The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-01 00:00:00

MURDER NEAR MERTHYR TYDVIL.

The village of renderyn, in a wild district of Breconshire,
about six miles from fit erthyr, was the scene of a most
atrocious murder on Saturday night, the victim being an
old widow sixty-four years of age, named Mary Jones:—
The deceased was the relict of John Jones, a farmer
who died two months ago. Shortly before his death
they gave up their farm, and went to live in a house
called Nantyderry, remote from the highway, the
nearest house being that of Mr. Jenkins, the landlord,
half a mile distant, which is hid from it by a rising
ground. There is no carriage or cart road to the house,
nothing but a beaten track from Mr. Jenkins's house
for cattle and sheep, across a track of mountain land
and thick brushwood. Adjoining the house is
a small range of cowsheds where the landlord, at
the time of the murder, kept a few cows. When
they retired to this wilderness to live the deceased and
her husband had a small sum of money, sufficient to
enable them to live comfortably without hard work,
but they still continued to do a little in the way of
rearing mountain ponies. After her husband's death
the deceased continued this occupation, and had from
thirty to forty ponies running over the common. Seeing
her loneliness—the house being the very furthest from
the highway—her friends repeatedly requested her to
leave it and go and live with them, but she declined to
do so.
On Saturday evening, about eight o'clock, the
daughters of Mr. Jenkins, two little girls, left the
deceased well, and she came out to the garden-gate to
see them across the fields. The next morning, about
half-past five, Mr. Jenkins went himself to the farm-
house at Nantyderry, as was his custom, to fodder the
beasts there. He noticed that the window of a lumber-
room was open, and he obtained no answer to his call.
lie took no notice of that at the moment, and, having
fed his beasts, returned to his own house. He then
mentioned that the old woman had not answered him
as usual, and fearing something might have happened,
his little girls were sent over to rouse her. The
girls went, and found the door had been forced. They
opened it, and perceiving immediately a powerful
offensive smell and something burning on the floor of
the house, they ran away and told their father. He
then went to the village of Penderyn for a person to
accompany him, and returned to the house of Nasty.
derry. There a horrible sight met their gaze. The
door and staple had been forced with some strong in-
strument, and on the floor, lying with her head close
to the fireplace, was the body of the woman. A hasty
examination showed that a moat diabolical murder
had been perpetrated. Her head was dreadfully
crushed, her legs were thrown apart, her clothes were
in disorder, and about her were the remains of a
fire, wood, coal, and hay, which had been placed so as
to burn the body. Her dress was chiefly woollen, and
thus no doubt resisted the fire. The effect was that al-
though a considerable portion of the surface of the
body was burnt almost to oarcoal, other parts were
merely scorched. The fire was still smouldering when
Mr. Jenkins got there, but be and the man who was
with him extinguished it and then hurried off for the
police. The intelligence rapidly spread, and crowds
of persons visited the spot. On removing the embers
of the fire from the head and shoulders, it was found
impossible to recognise the deceased from her features,
the head being so frightfully injured. The hands,
arms, and parts of the legs were burnt nearly
to cinders. The weapon used in the mur-
derous attack appears to have been a leg of an arm-
chair in the house. A chair was found with only
three legs, while the fourth was protruding from the
grate, and near the burnt end were numerous spots of
blood. This leg was a weapon more formidable than
a constable's truncheon; it was taken possession of by
the police. No clue has been found to the murderer.
The scene of the atrocity is so far removed from the
ordinary track of people, that a murder might be com-
mitted with 29 chances out of 100 against discovery.
Supposing there had been a struggle, of which there
was no evidence, and the unfortunate woman had
screamed, her voice could not have been heard at the
nearest house.
There was money in the house, but it was not
taken; and what is more strange still, no search ap-
pears to have been made for it. Not a thing had been put
out of order; the drawers, the beds, the boxes were all in
perfect order. The deceased kept her money under an
unused bed. There the locked box was found containing
her late husband's will and 42 sovereigns, and on the
dresser in the room where the murder was committed £2
in cash was found under a basin. The friends of de-
ceased, who knew, her means and what property she
had, did not miss a single article. There can be no
doubt, however, that the murderer had an object for
committing the crime, as he made every preparation for
the burning of the body and the weapon so as to extim
guish all traces of the crime.

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