The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1890-10-04 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

STJSPECTED MURDER AND SUICIDE.  The Coroner for central Warwickshire, Dr. Wynter, opened an inquest on Monday afternoon at the Station-hotel, adjoining Adderley-parkstation, on the bodies of the man ai4 little girl which were found shockingly mutilaad on the London and North - Western Railway between Adderley-park and Stechford stations on Friday night. Only formal evidence of identification was given, and the inquiry was then adjourned till Wednesday. Since the bodies have been identified as those of Maurice Breeze, 33 years of age, and his daughter, Jane Louisa Breeze, ten years of age, the suppo. sition that their death was the result of intention and not of accident has been considerably strengthened. Breeze, who was a labourer, resided with his wife and their only child in Howe-street, Birmingham. He had come from Rugby, where he had been working as a gardener, about five years. ago, and obtained employment as a labourer on the Curzon-street wharf. His domestic relations. were very comfortable until two years or so ago, when he commenced an improper intimacy with a young woman who served as an assistant in a tobacconist's shop at Saltley. The result was the birth of a child, towards whose• maintenance he contributed regularly for some time, but when the mother left Birmingham to go to live at Swindon he ceased payment and was I summoned by the girl to appear at the local Police ' Court with a view to an affiliation order being made ' against him. The case was heard without his putting in an appearance, and an order for the payment of 3s. 6d. per week made by the magistrates, and when Breeze was made acquainted, with the result on Friday, he expressed his determination not to pay either the 38. Gd. per week, or the costs and arrears for which the magistrates had made an order against him. He told his wife that to evade payment he would leave Birmingham and go to Rugby, taking with him their only child, and he asked his landlord, a man named Baugh, to• look after his wife and find her a home. Though at the time no special significance was attached to the demonstrativeness of his farewell both to his wife and Baugh, it points now to show that he had at that time resolved to commit suicide and procure the death of the child. As it was nearly seven o'clock when he and the child left Bartholomew-row, where Baugh lives, and took tram at the Old Square for Saltley, it is clear that they must have walked straight from the tram terminus at Saltley to the Alum Rock bridge, which is nearly two miles distant, for it wfiks only a few minutes after eight o'clock that 'both Breeze and his daughter were run over by the train and killed. If he had had any intention of proceeding to Rugby, as he stated, he had no call to be in the vicinity of Alum Rock bridge, nor could he have got on to the railway metals by accident, as the line is protected at this point by strong iron palisadings. The only witness called by Dr. Wynter on Monday was Fanny Breeze, who stated that she was the wife of Maurice Breeze and the mother of Jane Louise Breeze, whose bodies she had seen and identified. She last saw them alive at 6 court, 2 house, Bartholomew-row, Birmingham, on Friday evening at seven o'clock.—The inquest was then adjourned, as stated above, to Wednesday, at noon. On Wednesday Mr. D. R. Wynter resumed the inquest at the Station-hotel, Adderley-park. Mr. Willingtoia Wilmshurst, solicitor, of Kenilworth, assisted the coroner in the conduct of the inquiry. —On the opening of the enquiry the Coroner said that before he began to take evidence he must ask the jury, if they possibly could, to approach the enquiry with minds perfectly free from anything they might have read in the public press. He regretted extremely that before the inquest VMS concluded articles had been written which to his mind were calculated to prejudice the jury and prevent them eatering upon an enquiry like that with perfectly unbiased minds.—Mrs. Breeze continued her evidence, and other witnesses were called, without any fresh light being thrown on the mystery. The Coroner, in summing up, pointed out that there was no evidence before the jury to indicate for a Moment that Breeze contemplated suicide, much less the awful crime of murder.- I The jury found a verdict of "Accidental death." ..ny each