The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-06-23 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

MUTILATION.—An; inquest was held on. Wednesday, touching the deafh of a female „child, about six days old, whose body was fotindl arly that morning, in .a- vacant • piece of ground in Fennell-street, Manchester: A boy of about 12 years of age, stated that at six o'clecl. ion Wednesday morning while he was examining a trap for catching birds which he had set the previous evening on a piece of ground in Fennell-street, he observed what he took to be two bundles of rags lying about a yard from the trap. He was certain that the bundles were not there on Tuesday at dinner time. He examined one of the bundles, which was carelessly mila.de and found the head of a child.' -He immedlAtely lodged information with. Police,sergeant William. Boyce. The . gate:. leading. piece of ground was shut atsii dclock on Tuesday evening, and no person could get in:without going over the gate. The bundles, be suspected, had been thrown Over the walls:h ObsOljNTed a number of clogniarks'on tl*.sfreet. side of. the gate. Police-sergeant Royce -stated that he took charge of the bundles. One ebn-taiked th4tiocly of a child, without the" head; legs,. and Aiiht arm. In the other bundle which ab.A.a foot from the bundle in which the .body AC.ras, was the head of the infant, 'wrapped in a clean cloth, which was slightly marked with: blood. 'From appearances the witness '.thotiglit tlfat the bundles had been thrown over • the Wall together. Mr. J. Chadwick Pearson, Eargeon, stated that he had made apost-mortein, exhinina, tion of the body. There were visible trades of decomposition; but he courd.not. tell. whether death had taken Place- more than tWO 'clays Or not; it might have been as many as five.days from appearances. • The child might have lived six days and might have survived two or three weeks. 'He observed a mark of pressure-as-if from the thumb upon the left side of -the-1 The head Must have beenseVerediffomtl-telody with a sharp-instrument' The ctifliad.been made between the second and third vertebrT, and was a little jagge in front, but otherwise the cut had been so clean that the head had beenctit off at one stroke. The right arm had been cut off in a similar manner, but the cartilage which . tips the shoulder-blade. where it joins with•the collar-bone had been cut through; and the collar-bone broken, as if with a wrench, thus detaching it entirely. The legs were cut off clean, so far as the soft parts were • • concerned, the right leg being cut off from the hip-joint, and the left lee; cut off by separating the :flesh all round the joints and cutting the ligament. Mr. Pearson 'said he could suggest .no reason for cutting up the body, except to enable the parties to put the body into a smaller compass. The skull and intestines wete all in a, healthy state, but showed that the child had been 'poorly fed. The body presented such appearances as showed there had .been a slight struggle on the part of the child, which was evidenced from the thumb mark on the chest. He could not say positively that the child had not died before it was • cut up ' • but he entertained no doubt butthat •it had been Wilfully murdered. The jury returned a verdict of Wilful murder against some person unknown." The police are.ende,aveuring to find out the perpetrator or perpetrators of the crime.