THE DRYBREAD MYSTERY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 142, 27 October 1870, Page 5

THE DRYBREAD MYSTERY.

STRANGE DISCLOSURE. We have been favoured by a correspondent with the following details of this strange occurrence, a telegram of which appeared in our last week's issue :—: — At the .Resident Magistrate's ! Court at Blacks on Thursday the 20th jnst., a married woman, named Kezaah Boulton, was brought up before .Vincent Pyke, Esq., on a charge of having disinterred the body of an infant, the child of Annie King at Drybread. Only three witnesses* were examined, when the case was adjourned for the production of further evidence. The prisoner was defended by Mr. Brough. Two females deposed that they' were married women living with other men than their husbands. From their statements it appeared that the woman Boulton had produced to her husband and one of the witnesses, a dead child, of which she said she had suddenly given birth. Her husband had buried the body, but at the request of the second witness, the child was disinterred and again brought into the house, and Dr. Niven was sent for ? apparently against the prisoner's wish. On examining the prisoner Dr. Niven had cause to doubt whether she had been confined at all, and, in fact, felt certain that she had not. He then asked to see the child, and then discovered that it had been

previously dissected, and had been long dead. Thus the matter now stands. It is believed to be the child of Annie King, which was the subject of a coroner's inquest some two month's since, and this .suspicion is confirmed by the fact that, on searching the grave where Annie King's child was buried, the coffin was found to be empty. Other evidence will be forthcoming on Friday, when the adjourned examination will be continued at Clyde. On the following day, Friday, Mr. Vincent Pyke, as coroner, held an inquest on the body of Annie King, or Woodward (for the latter appears to be her true name), at Drybread, when it was disclosed that this woman who is the leal mother of the child, died suddenly in her bed — no one being present at the time — between the hours of 8 and 10 o'clock on Tuesday night. The appearance presented by the dead woman was something horrible the body being quite black and in parts gangreened. Dr. Niven was several hours making a post mortem examinaton of the body, and on giving his evidence he declared himself quite unable to state positively the cause of death ; some of the intestines and their contents have been sealed up for transmission to Wellington for analysis. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that there was no evidence as to the cause of death.

At present it would be imprudent to say more on this subject. A fuller report will appear on the conclusion of the case.