SHOCKING MURDER IN LYTTELTON.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 420, 23 January 1875, Page 2

SHOCKING MURDER IN LYTTELTON.

LYTTELTpr^ksfth^wn'git^a^tate of grc&t excitement on Saturday afternoon^ bv a rumour that a double crime had bee£'-p&Prff e d there. At first the report was discredited, but on enquiry it was found to be true that a most barbarous murder had *been the victim -being' a young girl but thirteen years, of age. 5 The,facts as are at present ascertained, are. as follows — T,iie murdered girl is a Miss Isabella. Thompson, aged thirteen years, tho daughter of a shipwright employed on the tunnel i wharf. She left her homo in Dampier's Bay about a quarter to five on Saturday afternoon, to proceed to the new Borough school to procure tickets for the forthcoming school picnic at Eiccarton. Those she obtained, and left to return home shortly after five o'clock. About six o'clock, two boys, named J. Bailey and G. Simmonds, employed driving cows, saw in a paddock; near to- the ■ Bey. F. Pembei'd garden, a white pockethandkerchief. On going towards it, they saw in an opening leading into the garden, something that they thought at first was a drunken man, l.ut which afterwards they saw was a girl lyingf -dead: An alarni was immediately given, and the police on arriving found that murder had been committed. The- badjjfcresented a- pitiable , eight, the limbs from the waisjPwere exposed, the drawers were torn, and it was ftmd that the girl's | dress near the breast and th'Mpt had 1 been rudely torn away, showing that -a struggle had taken place. The throat wasTOit from ear.*to"ear,' evidently with a blunt knife, as two cuts on one side of the throat had been made. The right hand was covered with blood, and the hair was full of gorse-blossoms. The legs showed marks of illusage, one bruise having evidently been made by a boot. The cuts on the throat clearly show that it must have been held while the deed was being perpetrated. That such a villanous deed could be perpetrated in broad ...daylight without some one knowing something of the matter was thought to be incredible. Little by little, and link by link the child's goings were traced, and yesterday afternoon the police arrested in Christchurch a man named Alfred Osborne, who has lately been discharged, from gaol, and charged him with the crime. The excitement in Lyttelton was intense on Saturday, and hundreds of persons yesterday, visited the scene of the murder. The gap in the fence is large enough for two persons , to, sit in. It is supposed that the murderer lured his victim to the spot.. — Lyttelton Times.