The Express.
London, England, 1862-08-13 00:00:00

THE MURDER NEAR DURHAM.

Dr. Hudson, of Chester-le-Street, assisted by Dr.
Linton, of the same place, male a postmortem inaminatiou
of the body of the unfortunate old woman on Holiday.
They found that the injuries she bad sustained were much
I greater than were revealed by a superficial examination.
The wounds on the head were of the most deadly descrip-
Son ; and it was found that four of her ribs
had been broken, from which it is inferred that her
brutal assailant or assailants must have jumped upon her.
Other extensive injuries were exhibited upon various parts
of her person ; and, as previously stated, ber left arm was
broken above the elbow. It is scarcely Ile to conceive
a more brutal and horrible ease of ity than is pre-
muted by the body of the poor inoffensive old women. It
appears that she had of late years been very religious, and
the tea party at which we mentioned she had been present
on the Saturday evening was in connexion with a prayer
meeting of the denomination to which she belonged. In
the course of yesterday, Colonel White, chief countable of
the county, visited the spot He was attended bySuperinten-
dente Squire and Johnsoo, and other officers. They remained
there throughout the day, busily engaged in investigating
the case, and the whole of the witnesses were privately exa-
mined before Colonel White. The result, of course, was
not allowed to transpire; but a report found its way into
'circulation that the ease wore • very serious
aspect as regarded the two prisoners. The two
cottages, in one of which she resided, stand on
a gentle eminence, immediately overlooking the re-
sidence of her husband, and also the village of Nettles-
worth, which is situated about a couple of hundred yards
off, in the direction of the road leading to Chester-le-Street
A few yards from the cottage is a quarry ; and at the said
of the old woman's cottage is • stable,not at present, we
believe, used by any one. The cottage contained merely one
room, on the ground floor, with a loft above. This loft is
lighted by a small window of four panes—at least, there
have been four panes, but they bad at some time pee-
-1 viously been brakes, and their place had been supplied by
a couple of rough deals, to exclude the wind and wei,. The
appearance of this window at once dispels the notion that
any one could have entered the cottage thereby, the size of
the window frames being too small, and there is no appear-
ance of their having been interfered with. An exami-
nation of the window inside showed that some one had
made au attempt to give colour to such a notion, one of the
deals having been forced off. On the floor underneath the
window fragments of lime and rubbish had in course of
time eccumulatcd. It did not exhibit the slightest appear-
ance of having been disturbed, ea must have been the case had
anyone really entered the loft by the window. Further,
however, to favour the idea that some one had entered by that
way, the opening in the floor, looking into the room below,
had been interfered with. This opening had been closed
up with sacking to exclude draughts t one end of the sack-
ing had been pulled down sufficiently far to present
• hole large enough for • man to drop through on to the
floor below. The interior of the room was vezy scantily
furnished. The bed on which the old woman's remains
were laid stands with its foot opposite the window. It
was heartrending to look upon be aged features, cruelly
disfigured by the barbarity of her assailants. The bed-
clothes were the same as she bad used during life. They
were neat and clean. The bed was hung with white dimity
curtains. On the side near the fire, between which and
the bed foot the body was found lying, there was a long
patchy stain of blood upon the curtain, the appearance of
which was like what she might have made by seizing hold
of it while struggling with her murderer, her hand at the
time being stained with ber own blood. Near the head of
the bed, on the side near the fire, is a small chest of ma.
hozany drawers, the commits of which showed signs of
having been ransacked. On the opposite side of the bed was
the chest which is said to have contained her linen.
A small table stands beneath the window, and on it was
found the candlestick of the deceased, just where she bad
left it on retiring to zee:. On the wiodow-sill is • small
pile of books, and in one of them is written " Allll Halli-
day, born November 11th, 1779, aged 73 years. &ode-
mime, near Durham." This appears, therefore, to have
been written when she was 73 years of age ; at the time of
the murder, the date of her birth shows her to have been
in her 83rd year. From • nail in Qs wall her little stuff
spree was still suspended, just as she had taken it off oo
retuning home on Saturday, and near it were bung two
small bags, such as are commonly used in country planes to
contain odds and ends. The house of the suspected persons
is rather superior in its accommodation as compared with
that of the old woman. The room above was used by the
family, having a stair leading up into it. A bed stands
down-stairs, but the bedding has been removed, and there
le a quantity of it lying upon the floor. The ashes are
'trove over the floor, having apparently been carefully
searched by the police in the hops of finding anything &ree-
nacted with the murder. The bedclothes, we suppose, had
been removed with the same object—Newcastle Chronicle.

The inquest on Hrs. Halliday, says the Leeds Mercury,
was opened yesterday. The evidence given by the polies
officer and other witnesses was of a material character, and
very strongly inipliceted the man Coo and his wife, who
lived next door, and who are now in custody oa stupidest of
murdering the old woman.