Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-09-10
AN AWFUL CRIME.
TIE FATE OF ANN PRIICHARD, OF BIRMING-
Ham, REVEALED AT LAST.
She Went 10 Nee! Her False Lover, as She Sup
posed to Marry Him, but Instead, she and
Fer Baby Were Mardeged-Ihs
Police Find the Murderer.

LoSpoN, September 9.-On August
last horrible discovery was mace near
the railway station at AlthOrpe' IN tue
county OF Northampton. The heaoleSs
and armlesS body Of a woman was
found in a sack secreted in ditch oy
the side Of the main road from MOTT
hampton to Rugby. Attracted oy Inc
smell some laoorerS found the oag COW
cred by the rank vegetation about IL;
The feet had been tied t0gether anu
then messed backwards, and the oOoy
was thrown forward so as TO occupy
the smallest possible space.
onantitv of lime had been thrown
into the bag. The body was wrapp-
"a In a coarse canvass, which
in tnrn was placed in an old sack.
accommodation had so far proceeded
that il was impossible even 10 guess at
the cause OF death. The head and arms
had been cut of by person possessing
some anatomical knowledge. Dr. Gull
yerhOuse, who examined the remains,
concluded that they had belonged to a
fpll grown woman OF slight build about
five feet FIVE inches in hight. The
cIotbinp indicated that she had not be-
Ionged 10 the poorer class. The linen
was fine and we'll made. The road
where the body was found, about a
quarter mile from Althorpe station, is
very secluded and entirely screened
from observation, aud il was suggested
that the body had been brought 10 Al
thorpe by train or otherwise and depOs-
ted where il was found. IL was thought
hat the remains had been there for at
east a month.
The body, as before stated, was
clothed, and it was part OF the chemise
that led &c the identification Of the
victim as Ann Prltchard, OF Birming-
ham, whose friends had not heard OF
her since March, when she left Biz
mingham, telling them that she was
going 10 Liverpool 10 marry man
named Anderson, an engineer. The
police traced the girl to Northampton,
where il was learned she had held
immoral relations with man known
as Rae Anderson, and that she had
given birth TO child in June. The
police searched a long time for
Anderson but could not find him. They
finally concluded that Anderson was an
assumed name, and in this they were
right, for they soon learned that Rae
Anderson was none other than Andrew
McRae, the manager OF a warehouse In
Birmingham. He was at once arrested
charged with murder. A search was
made of his office and In the fireplace
were found the calcined bones OF what
had apparently been baby and the
arms of woman.
The most important evidence against
McRae was given by man who testi-
fed that a month ago the prisoner en-
plOyed him 10 remove from the ware
house a quantity OF lime. The move
ments OF the prisoner had been traced
By the detectives and they found that
at about the same time the murder Is
supposed to have been committed, Nc
Rae took a trip out Of Northampton
aud drove toward the spot where the
body was found covered with lime, and
the police theory is that the trip was TO
convey the body 20 where 10 was found.
Other evidence was advanced at the
INCEST pointing TO the belief that the
girl and her baby were murdered IN the
house occupied by the victim and her
paramOur in Northampton. McRae
then sawed off the girls head and arms
aud took them with the body Of the
baby to Birmingham, where he cremated
them. Being unable TO dispose Of the
trunk and lower limbs by means Of fire,
and being forced to get rid Of them Nc
Rae carried them out TO the ditch by
the roadside, after placing them in the
canvas with lime and dumped them
where ne thought the lime would eat up
the evidence of his crime.