MURDER OF A MOTHER.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2179, 24 March 1891, Page 3

MURDER OF A MOTHER.

Adelaide, March 3. One of the most terrible tragedies ever chronicled in the North occurred in the little Government settlement of Gumbowie, on Saturday. A man named Watson, an old Q-overnment employe, lost his wife about two years ago, after she had given birth to a child. There being no local doctor, she came to Terowi Hospital for treat- ■ ment, but Dr Hill was unable to do her any good, and she died from tetanus about fifteen months ago Watson then married a Miss Abhott, of Adelaide. About the beginning of last November a child was born, making a family of five children, including the first wife's. On Saturday evening after tea Watson assisted his wife to put the four elder children in bed in one of the front rooms of his cottage. This done, he left the house, being absent about ten minutes. When he returned he heard a gurgling sound in the room, and found his wife on the floor } on her backi;with her throat cut, all the arteries being severed, while one gash extended to the backbone. Life was quiet extinct, her head being almost severed from the body. He threw a cloth over the wound to hide the ghastly sight, and on turning round he noticed that the child lying in the cot was looking very pallid. An examination disclosed that its throat had been cut in the same terrible manner as the mother's, the bedclothes being saturated with blood. On the floor he found a carving knife, lOin long, having a bone handle, the whole being thickly besmeared with blood. The walls and furniture were also bespattered with blood, while from the left hand of the wife, at the junction of her thumb and first finger, blood had streamed up her arm showing that she had held the knife in her left hand while committing the fatal deed. Since the birth of her child Mrs Watson has suffered from puerperal insanity. She had been to Adelaide for medical treatment, and came to Dr. Hill, of Terowie, about a fortnight since, when he ordered her to be taken at once to the asylum. From evidence left behind by Mrs Watson, it is already shown that she had contemplated the murder for several months,