The Warwickshire Herald. — 1887-12-08 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN LONDON.  The officers of the Crhainal Investigation Department of the Metropolia are busily engaged in endeavouring to trace out the particulars of the murder of a male child that has taken place at Kentish Town. It appears that the other morning a dog kept at the rear of some houses situated at Montpelier-road, Kentish Town, was heard barking very loudly. The inhabitants thinking that it was only barking at some boys that had gone into a garden belonging to the school-house in Leighton-grove took no notice of it. Later in the day a person went into the grounds to look at the school house, which is now empty, and was horrified to see lying inside the gateway the trunk of the body of a child. Over one of the garden walls adjoining other portions ot the body were found. Those, with the trunk, a police-constable placed together, and took to the police-station, where the divisional surgeon examined them. He found the body was that of a fully-devloped newly-born male child. From appearances, it was evident that the death of the deceased had been caused some days before. The exact cause of death it was impossible state without making a post-mortem examination. The remains had been separated in a most clumsy manner.  An inquiry has been held on the multilated remains. Sarah Osborn, the tenant of 20, Montpelier-road, said that the girl Fitch who made the discovery was in her service. She let the house out in apartments. On Tuesday evening • shop. girl named Maxwell Rea, whom she had known for about four years, called during her absence and waited until her return soon after eight o'clock. Rea told her that she felt very poorly, and asked to be allowed to stay there that night, consequently she was allowed to sleep on the sofa in the front parlour. On the following morning a Mr. M‘Donald, who occupied the back parlour, informed her that the person in the front room had disturbed him during the night, and that he felt very uneasy about it. Witness and Mr. M'Donald entered the front room and then saw Miss Rea lying on the floor in an insensible condition. A doctor was sent for, and then, owing to the strange behaviour and barking of a dog, the surrounding grounds were searched, and the mutilated remains of a baby were found. A policeconstable stated that he was called to the house. He went into the garden, and on the gravel-path be saw the head of a child ; looking over the wall he saw a baby's leg, and other parts in the grounds of a disused school in Leighton-grove, the trunk or body of the infant being in the grounds of the late school. Dr. D. S. Downes, of the Kentish Town Police, with Dr. Wright, stated that the body was that of a well-developed infant, a female, which was fully born and afterwards dismembered into six parts—viz., the head from the nook, both arms and legs, the skull was smashed in, and there were other marks of violence. The cause of death was ha3morrhage at birth. The injuries had been inflicted during life, but the cutting off the limbs was after the death. The girl Rea, who was insensible and suffering from puerperal affection, was under the notice of the police and unable to attend the inquiry. It was quite possible for her, during the excitement, to dismember the body and throw the parts away. Her stockings bore signs of her having walked in soft or garden ground.—The jury I returned a verdict incriminating the girl Maxwell Rea, for that she being the mother had, while in a state of puerperal mania, dismembered the deceased, and that she was chargeable with causing its death.