Virginia
Wainscott, being sworn, attests as follows:
I
am a daughter of Robert Newsom. I was living at his house.
I saw him the last time on the evening of the 23rd of June
at
bedtime. I hunted on all of the paths and walks and every place for
him, the next day,
looked
in caves and along the creeks. This was on Sunday. I found no trace of
him. That
evening I learned where the bones were put. I found the bones under the
hearth
in the cabin, turned the longer stove over to find them. I found a
gollows-buckle in the ashes. I have more bones in a box which I kept
myself. I
found the bones in the house where Celia lived. I found them under the
hearth
and just put them on the bureau until the next day. I gave them to my
brother
after the inquest. He took the bones home. I found the bones under the
hearth
rock. These are the bones and these are the buttons my sister sewed on
my
father’s britches a fee days before his death. I found them out in the
cabin,
in the ashes. Sister Mary sewed metal buttons on his pants. I also
found the knife.
I did not see it. This is the box I kept. This is Father’s knife, the
handle on
it is burned black, but this is the knife. Ashes were caked on top in
the
fireplace. I broke the heaps open and they had a strange smell. It
looked as
though something had been burned in there. I saw no flesh, nothing like
flesh.
The ashes were caked up in the fireplace. Celia had been sick and had
not taken
the ashes out for a long time.
Cross-examined
by the defense:
The
cabin I about 60 steps from the house. I saw my father
in the evening about twilight, reading at a window. We all went to bed,
leaving
him in that room. He slept in the room he was reading in. My son slept
with the
old man, my son was there in the
morning. I did not notice what father was wearing, did not notice the
bed.
Sister made the bed up and went to bed early. Celia had been sick. Took
sick in
February and had been sick ever since. She had not been able to cook
since
February. The cook-house joins the dwelling house.
