FUNERAL NOTICE. THE SEVERED HEAD.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2148, 10 January 1891, Page 2

FUNERAL NOTICE.

THE SEVERED HEAD.

Some years ago Christchurch earned some notoriety with regard to the severed-hand mystery, and now it has a mystery of a severed head. On Tuesday evening last two little girls were gathering fruit in the section adjoining an unoccupied house in Gloucester street, Christchurch, when they found a child’s head. The girls told their mother, who immediately gave information to the police, and inspector Pender, accompanied by Detective O’Connor, proceeded to the place indicated, but in the meantime the head bad been removed, and, after seaching all round for some time, it was regarded as a hoax. The search was continued, however, next day by Detective O’Connor, who at last succeeded iu finding it hidden away under some bushes, having apparently been removed by either a dog or a cat. The head was pronounced to be that of an infant under one week old, and had been severed close to the ears. Down the right side of the face, extending from the top of the forehead to the chin, is a deep gash, evidently made by a tomahawk or similar instrument. Over the left temple is a depression about an inch in diameter, which appears to have been caused by a blow from the back of the instrument. If that of a newly born infant, the head is large, and probably a boy’s: The hair is fairly thick, about half an inch in length, and dark-brown in color. The rope was used.no doubt to strangle the child before decapitation took place. Near to where the head was found a piece of a clothes-line and a knitted shawl were discovered, and since then it has transpired that people in tbe neighborhood found in their garden articles of baby apparel. This consisted of flannel, swaddling clothes, a shirt, a feeding-bottle, and a paper bag soaked with blood. The woman who found these washed them, as she attached no importance to tbe find until the news of the discovery appeared in the papers. The whole affair is very mysterious, as there was not the slightest attempt made at concealing anything.