EXTRAORDINARY MURDER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1249, 7 October 1884, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY MURDER.

Catherine Dooley has been found guilty, at Maryborough Assizes, of the murder of her cousin, John Dooley, and was sentenced by Mr Justice Lawson to be hanged ou August 12th. The murder was committed and discovered under extraordinary circumstances. The prisoner had been for some years in America, but returned last year and took a farm, which she worked herself. Her cousin, who lived near her, had his house accidentally burned down and went to live in the prisoner’s house, where he resided for some time. On the night of July 21st, 1883, the prisoner took a hatchet and murdered him while he was lying in bed. She then stripped the body, tied a rope round it, dragged it out of the house, and buried it in the farmyard in a trench which she dug herself. She spent the rest of the night in washing her bloodstained clothes. Next day she got_ some men to remove a hayrick, and put it over the spot where the body lay. The deceased, owing to his roving habits, was not missed for some time ; however, suspicion was excited. A hatchet was discovered with bloodstains on it ; some hair and blood were found on the washed clothes, and at the end of a fortnight the hayrick was taken away and the body recovered. The prisoner was tried for murder at the last assizes, but the prosecution failed on a technical point, and the case was held over until the present assizes.