The Potteries Examiner : — 1872-11-23 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

THE HORRIBLE MURDERS IN YORKSHIRE. The excitement in the locality in reference to the suspected double murder at Pickering is increasing. On Tuesday a rumour was oiroulated that the prisoners had confessed, but on inquiry at the police. station this was found to be false. During the day it was stated that the bodies of both Wood and his child had been found, but the rumour was premature. The whole of the stacks in the stack.yard at the farm were overturned, but nothing wee found. At duck the search was discontinued. At six p.m. Mr. Superintendent Jonas and Mr. Nicholson drove into the town, and the greatest excitement was caused when they were seen to carry a sack into the police-station. The Leeds Mercury gives the following as what could be learnt of the proceedings of Mr. Jonas and his brother officers during the day :—After they had set the men to march at tho farm they themselves proceeded to Lastingham to search the fields farmed by the elder prisoner. About half a mile from L mtingham this prisoner farina x fields, three on the right hand side of the roa I and three on the left. Mr. Jonas and Mr. Nicholson searched the first one on the right hand side. In this t/ere Was a straw dock, which they overturnd, but found nothing. They then searched a turnip field with the same result. They next crossed the road to the left side, and searched a ploughed field, and at the bottom they saw that an old watercourse or gutter had been recently filled up with fresh soil. A little farther on they found a threapronged fork, a spade, and a plough. They immediately stripped and energeti- I °ally went to work. After digging to the depth of two.and-a.half feet, they found a lot of stones which had evidently recently been placed there. On looking round they saw a heap of stones in the corner of the field, from which those in the hole had evidently been carted away. They removed most of the atones in the hole, and at the depth of 31 feet Mr. Jonas; laid bare a portion of a sack, and on looking closer, his spade having out the sack, he found a bone protruding, which proved to be the knee of the murdered man. The stones remaining in the hole were very large ones, and after removing one of them, the earth on one aide fell in, and they had to work hard to clear it out, but feeling certain they were on the right track they worked hard, although nearly up to their waists in water. After considerable exertion they removed a further portion of the soil and stones, and were enabled to pull out the sack. On opening the mouth of it they saw that the murdered man hail been buried with his head downwards, and after further examination of the contents of the sack they found tied tightly round the neck a handkerchief and a large piece of rope, the deceased evidently having been strangled. The fiesh is still attached to part of the body. In the sack were many small bones, and until the contents are examined by a medical man it cannot be said whether they are portions of the boy's body or not. The body had evidently been buried in the orchard until a short time before the prisoner gave up possession of the farm to Mr. W. Wood, and had been removed in the dark, and in the harry of removing the body the feet had been left behind, with the stocking on one of the feet. The woman who has been in the habit of darning the murdered man's stockings can, it is said, swear to a darn on the stocking found with the foot in it. An examination made on Wednesday of the body found in the field at Lastingham, strengthens the conviction that it is that of Joseph Wood, the missing farmer, of Crofton, near Pickering. It has been ascertained that Charter, one of the men in custody, went to Lastinglaam on the 17th of May, for a load of barley, and did not return to Crofton till late at night, and as some straw was found on the clothes of the deceased, and a quantity of chaff in the hand discovered in the orchard, the supposition is that the deceased aasisted him to unload the cart. It is supposed the hands and feet dropped off through decomposition while the body was being hastily removed by the murderer.