DEAD IN THE BUSH. A Lamentable Case In Hawke's Bay.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 112, 25 July 1885, Page 5

DEAD IN THE BUSH. A Lamentable Case In Hawke's Bay.

The Napier paperß give particulars of a sad death in the bush at Norsewood, Hawke's Bay, of which we have had a brief i account by telegraph. A sad Btory was revealed at the inquest held yesterday by Mr Johnson, county coroner, at Norsewood, on the body of Mrs Teoline Jacobsen. The evidence given by her husband and child and two other witnesses, condensed, was as follows:— "Jacob Jacobsen resided with his family, consisting of his vtife and four children, ranging from eight years to twenty months, in the Ngamcko block, about three miles in the bush, eastward from Norsewood, the bush being very dense and difficult to penetrate. The husband worked at Kopua, and came home at the week's end. On Monday afternoon last ho left for his work at a little after 2 o'clock, having previously fetched his cattle oat ot the bush into the clearing, and he then told his wife not to go after them, as she had once been nearly lost, and he feared such an event might occur again. Soon after his departure, however, the mother told the children she would go as far as the edge of the bush clearing to look ior the cattle. She did not return, and at intervals during the night her little girl went outand eooeyed for her, but the raining cold night passed away, and still no signs of her. A neighbour named Brinkley lived only a quarter of amile away, but the poor child was unable to leave the baby to go and tell them that hor mother was missing. During Tuesday afternoon Hans Norby, while out; seeking: hia cattle, called at Jacobsen\a, and the child then told him her mother had been away t.wo nights, an evident error. Ho at once went to Brinkley's, and from thence to Norsewood, spreading tho sad news. In company with a number of others he searched the bush till lato that night, and again on Wednesday, some of the search parties keeping it up till 2 a.m. On Wednesday morning about 9.30, Albert Hanson and another young man was searching each side of a creek about 15 to 20 chains from the house, when he found traces of tho deceased near a large log, and about 2 chains further down he found the body lying on its face with the bands under her in a low swampy place, where there was about four inches of water. There were no marks of a struggle, nor had she tripped over anything. His mates answered his cooey, and one of them turned the body over, when it was sesn that she had a scratch on her face and her clothes were much torn, evidently the result of struggling among the " lawyers." She was then removed to Norsewood. The place was really only about four chains in a direct line from her own clearing, but the roughness of the country made a long detour necessary. It transpired that the deceased suffered occasionally from heart disease and cramp in the legs, and she was about four or five months in pregnancy. The family lived happily together, the husband being reputedly a careful, hardwoiking man. The news of Mrs Jacobsens absence reached Ormondvillo lato on Tuesday night, and Mr C. Leach walked all tho way to Kopua to inform her husband, arriving thero at midnight", and from thence the two men at once started for the scene, where more than 100 of the hardy Norsemen were out cooeying and thouting, as they covered and divided the bush among them. After a brief retirement, the jury, of which Mr M. Gribble was foreman, returned a verdict that Teoline Jacobsen wa3 found dead, her decease being caused by exposure to the cold while lost in tho bush, and ac- > celerated by her pregnant state."