Dorothy Edith Carter

In May 1895, a railway guard reported he had seen a woman board the train with a baby but disembark without it. This happened within the train range of East Winton and police began their enquiries. This led police to a Mrs Hornsby who resided in Dunedin. She told police she had handed over her one-month-old grand-daughter with money to Minnie Dean at Milburn, four miles north of Milton. Police brought Mrs Hornsby to The Larches, Dean's residence. There she recognised not only Dean but a piece of baby's clothing belonging to her grandaughter. Dean was arrested and sent to Dunedin to await trial. Police searched the flowerbeds and found two babies bodies buried. The two bodies were identified as Eva Hornsby (Mrs Hornsby's grand-daughter) and Dorothy Edith Carter (handed over to Minnie by her grandmother).

An inquest on the second body identified it as belonging to one-year-old Dorothy Edith Carter. Post mortem analysis of the infant‟s internal organs by Otago University‟s forensic expert, Professor Black, found what he estimated "corresponded to 37 grains of opium‟ in the stomach and intestines. He informed the inquest jury that "around one grain of opium would be a poisonous dose for a child that age‟. A chemist from Bluff, who had been brought in for the inquiry, testified to having sold 6d of laudanum on the 30th of April to a woman who signed the poison register as "Mrs Gray‟. A second witness, Mrs Cox, deposed that she had met "Mrs Gray‟ at the Bluff hotel on that very same day, and given the woman her illegitimate granddaughter, Dorothy Edith Carter, with a promise to pay a ten pound premium for her adoption. Mrs Cox positively identified the accused as the person she knew as "Mrs Gray‟. Source: http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/7349/th...

Inquest: Evening Post (29 May 1895, p. 3) https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP18950529.2.46