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Two lines of morbid public lead to the spot
where 'Nellie' Howard
died. Preserving a crime scene was not a
consideration in those
days. In fact the police took up a
collection to pay for the funeral. |

Camera conscious bystanders and police mill
around the scene of death
on Spixworth Road. Sergeant Slater
dominates the road. |
The Friday morning saw the investigation moving quickly
to revelation on all fronts. Inspector Roy and
Sergeant Slater took Nellie's grandfather to
The Maid's Head
coach house and the
grief stricken man identified Nellie. He was taken
home where her grandmother collapsed at the confirming
news.
At
Buxton Police Station, a farmer's assistant named
William Arnold handed in a rattee cane and umbrella he
had found on the Spixworth Road the previous evening.
He pinpointed his find a quarter of a mile the Spixworth
side of where he had cycled past two policemen standing
over a young woman. Mabel Smithson, Nellie's
cousin, also living at Radford Hall Farm, identified the
umbrella as belonging to Nellie, taken with her when she
went to meet Larter. (William Kynvett, tram
conductor, would have recalled the rattee cane).
Larter and Nellie had clearly turned back in some
disorder.
At
nine thirty-five that morning Larter presented himself
at the Guildhall Police Station in Norwich and saw
Inspector William Ebbage.
Larter
said, in the form of a question, 'You want to see me
about that job last night?'
Inspector Ebbage didn't particularly want to see Larter
and all he knew of the 'job last night' was what he had
just read in the morning newspaper headed 'Terrible
Murder Near Norwich'. But he noted that Larter was
visibly excited and his hand was bound by a
handkerchief.
Larter
blurted out, 'I was there, and I happened to -', he
broke off, and then continued, 'Well, we had a little
bit of nonsense. The old woman interfered.
Her people, I mean. In a fit of jealousy I
suppose. I think that is the case.'
Inspector Ebbage asked 'what job' Larter was referring
to, though he now had a good idea, and received the
reply, 'The murder charge at Hainford, Catton, last
night. I have made a good job of it this time: I
thought I would make a good job of it whilst I was about
it.'
Larter was taken into custody and searched. Blood
was found in large quantities on his jacket and on the
front of his trousers, going through to his thigh and
knee. Small spots were found on his right boot.
When his hand was unbound cuts were found at the base of
the second and third fingers and upon the tip of the
little finger. There were six fine scratches
across the back of his left hand and a half-inch
abrasion between the first and second finger with the
skin looking as if he had been nipped or bitten out.
Nellie had fought for her life.
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