Matthews Inquest
Inquest into the death of Unknown Male, found near Smithfield
Inquest held before a coroner to establish the fact of death, the identity of the deceased, the circumstances surrounding the death and whether any charges should be laid relating to the death of: Unknown Male near Smithfield.
Item ID: PR348651, File No: 79, Year: 1877, (Previous System Identifier: JUS/N52; SRS36/5/52; A1 Item ID 348651), Queensland State Archives.
CERTIFICATE OF PARTICULARS
I hereby certify the on the third day of April 1877 I [Edmund Morey] held an Inquest of Death at Cairns in the Police District of Cairns and that the following particulars were then disclosed:-
Name of deceased: Not known.
Profession of calling: Not known.
Height, color of hair, peculiar clothing and any other means of identity: Not known.
Where found and when: Below Smithfield in the Barron River on the 2nd April.
Date of death: Not known.
Supposed cause of death: Not known.
Persons last seen in company of the deceased and names of suspected persons: None.
Accused: None.
Names, residence and callings of witnesses:
- John Collins, Police Constable, Smithfield
- William Laird, Packer
Suspicious circumstances: None whatever.
[signed by coroner or justice] Edmund Morey P.M.
CROWN LAW OFFICES, BRISBANE, 16 APRIL 1877.
Magisterial Inquiry on the remains of a Male human being found near Smithfield, Barron River within the Police District of Cairns, held before Edmund Morey P.M.
Queensland, Cairns.
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John Collins.
The deponent being duly sworn on his oath states:
My name is John Collins, I am a Police Constable stationed at Smithfield. About one o’clock yesterday on the arrival of the Steamer Louisa from Cairns it was reported to me by some of the passengers, that a human body was see floating in the river a little below Smithfield. I procured a boat and aided by three volunteers went is search and found the part of a male human body. It consisted of the left leg from the hip downward, the foot had a new blucher boot on having nails, but no name. The limb was very much decomposed and anything to lead to identification was impossible. I brought the limb back to the wharf and left instructions to have it buried as I had to come to Cairns on duty. On the Saturday previous, that is on the 31st March, a man named William Laird, a packer reported to me that on that morning he met two packers going up to the Hodgkinson, who told him that they had seen the body of a man lying on he bank of the river close to the track about 3 miles above Smithfield. They did not touch the body. Laird in consequence searched for the body but could not find it. On Sunday 1st [April 1877] I sent out a Constable to search for the body. He also searched without finding it and I am of the opinion that the human limb I found was part of the body seen two days before by the aforementioned packers, and that alligators must have dragged the body into the river and eaten part of it. The remains I found looked as if they had been torn. No man is reported as known to be missing, nor I there any knowledge at present to whose the human limb belonged. From the appearance I should say the body was four or five days dead. There was no clothing on the limb except a boot.
[signed] John Collins
Taken and sworn before me at Cairns this third day of April 1877.
Edmund Morey P.M.
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William Laird.
The deponent being duly sworn on his oath states:
My name is William Laird. I am a packer trading to the Hodgkinson. On Friday last the 30th just as I was coming down from the Hodgkinson I met two packers on the range going up. They told me there was a human body lying on the bank of the river about half a mile from the foot of the range. They told me where to loom for the body and I knew where to look, but on searching could not find the body. I then came on to Smithfield and reported the matter to the Police. The packers mentioned are Friesians but speak fair English. They said the body was decomposed and had on a flannel. They could not examine the remains because their pack horses were giving them so much trouble but they desired me to search. I have no knowledge of any man being missing, nor do I know to whom the human remains I saw yesterday could be traced. I know the packers informally but not their names.
[signed] William Laird
Taken and sworn before me at Cairns this third day of April 1877.
Edmund Morey P.M.