Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-08
The Crime Charged.

Inc crime Tor winch MIS- Elsie
Raymond stands indicted. the killing
of Matte Hackett the 1S-year-old
daughter of Mr.. and Mrs. Levi Hack
ett of Readfield. was committed just
at dusk on the evening of Aug. IL, 1905.
The young girl was strangled to death
by means of a cord passed around her
neck in a peculiar manner, while she
was in plain sight of her father 8
farmhouse at Kent's HILL
The cord with which she was strangled
was not at first discovered. but had I
been her life might have been saved. rs
il was, when the cord was cut life was
practically extinct.
Suspicion was at first directed 10
tramps, but after that theory was eX
ploded suspicion was directed to Mr.
Bert Raymond, who was alleged To have
told conflicting stories in regard to her
whereabouts on the night of the tragedF.
she was in q delicate condition at the
time and the suspicious were not well
founded enough. in the opinion of the Of
ficers working upon the case. to cause
them to make an arrest. The theory was
entertained that the act was one of
jealous frenzy, committee by person
who was suffering from puerperal in
sanity.
The matter was investigated by the
April grand jury in 1906 but no indict-
ment was found at that time, Subse-
quent Investigations were held. at the
close of which the local officers were as
much at sea as ever and the Boston de-
tectiyes who were sent for to investi-
gate the case declared in their reports
~ A. ..F4 h< i,ax.a 4 iere,ti ion
was even more of a mystery than at the
beginning
Occasionally some new rumor would lie
heard in the Matte Hackett case. =
young man was found, last fall, who
claimed to have seen a mysterious wo-
man in dark talking with Matte Hack
EFT a short time before the murder, bus
the woman he Identified as the one tnat
he saw that night is now travelling unde
an alias, is of different complexion from
Elsie Raymond and could not by any
possibility be mistaken for her, nor
could she possibly have had any con-
nection with the case.
Neither the sheriff nor the county at
torney are willing to state just what new
evidence was introduced before the pres
ent grand Jury that caused the presen-
tation Of true bill against Mrs. Ray
mond, but 1t is thought that some strong
new evidence must have been presented
to warrant the finding of an indictment.
Mrs. Raymond has always maintained
her absolute innocence of any connec-
ton with the crime and it is expected
that the case when it comes up tor trial
at the October term of court Will be a
hard-fought one. Owing to the fact that
nearly seven years have elapsed since
the committing of the crime before an
Indictment was found, and the air OF
mystery that has always surrounded the
case. from the time when the village
belle of Readfield was found breathing
her last by the roadside hard by hes
fathers home up to the time of the find
ing of the indictment by the grand jury
Saturday, the trial will be followed with
even greater interest than the celebrated
Cooper case, which occupied so long a
time for trial in the Kennebec county
supreme court and in which Mrs. Cooper
was finally acquitted of the charge OF
killing young Charley Northey.
Welcomes the Indictment.
The announcement that an Indictment
had been found against her, after the
first shock of arrest, was received witf