Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1874-01-01 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

APPREHENSIO V; OF WILLIA.M JONES.—  -THE INQUEST. --On Friday, an inquest was held in the Magnett's Arms, Carlin How, near Brotton, in Cleveland, before Mr A. Buchanan, coroner for the East Langburgh Division of Yorkshire, and a common jury, on view of the body of a woma,u, name unknown, who Is supposed to have beea murdered on Christmas Eve. Toe whole o: the affair is wrapped in mystery, but from what his transpired it appears that the woman was a tramp well known lathe district, and was of dissipated habits. She had been accustomed to boast that she was well-to-do, and she had been heard to say that her husband lived at Hull and allowed her sufficient to live upon as long as she kept away from him. Oa Christmas Eve she was going round the villages carolling, aril being well known—though no one knew her name—she is supposed to have collected a fair share of money. Some say she had over £lO in her pocket. Oa X nas morning, a man named Womeraley was passing along the road from Brottou to Carlin How, when he found a jacket hanging on a gate, and on looking into the field he saw marks of blood.. He cons. muuicated this to the police, and they made a search. In the field they found a little box such 85 the woman was known to carry, with a doll, an orange, a bonnet, a handkerchief, alit some tobacco. A large quantity of blood lay on the grass, and there were marks of much struggling. Following the footmarks, the police arrived at the mouth of a pit belonging to the Lofthouse Ironstone Company, some hundred yards off. Here were traces of blood, and the cage was bespattered with blood and brains. On going down the shaft, the police found the body at a depth of seventy feet. It is supposed that two men had found the woman going along the road intoxicated, and had taken her into the fidd for the purpose of violation; but on her .resisting their efforts they had illtreated her, mid finally conveye 1 her to the pit bank and thrown her in. Only sufficient evidence was taken by the coroner to warrant him in signing the usual document fin interuient end the depositions of the pers Ms who found the body, ant the inquest was adjourned till next Friday morning. On Friday, P.C. Tiplady and P.C. &trip...sou apprehended'aitsan named William Jones, a miner, living in Skinnergrove, on suspicion of having a ;hare in the outrage, and he will be confined till the magistrates have heard the case; but the police have as yet no evidence to connect him or any one else with the affair. IL denies having been from liomq on the night in question. When found at the bottom sot 181, the IY9lnltert neck AAA were broken, one tooth was knocked out, and both her legs Vere smashed by the fall. Her face was all marked with blood. Another aceAtut states the victim is a woman about 45 years of age, unmarried, but with a family, a native of Ruuswick Bay, near Whitby, who during the past few weeks has become well known in all the villages in Cleveland, by her •g‘ nlegssf rtohren masterace toof thpelahcieoussei,n,Fizpingc. the familiar nappears she was at Carlin How on Christmas Eve in co:ninny with several ironstone miners, about twelve o'clock at night, and screams were heard shortly after this tune by some of the inhabitants of the place, but as screaming and yelling are pretty common at Christmas time, these were not considered as at all indicative of foul play. Nothing more was heard or known until Christmas morning, when a ccuple of workmen employed by the Lofthouse Ironstone Company went to their work, and at the bottom of a newly-sunken shaft or pit near Carlin How they discovered the ghastly remains of the woman horribly mutilated. The scene of the murder was easily fouu I by the patches of blood and gore which besmeared all the road from the pit to the place where the woman was last seen alive in the company of the miners alluded to. From examination of the corpse by the doctor, and of the ground where the murder was doubtless committed, it is conjectured that the perpetrators of the deed had ravished the woman, afterwards robbed her, then deprived her of life in an unusually vit. lainous manner, and dragged the body to the pit and pitched it to the bottom.  I