The Sun. — 1856-01-29 (London, England)

THE SUPPOSED MURDER BY POISON.  THE SEARCH FOR THE BODY. During the whole of Saturday the search for the body of the man John Monaghan, said to have been poisoned by his son and two accomplices, and which is interred in the burial-ground of St. Wilfred's Roman Catholic Chapel, Hulme, was continued without success. Five excavators were employed at the work, and grave after grave was opened and its contents examined, but without the discovery of the coffin which contains the bed./ of Monaghan. Mr. Timperley, the undertaker, is peed. tire that there was a zinc plate oa the eo;; n, having upon it the name of the deceased and the date of his interment, but he has been present in the graveyard durint the excavations, and could identify the coffin, which km made himself, even if the plate should have been take* off or accidently separated from it. The coffin is sot a parish coffin. The men employed at the work did not cease their labours till dark on Saturday evening, and they had then been employed 24 days in the search. The want of success which has attended their labours up to the present moment has given some colour to a very improbable conjecture that the alleged prisoners removed the body from the grave after its interment. It is said that the system of burying in the common graves in St. Wilfrid's churchyard has been to open a grave of sufficient width to hold two or thrra coffins abreast, and the coffins were packed into it, at the sides as well as centre, the hole being kept unfit: d, with a covering of scaffold planks, until a sufficient atmber of bodies had been interred to fill it. The graveyard is surrounded by a wall eight feet high, but towards Clarendon-street there is a large hole through it,by which access could at all times be obtained, so that such an enterprise as the removal of the body would present very few difficulties ; but, ina much as there was no suspicion of poisoning entertained at the time of the old man's death, there seems little or no inducement to make such an attempt, and by the risk of discovery of the body after its removal, invite an accusation of murder, which apparently would not otherwise have been preferred. It may be a less unlikely conjecture that the coffin plate has been removed, in the hope thereby of destroying the identity of the remains of the deceased, but this chance appears to be guarded against by having the coffin maker on the spot, who could recognise it without the plate. The search will be continued till the body is found, or it is proved that it is not in the graveyard, and this (Monday) morning it is the intention of Mr. Bradlaugh, the prosecuting solicitor, to confer with Mr. Herford, the coroner, with the view to settiAg a body of excavators to work in the search. This wrmid have to be done by employing some contractor, wire has a number of such workmen in his employ, to dig tip the graveyard. As the precise spot pointed out by Mrs. King, the daughter of the deceased, and by Mr. Timperley, the undertaker, has been examined in vain, the excavations will have to become more general. They have been regarded with much anxiety by the relatives and friends of deceased persons who are interred in the burial-ground, and it is much to be lamented that there is no sufficient land-mark by which the grave can be recognised from its fellows, and the natural feelings of survivors spared the outrage which is offered to them, The place has been watched unceasingly by the p01i,,,18 in Mr. Superintendent Leary's division, since the °pox*, tions commenced, and we shall he glad if this day's arch should terminate them.—Manchester Guardian of MK," day.  The body of John Monaghan, who is snpposed to have been poisoned for the sake of recovering the amount for which his life had been insured, was discovered yeeterday afternoon in St. Wilfred's graveyard, after a search of five days, during which many other bodies bad bee* exhumed. The inquest was to be opened this morning, but as a post mortent exz.t..nination will have to be made, and a chyrnical analysis of tfre.contents of the stomach, the most material portion of the evidence will probabty not be ready for some days to come.