The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-01-15
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
SHOW THAT TENA DAVIS WAS MUIR
DERED BY DROWNING.

Evidence Given by Man Who Heard
the Unfortunate Girl Plead for Mercy
on the Lonely Bridge.
Boston, Jan. 13-Says the Herald: The
Herald is in a position to make public this
morning, after careful research, the all
important clew which led up to the arrest
of j. A. Trefethen as the betrayer and
murderer of Tena Davis, and the, appre-
hension of William H. Smith as in some
way concerned in the crime This impor-
tant piece of evidence has been zealously
guarded by the detectives and officers on
the case, for fear that it would be used
against them by the defendants in setting
up an alib before it could be supported
and used in court
Although the Somerville police have not
appeared conspicuously in the matter of
this startling crime yet the developments
show that the whole case came to their at
tention first Edward Fuller, who first dis
covered the body in the muddy creek off
the channel of the Mystic river, near the
draw of the Middlesex avenue bridge
called the attention of Drawtender Lahey
to the fact. 1t was the drawtender who
with his boat, recovered the remains. His
first thought was to notify Captain Perry
of the Somerville police, who had inter
ested himself in the case enough to go over
the ground Saturday with the Maiden and
Everett deputies. Chief Parkhurst imme-
diately notified the Medford, Maiden and
Everett officers that the body had been
found and also Medical Examiner Durell
to view the remains.
Following on the heels of the discovery
of the body came the important evidence
the same day. that the young woman had
not committed suicide, but had been
Murdered in Cold Blood
by being thrown into the Mystic river
Sunday afternoon resident of Somer-
vile, whose name is withheld that the law
may not be obstructed, came to the Som
erville poll &c station in state of excite
ment, and with much agitation related to
the chief of police the story of the un-
doubted murder as he himself witnessed
it on the night in question, Dec. % He |
also cleared up what has been a mystery |
a. the press-eGhe hour aU which the crime
vas committed.
He told the police that he was on the
mystic river near the draw in a boat the /
evening the dark deed was committed. 1t |
was o'clock. The tide, which on Dec. %
is high at 5:15 a. m. and p m.-the only
day in the year that it is so-was about |
half out, He was first attracted to the |
bridge by a cry for help. 1t was woman's /
plaintive voice he heard.
She Pleaded for Mercy
for the sake of God that her life might be |
spared. He heard a mans voice but in !
the darkness and drizzling rain he could |
not distinguish the faces, only the forms. !
Names were called, and The Herald's in
formant was given to understand that the |
witness heard the woman use the word |
Bert" by which familiar title Trefethen |
was usually addressed by Tena Davis.
The cries of the woman and the cOnver |
sation seemed to the witness to last even
longer, probably than they really did, and |
when the victim realized that her fate was
sealed, and that her lover intended to
drown her, she burst into shrieks which |
Ended with Splash
in the water of the channel below, fully |
thirty feet from the bridge rail. Soon all
was silent The girl had gone down, risen
again, foundered about, and then, by the
weight of her heavy winter clothing, sunk
ifeless to the bottom.
The autopsy of Medical Examiner Durell
showed that Tena Davis met death by |
drowning This is literally true, but that
she was thrown overheard by a man who
stood and watched her struggles until she
sunk beneath the muddy waters of the
Mystic there is now no doubt in the minds
IF the officers of the law