The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-13 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY MURDER.

On Saturday night last, Mrs. Sarah Maw, aged 45
years, residing with her husband at No. 4, Eden-place,
Old Kent-road, left her home for the purpose of pur•
chasing a blacklead brush, and not returning up to 12
o'clock her husband, who is at present but a labouring
man, but who had formerly been in good circumstances,
went in search of her ; but, though he walked about
during the whole of the night, and made inquiries of
every policeman he met, he could not obtain the slight-
est intelligence about her. On Sunday morning, about
7 o'clock, a labouring man, named John Biddle, resid-
ing at Perry-vale, Forest-hill, accompanied by his son,
in crossing a large field on what is known as 'iTagg's
Farm," was attracted by the violent barking of his dog,
and, en going to the spot where the animal stood, the
shocking spectacle of the body of a woman placed on her
back, with her clothes turned over her head and part of
her person and legs exposed, was presented to his
view. The body lay in a deep furrow or watercourse,
and, en examining it, Biddle found it perfectly cold and
lifeless, with marks of severe violence on the counte-
nance, one of the tkighs much scratched, and all the ap-
pearances indicating that she had been both abusedsand
murdered. Biddle and his son went in quest of assist-
ance, and meeting Police constable Jan Arthur, 981‘
P, they informed him of the discovery they had made,
and Arthur, having procured the assistance of other
constables, a stretcher was brought, and the body was
removed to Camberwell Workhouse. There it was care-
fully examined by the parish, surgeon, and it was the
decided opinion of that gentleman that death had been
produced by violence. In the meantime information
•was forwarded Lock's-fields pence station, and M-.
Lund, the superintendent of the P Division, accompa-
nied by Sergeant Quinnear, proceeded to Camberwell
Workhouse, and subsequently set about making active
inquiries respecting the deceased. Sergeant B 2
▪P, was also enga;ed in the inquiry, and, from what
all coul I learn, it appears that about one o'clock on
Sunday morning the deceased was seen by Police-
constable • Charles Sparrow, 90 P, in the Queen's-
' road, Peckham, in company with a respectably-dressed
man, and both were then proceeding towards New-cross
gate. This is the last time she was seen alive; Quinnear
also learnt that, on hearing of the discovery, two gen-
tlemen, one a Mr. Gosling, and the other Mr. Baker,
had traced the footsteps of a single person, and that
evidently a man from a bridge on the Crystal Palace
line of Railway, and not far from the Dartmouth Arms,
public-house, to where the body lay, and traces of blood
on the snow were then quite visible, but the traffic
through has obliterated all trace of the footsteps as well
as the blood. The description given by the husband to
the police of the deceased left no doubt on the minds of
the constables that she was the same person, and soon
after the body was removed to the workhouse the hus•
band was sent for. On seeing the body the poor man at
once recognised it as that of his wife. He also informed
the officers that the deceased bad for some time
past complained of her head, and appeared to
suffer much from anxiety from their altered circumstances,
and more particularly since an execution had been levied
on their goods ; but stili he could not think that she
meditated suicide. He further said, that before leaving
home on Saturday night he gave her ls. to purchase the
blacklead brush with, and she might at the time have
had 2s. or 3s. of her own, but he should think no more.
He did not, he said, observe anything more than ordinary
about her on the Saturday evening, nor had anything
taken place between them to disturb her mind ; nor did
he know any friend or acquaintance of hers who could
be in her company at such an hour as that described by
the constable 96 P.

Sergeant Quinnear mentioned one singular fact con-
nected with the dreadful affair—that at the time the body
was found it was stripped of both shoes and stockings.
Yet there was lying on the bank by its side a drawn
velvet bonnet, belonging to the deceased, not in the least
degree soiled or injured, and this circumstance confirms
that officer in his suspicions that the body must have
been carried to where it had been found, for, had the de-
ceased herself scrambled a distance of three miles and
upwards, which she must have done through hedge and
ditch, her bonnet must have been destroyed or torn to
pieces. His impression is that the violence, which re-
sulted in her death, must have been inflicted at the rail-
way-bridge, and that the body had been carried by the
person whose footsteps had bean noticed by Mr Gosling
from there to where it had been found. Had it not
been for the accidental circumstance of Biddle crossing
the field and having a deg with hint, the body might
have lain for many days where it has been found, as it is
a secluded spot, and the body itstlf could not have been
seen from any distance.

THE NEW ARCHDEACON OF LEWES.—At thy; morning
service in Chichester Cathedral, on Thursday, the Rev.
W. B. Otter, M.A., was installed as Archdeacon of
Lewes, in the place of Archdeacon Hare, recently de-
ceased.

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