The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-06 00:00:00

THE MURDER AT NORWICH.

Mr. Hitchman, chief constable of the Norwich police,
and other members of the force, have been busily engaged
in investigating the circumstances of the murder confessed
at Lambeth Police-court, on Saturday, by a man named
William Sheward. There seems no reason to doubt
the accuracy of the confession made by the pri-
soner. The date assigned by Sheward as that on which
he murdered his wife is June 15, 1851, and it appears that
human remains were discovered in the neighbourhood of
Norwich in June and July 1851. The circumstances
excited great attention at the time, and every
exertion was made to solve the mystery, but without
result. The first discovery was made on Saturday, June 21,
1851—just six days after the date assigned by Sheward as
that on which he committed the murder—when a young
man found a hand in a road leading to Lakenbam, a
suburb of Norwich. About 200 or 300 yards from the spot
where the hand was discovered a foot was picked up. The
discovery provoked so much horror and excitement that
diligent further researches were made in the neighbour-
hood of Norwich, and pieces of flesh, bones, &c., were dis-
covered at Hellesdon (another suburb of Norwich) and
elsewhere on Sunday, June 22 ; Monday, June 23 ; Tues-
day, June 24 ; Wednesday, Tune 25 ; and Thursday, June
26. The hand first found was clinched and much dis-
coloured, and on the remains being collected the medical
men consulted expressed their opinion that they were
those of a young adult female. The remains were placed
in spirits of wine (as stated by the prisoner), and were
kept for some time at the Guildhall, Norwich. The search
for further remains was continued after June 26,1851, and
a piece of skin and muscle was discovered on Saturday,
June 28, some intestines on Sunday, June 29, and a hard
substance, supposed to be a thighbone, and part of a female
breast on Monday, June 30. The last discovery appears to
have been made on Wednesday, July 2, 1851, when some
bones were found. A shirt, smeared with blood, was also
picked up on Mousehold-heath, near Norwich. After the
first week in July 1851, the interest felt in the matter
gradually subsided, and the occurrence of another murder
at Holkham, Norfolk, about the middle of July 1851 also
served to distract the attention of the local public from
the circumstances. A great many theories were ventilated
in attempted explanation of the discoveries made, and
further confusion was created by sensational misstate-
ments, the metropolitan press not being so efficiently repre-
sented in Norwich in 1851 as it is at present. All this
seems to have diverted attention from Sheward, who
passed among his neighbours for a quiet, inoffensive man,
and who explained the disappearance of his wife by stating
that she had left home on a long journey. After July
1851, the matter appears to have excited scarcely any
notice, and it had become almost forgotten, until a com-
munication was received on Sunday by Mr. Hitchman from
Inspector Davis, of the P division of the metropolitan
police. Mr. Hitchman was not superintendent of the Norwich
police in 1851, but several members of the force are still
left who assisted in the investigation—now so strangely
renewed—seventeen years and a half since ; and there will
be no difficulty in adducing a mass of evidence in support
of the narrative now given. In consequence of the com-
munications which have passed between Mr. Hitchman
and the metropolitan police, Sheward will be brought to
Norwich for examination before the local magistrates in
the course of the current week.