The discovery on the Thursday of last week of the
body of a girl, probably of thirteen years of age, in a starch-box which had been sent as long ago as the 11th December last, through Messrs. Carter, Paterson, and Company, carriers, to 32 Abbey Road, for delivery to a person—named as Miss Green—not known there, a-rd which had consequently remained in the custody of the carriers, till the body began to decompose, and so attracted attention to the contents of the box, has given rise to an inquiry which has not as yet produced any clue to the poor victim's origin. It was at first thought, from the condition of • the child's teeth, that she had belonged to the upper classes, and had had four teeth carefully removed by a -dentist to give room for the fall development of the jaws; but this, it appears, is a mistake, the gaps being due to the late develop- ment of the missing teeth, and not to extractions. Nothing • is known of the persons who delivered the box to the carriers, except that there were two of them, both men, one of whom 'came in to book the parcel, while the other only helped to 'carry it to the door of the receiving-house, 156 Cambridge Street, Bethnal Green. It seems probable that the child -was either starved, or poisoned slowly by some poison causing -extreme emaciation, and the body had been so doubled up that it had been forced into a box apparently quite incapable .of containing it. There was some indication in the state of the -brain of the child's having been an imbecile. From the, use of the starch-box, and of a brewer's label for the direction, it -would seem likely that the child belonged to some tradesman in East London.
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