The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-12-06
DESPERATE INFANTICIDE

DESPERATE INFANTICIDE
A Woman Kills her Child Mt Packers
Hotel, aud afterwards Attempts her
Own LITe---PnriicuIHrsO of Ihe Case.
a very distressing occurrence came
to light last evening at Packers Hotel
in this city. a woman, who gives her
name as Minnie Nugent, arrived there
on Tuesday morning last on the Park
ersburg boat, and took lodgings. She
had with her a little girl about three
years old. There was nothing espe-
cially unusual about her appearance,
or that created the least suspicion as 10
the horrible mission on which she had
come. After she had been assigned a
room very little was seen OF her by the
inmates OF the house. She eat her
breakfast and also her dinner, having
the child with her at both meals. She
did not come down to supper, nor to
breakfast the next yesterday morn
ing. The lRndlady noticing her alb
senco sent up TO her room to see
II anything was wrong, and the cham
bermaid returned saying that the wo-
man was asleep. Dinner passed off
and still the woman did not come down.
Thinking such long fasting Il very
unusual occurrence the lHndlady went
up to the room II second time with her
Chambermnid and knocking at the door
the woman came and opened it. The
situation OF affairs was soon made
known. She pointed those Mt the
door to her little girl lying deud
in the bed, and ut once confessed
that she had murdered it on
the previous evening, since which
time she had been under the influence
ofopium, taken with the expectation of
killing herself Indeed the evidences
OF all she said were conclusive enough.
She had been vomiting and was Mt the
time In state of delirium from the eff
fects OF the drug. Her child was lying in
its blood-stRiued night clothes in the bed
from which she had Just arisen, with
three mortal dagger stabs through its
left breast and side. The sight was hor-
rible enough, and was made doubly 30
by the situation of the woman. Con-
fused ms she was with opium, she was
able to tell the history of the Circum-
stance. Previous to hearing it, how
ever, Mr.. Packer sent word TO Sheriff
Seybold, and to the Coroner, both of
whom came down. a jury was Mt
once empauneled to view the remains
and ascertain the facts of the murder
The Sheriff in the meanwhile took
charge OF the woman, and while await
ing the proceedings of the inquest had
long conversation with her. She re-
lated that her maiden name was Arbor;
that her parents lived at Williamstown
in Wood county, i'll this State, opposite
Marietta; that four years ago she had
married man named Nugent, against
their consent, running away with him,
and that two months after the birth OF
the little girl lac had deserted her,
ands had never returned; that her
mother. had refused to become recon-
ciled to her andhRd never forgiv en- her
marriage, but had made her home so
intolerable that she could not live there;
and had poisoned the minds of all her
other relatives against her to such an
extent that she had no place on earth
10 call n home, and was forced to go
out in the world and seek subsist-
ence. She had gone out and had found
that there WAS no place for her; moth
ing that she could do, and ste could not
bear to beg her way from place to
place. Rendered thus desperate bv
brOoding over her hopeless prospects,
and anxious not to leave her little
daughter to a fate worse, perhaps, than
death, she calmly resolved to end both
their lives, and after making up her
mind to this effect came To Wheeling To
carry out her resolve. She purchased
II Sluhll IukkeIt hlu ulSO SGNeFHl papers
OF powdered opium, and seems To have
made minute preparations for death, as
the documents published below fully
indicate. She said that for several
hours after arriving, she could not bear
TO kill her child, and yet she felt all the
time that she must do II. She waited
until it fell asleep, and then putting on
It's night clothes and placing it in bed
bent over 1t and kissed it several times
before planting the dagger in its heart,
as she finally did. The child, she said,
made no cry, but only moaned, and
with scarcely struggle bled to death.
She had stabbed il three times, twice in
tho left lung and once in the heart. She
says that before she took its life she
kuelt down and prayed over 1t, and,
also repeated her prayer after she had
inflicted the wounds, and that she had
kissed away its last expiring breath.
After the preparation OF this horrible
and unnatural deed, she took the opium
with which she proposed to take her
own life, and then lay down beside her
dead child to die. We think il likely,
from the character of the writing below,
TINT she must have written "A portion of
1t after the effects of the medicine began
TO tell upon her, and before she became
TOO drowsy to think and compose. The
woman herself was TOO confused i'm her
recollections to tell a perfectly straight
and reliable story, except rs to the
main facts, which we have no doubt are
correct, as she repeated them in various
ways and connections, From some
cause, either from an over dose of the
opium, or else from an insufficient
amount of it, she failed to accomplish
her intentions of suicide. She had
vOmited a great deal, and seemed to
have thrown up most of the poison.
Several powders, with directions in a
female hand write, were found among
havs of 10 I,
seem the woman's last wish appears to
have been that due publicity should be
given to the facts connected with her
own death, while she says nothing
whntever about her child. One of the
envelopes was addressed thus: ''Give
this to an editor Immediately" Her
personal appearance, Judging from a
daguerreOtype In u lOcket lefC on her
table. Is moi DrepOssessinH. bnt thosa