THE GRAHAMSTOWN MURDER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8991, 28 November 1907, Page 3

THE GRAHAMSTOWN MURDER.

A TERRIBLE STORY,

A cablegram from Capetown published yesterday morning stated-that Thomas Kerr, of Grahamstowji, had been re-arreßted jn connection :\s[ith the murder of the girl Ellen Pinnock.The Grahamstown correspondent .of the Gape Times gives the'following account of the tragedy :—On Tuesday; October Bth, Mrs Pinnock, wife of the toll-keeper at the toll on the road., Grahamstown, sent her jimughter Ellen, ten years of age, tothe tr.wn to buy some groceries. The road to the town is about a mile and a-half in length, a broad thoroughfare, flanked with gum and fir i trees. About a mile from the town, and half a mile from the house, the road crosses the railway line by a bridge, and just below this is situated the golf links, with a.caretaker's cottage, near which is a large dam, formed by the railway line embankment, On the Tuesday in question, Ellen Finnock went to Mr South's shop, and made her pur.hisep, consisting of a loaf of bread, some sugar and three tins of potted meat, and started for home. Just after passing St. Andrew's College,, and when a few hundred yards golf house, she was seen by two girls who knew her. She was never seen alive again. In the afternoon tha mother sent to Mr South to know whether her daughter had been to the shop, and found everything, right so far. Then the father began to search, and let his friends in the town know thai Ellen was missing. Evening came, night fell, ' and beyond the statements of the girls who saw her on the road, nothing as to her whereabouts could be,elicited. Friends at ■once suggested that the child might have gone to the dam to play, and fallen in. The dam known as Crad•ock road dam was dragged several times, but nobody was found. Suspicion began to-be expressed in some quarters against the caretaker of the golt links (Thomas Kerr), who occupies a small painted iron cottage between the dam and the main road. He was most active in assisting in search for the body, busying himself conspicuously in the boat. Mr Jabez South, the storekeeper •at whose shop Ellen Pinnock had bought the goods, took a deep interest in the mysterious disappearance of ] the girl. On Monday morning, , October 14th, Detective Reynolds' brought to Mr South an empty tin that had been picked out of the rubbish heap near the golf house. It had •contained potted meat, and South at once identified it as one of the tins that Ellen Pinnock had bought. None •of the other grocers in Grahamstown • are said to have had in stock that particular brand of potted meat. Mr South, who apparently has dabbled in the occult, sciences, called in the •assistance of a young man named Staples. He has on one or two former occasions put Staples under mesmeric influence. On this day he mesmerised Staples, and asked him if he could find Ellen Pinnock; if she was dead or alive; if the former, where her body lay? "She is dead—murdered," said the clairvoyant. "Her body lies under the floor a house." "13 it not in, the dam?" was asked. "She is under the floor of a house." "Cap you see the house?" "I can." Staples was awakened out of his trance, told what had occurred, and, in company with Mr Smith and some neighbours, including Mr G.. Brooks and Mr E. Winter, set out for the Cradock road. The clairvoyant turned away from the -railway bridge,, and • went towards the golf house. Again " stating that the body- was not in the dam, he laced towards the cottage, and said: "This is the house—her body is under there. " The cottage which, as stated before, is btiilt of wood and iron, stands on the slopes of a steep hill, and on the side where the ground falls away there is a cellar. It has been bricked up, and is closed by a trap door. The little party halted, and looked at the house "We have no warrant to search the place," some of them said. "Where is the caretaker?" He was in the boat with another man in the centre of the dam. "It's no use sticking at trifles," said one of the party, Hartwell by name, and so saying he forced open the trap-door, and wen i into the cellar. Under a .sack in the corner lay the body of the little girl. It should be mentioned that Staples—when in the hypnotic state— described the whole affair. said that he ' could see the girl walking along the road. A white man ca'led to her. She refused to come. The man ran after her, dragged her to the house, outraged and murdered her. Staples was now asked if he could recognise the man. He replied in the affirmative. "Can you see him?" "Yes, there he is, the second man in the boat over there." This was the caretaker, by name Thomas Kerr. Detective Reynolds was called, and at once summoned the boat to shore. As Kerr stepped off, the detective charged him with the murder of the girl, and arrested him. Accused denied his guilt. The other tins of potted meat which the girl bought at South's were found under the golf house. Kerr was tried, but the jury disagreed and he was discharged.