perpetrator of this hideous crime was so terror-striken by what he had done, lor so haunted with the dread of detection, that he proceeded to attempt to burn the house down in order to conceal the evidences of his crime. He must have tried to ignite the premises in two distinct places, no uoubt calculating that tho whole house would soon be alight, and that the murdered corpse of the mistress of the place would, when found, be so charred as to obliterate all trace of her having perished by assassination. In this calculation he blundererd, as murderers are generally found to do, and there ought to be no greit difficulty either in discovering the author of tho atrocity or in bringing him with speed into the felon's dock.