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Submitted by Sloan Mason Richmond Enquire June 17, 1831 MURDER! Extract of a letter to the Editors of the Newbern Sentinel dated Jericho, Duplin County, 1st June 1831. On Sunday last a murder was committed in this neighborhood, which has created a very unusual sensation. About 11 o'clock on that day, Miss Nancy Boyet, daughter of a very respectable widow, left her house with the intention of visiting Mr Price's family, who live a distance of a mile from her mother's.--When night approached, and her daughter still absent, Mrs. Boyet became uneasy, and set out with the hope of meeting her on the way. Her feelings may more easily be imagined than described when she found on her arrival at Mr. Price's that her daughter had not been there that day. She alarmed the neighbours, a company went Forth, and after a diligent search, they found the mangled corpse of the unfortunate victim in an adjoining pond. Her body was shockingly brutilized and her throat cut to the neck bone! From appearances, the murder must have been perpetrated at a distance of two hundred yards from the pond in which the body was found, and the resistance must have been desperate. The ground and bushes at the place of conflict, were much trodden and broken, and some lightwood limbs that were on the spot, appeared to have been used by the monster in completing his designs. The young lady's combs were also found, broken and scattered on the ground.--No discovery leading to the detection of the murderer, has yet been made, and with the exception of its fatal result, the whole transction is yet a mystery to the neighbourhood. It must have taken place about noon, in a thickly inhabited settlement, and on the public road leading from Whitehall to Fayetteville. An inquest was held, and a verdict pronounced of rape and murder, by some person unknown. Should any thing farther transpire concerning this lamentable deed, I shall take an early opportunity of communicating it. |