The Sun. — 1869-01-06 (London, England)

THE MURDER AT NORWICH.  Mr. Hitchman, chief constable of the Norwich police, and other members of the force, have been busily engaged in investigating the circumstances of the murder confessed at Lambeth Police-court, on Saturday, by a man named William Sheward. There seems no reason to doubt the accuracy of the confession made by the prisoner. The date assigned by Sheward as that on which he murdered his wife is June 15, 1851, and it appears that human remains were discovered in the neighbourhood of Norwich in June and July 1851. The circumstances excited great attention at the time, and every exertion was made to solve the mystery, but without result. The first discovery was made on Saturday, June 21, 1851—just six days after the date assigned by Sheward as that on which he committed the murder—when a young man found a hand in a road leading to Lakenbam, a suburb of Norwich. About 200 or 300 yards from the spot where the hand was discovered a foot was picked up. The discovery provoked so much horror and excitement that diligent further researches were made in the neighbourhood of Norwich, and pieces of flesh, bones, &c., were discovered at Hellesdon (another suburb of Norwich) and elsewhere on Sunday, June 22 ; Monday, June 23 ; Tuesday, June 24 ; Wednesday, Tune 25 ; and Thursday, June 26. The hand first found was clinched and much discoloured, and on the remains being collected the medical men consulted expressed their opinion that they were those of a young adult female. The remains were placed in spirits of wine (as stated by the prisoner), and were kept for some time at the Guildhall, Norwich. The search for further remains was continued after June 26,1851, and a piece of skin and muscle was discovered on Saturday, June 28, some intestines on Sunday, June 29, and a hard substance, supposed to be a thighbone, and part of a female breast on Monday, June 30. The last discovery appears to have been made on Wednesday, July 2, 1851, when some bones were found. A shirt, smeared with blood, was also picked up on Mousehold-heath, near Norwich. After the first week in July 1851, the interest felt in the matter gradually subsided, and the occurrence of another murder at Holkham, Norfolk, about the middle of July 1851 also served to distract the attention of the local public from the circumstances. A great many theories were ventilated in attempted explanation of the discoveries made, and further confusion was created by sensational misstatements, the metropolitan press not being so efficiently represented in Norwich in 1851 as it is at present. All this seems to have diverted attention from Sheward, who passed among his neighbours for a quiet, inoffensive man, and who explained the disappearance of his wife by stating that she had left home on a long journey. After July 1851, the matter appears to have excited scarcely any notice, and it had become almost forgotten, until a communication was received on Sunday by Mr. Hitchman from Inspector Davis, of the P division of the metropolitan police. Mr. Hitchman was not superintendent of the Norwich police in 1851, but several members of the force are still left who assisted in the investigation—now so strangely renewed—seventeen years and a half since ; and there will be no difficulty in adducing a mass of evidence in support of the narrative now given. In consequence of the communications which have passed between Mr. Hitchman and the metropolitan police, Sheward will be brought to Norwich for examination before the local magistrates in the course of the current week.