The Sun.
London, England, 1860-08-21 00:00:00

PRICE 413. STAMPED, sr.

DREADFUL MURDER IN TIIE
QUEEN'S PARK.

EDINBURGH, MONDAY.
There is every reason to believe—although the
circumstances are yet to a great extent enshrouded
in mystery—that a fearful and revolting murder
was perpetrated in the Queen's-park, on the person
of a young girl, at an early hour yesterday morn-
ing. The victim is named Elizabeth Slater, niece
of Mr. Andrew Slater, a slater by trade, who re-
sides at No. 1, St. John's-street ; and she is stated
by her uncle to have only completed her eleventh
year on the Ist inst., although from her appearance
she might have passed, it is said, for 14 or 15 years
of age.
About four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, while
Mr. Slater and his wife were out, and the deceased
was left in the house with the servant, it is stated
that she slipped out without the servant's know-
ledge, carrying with her a bundle of clothes. No
quarrel with her uncle, or any person in the family
had, it is said, taken place, and no motive can be
assigned for this proceeding. The servant soon
missed the girl, and suspected that site hail carried
off the clothes with her, and on her uncle's return
informed him of the circumstance. Mr. Slater came
up and lodged information at the police-office, and
at his request a criminal officer was sent along with
him to make a search for the girl. They went
through a great many houses where she had been
in the habit of visiting, and the search was kept up
by the family till three o'clock yesterday morning,
but without success. The girl, when she left the
house, wore a light printed cotton gown, with small
dark spots •, a brown cloth elcak with bene buttons,
red a black felt hat and black feather She had
tide hair, and, as- already alluded to, was tell and
maturely-formed for her age.
About four o'clock yesterday morning the body
of a young girl answering this description was dis-
covered by a man who was passing along the Duke's-
walk, Queen's-park, lying near the foot of the east-
ernmost of the strip of six trees on the south-west
margin of the parade-ground, Belville-park, and
opposite the west end of St. Margaret's Loch. The
body was dreadfully disfigured, the face bruised,
swollen, and bleeding, and the bridge of the nose
broken. The exact position of the body was about
a yard south of the tree, on the slope leading down
to the carriage road. She lay on her back, with
her head upwards towards the foot of the tree.
Blood was flowing from her ear, and a considerable
clot of gore was on the grass near her head. No
blood was seen on her hands, but her pocket ap-
peared to have been rifled or searched by a bloody
hand, as blood-stains were seen around it, and a
. quantity of lace found in the pocket was smeared
with blood, as if it had been pulled out by bloody
fingers and then thrust back again, A piece of the
lace was also picked up a few yards from the body.
A large sharp stone, found close to the spot, has
been brought to the police-office. The ground near
where she was lying was also tramped and indented,
as if a struggle had taken place on it ; and, on a
subsequent examination by the police, abrasions
were seen upon her wrist, as if she had been held
tightly and pulled about, and marks as of fingers
and nails were found on her throat. The bundle,
with part of the clothing which she had carried
from the house, was found lying beside her ; and it
would appear, from the statements of the servant,
that she must have put on part of them—white
petticoats, and some other things—and changed her
boots, after she had gone away. When she left the
house, or immediately before it, she wore leather
boots ; but when discovered in the park she had on
a pair of new cloth boots, also belonging to her ;
and one of the leather ones was found lying beside
her, but the other was missing, and has not since
been found. _ _ _

The man who had discovered the body hailed one
or two stragglers about the park, and in a very
short time a considerable group of people was
gathered around it. The policeman at Meadow-
bank, seeing the people collected there, also came
up, and immediately despatched information to the
police-office. In the course of the previous and sub-
sequent inquiries, it was ascertained that the girl
had been seen at different times during the previ-
ous evening and night in company with soldiers of
the 13th Light Dragoons, stationed at Piershill.
She was observed by two different persons about
nine o'clock in the High-street along with a
private ; and was afterwards seen in the Pleasance,
at 20 minutes past midnight, in company with two
soldiers of the same regiment, one of them believed
to be a corporal and the other a private. A man
who particularly observed her at this time, and
whose attention was struck by such a young girl as
she appeared to be going about with soldiers, states
that he overheard one of them tell her to " be off,"
that she replied, " What is the matter with you ?"
and that they then went along together, but had
not gone far when the soldier turned round and
struck her, or struck at her, with his switch. After-
wards, about two o'clock en the Sunday morning,
the unfortunate girl was seen by another man with
three soldiers in the Queen's-park, near the new
wooden gate on the south side of the Palace garden.
One of the soldiers was striking her at that time
with his cane on the back, and the girl was crying.
The man was passing along towards the back of the
palace, when she came after him and inquired the
way to Musselburgh. He directed her to go through
Croft-an-Righ Wynd out to the high road, and
as ho was going in that direction himself, she fol-
lowed him for a little distance. She turned back,
however, before coming to Croft-an-Righ, and
again joined the soldiers ; and on looking back the
man saw her take one of them by the arm, and go
with him in company with the soldiers by the sen-
tinels of the 78th on duty both in front and at the
south side of the Palace.
As soon as information reached the police-office
that the body had been found, officers were des-
patched to Piershill-barracks, for the purpose of
ascertaining what men were out on pass, or absent
without leave. It was found that a great number
of the men had got out on pass on the previous
night, and after an inspection and examination of
those who had come in late, it was found that
nothing could be elicited at that hour. Criminal
officers were in the meantime employed to discover
who the dead woman was, and on Mr. Slater being
informed of the occurrence, he came to the police-
office, and identified the body as that of his
niece. Mr. Little, assistant county-fiscal, was then
communicated with, and despatched a letter to the
commanding officer at Piershill, requesting that all
the soldiers should be kept in the barracks and
paraded at two o'clock, that they might be seen
by the witnesses, for the purpose of identifying
those with whom they hack seen the girl during the
previous night.. An answer was received stating
that the request would be complied with, but that
there were four absentees who could not be
found. Between one and two o'clock, Sheriff Pater-
son, Mr. Lothian, procurator-fiscal, and the police
proceeded to Piershill, along With eight witnesses,
but after a lengthened inspection none of the sol-
diers on parade were identified. A search was
meanwhile made for the four absentees, and be-
tween three and four o'clock two of them, named
John Tanner and John Quin, were discovered in
a disreputable house in Campbell's Close, Canon-
gate. They were both taken into custody, and
Tanner was identified by several of the witnesses
as having been seen by them along with the girl
at different times, and particularly in the Pleasance,
about half-past twelve on Sunday morning. He
was judicially examined before the Sheriff yester-
day evening, and has been lodged in prison, pro-
visionally, on the charge of murder. None of the
witnesses could speak positively to Quin, but he
is also detained for further examination. The
third man seen with the girl, stated by some of the
witnesses to have been a corporal, bad not been
found up to a late hour last night. A post-mortem
examination will be made to-day by Dr. Keiller and
Dr. R. Smith, the latter of whom is acting for Dr.
Littlejohn, who is absent on leave. The most
active exertions have been and are still being made
by the authorities for the elucidation of the mys-
tery in which this deplorable occurrence is still en
veloped.
During the whole of yesterday afternoon" and
evening the fatal spot was visited by great, numbers
in of people.
tg,

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