SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 462, 12 April 1890, Page 3

SHOCKING TRAGEDY.

GIRL OUTRAGED AND MURDERED Great excitement was caused in West Ham on February 14th by a shocking discovery made by the police. A fortnight previously a girl named Amelia Jeffs, aged fourteen, daughter of Charles Jeffs, an employee of the London and Tilbury Railway Company, mysteriously disappeared from her home. She was sent by her mother at half-past six on the evening of the 31st ult. to buy some fish at a shop within 400 yards of her home, and never returned. Canon Scott, of West Ham Parish Church, one of whose Sunday School scholars themissinggirl had been, interested himself in the matter, and not only waited upon the magistrate at the local Police Court, but also called at the Home Office to urge that thorough search might be made for the girl. The efforts of the police had hitherto been in vain, but latelv special orders were given to search’ every empty house in the neighbourhood of West Ham. The result of this step was that the girl’s body was found in an upper room of an unoccupied house in Portway, not more than two minutes’ walk from the dwelling of the unfortunate child’s father. The building is a new one, and has not yet been occupied, and the room in which the body of the girl was found lying upon the floor is in the third and top storey. Two hours after the discovery the body was removed to the mortuary, and the facts having become known, the utmost excitement prevailed in the locality. Aposl-mortem examination was at once conducted, and it was found that the girl had been outraged in the most brutal manner, and then strangled. Marks were found upon the neck, and a scarf was wound tightly around it. It is stated that for some weeks past stories have been current of little girls stopped in the streets of West Ham; and before the disappearance of Amelia Jeffs the tidy daughter cf a respectable resident was stopped by a strange gentleman and challenged to run a race up a dark street. Canon Scott bears the highest testimony to the character of the deceased, who, he states, was a child of no mean educational attainments, and of irreproachable conduct. Her father is a member of Canon Scott’s congregation, and an instrumentalist in Mr Boardman’s Mission Band.

The police subsequently received information which may possibly turn out to be of considerable value—anyhow, it is the only fact which has come to light in the nature of a clue. It appears that a stone sawyer informed a friend that about a fortnight previously, whilst passing by the house, he saw a man dragging a girl along towards the vacant ground at the rear. He took bub little notice of the circumstance, as he thought it was probably a father taking home an unwilling girl, as it was becoming dark. Detectives are carefully following up this matter, bub are naturally reticent. At the inquest on the body of deceased, Mr George Reynolds, of 13, Veletta Grove, I’laistow, said :—About half-past four on Friday morning last my wife was taken ill. I immediately set out to fetch the doctor at Leytonstone Road, West Ham, On my way I had to cross over the waste ground behind the block of houses in which the murdered girl was found. Whilst doing so I saw about forty yards in front of me a man with a big bundle on his back. The contents of the bundle were wrapped in a white sheet or cloth. Theweightseeraedtobevery great, as his back was half bent, and thebundle entirely enveloped his head. I should say the measurement of the bundle was about 4Jft long by 2£ft deep. The man came from the direction of Plaistow Road, but when he saw me he immediately made for some black fencing near the Liddington Road. My opinion is that the girl was carried to the house by night and put into the cupboard ; and I do not for a moment think she had been in the house a fortnight. This theory of the murder having been perpetrated outside No. 126 is thus far substantiated bv the above few facts. On the other hand’, the detectives still hold that the crime was committed in the house. It has been suggested to them, considering how the girl was cut about, that there ought to be some blood on the floor. To this they gave a denial, but say that there was some blood found on the girl’s clothing.