ABSTRACT
Editor British Colonist:―On Friday last, while the town was still in a great state of excitement about the murder of the three Italians by the pirates at the mouth of the river (consisting of Indians from Cowichan, Tadka Tulu, Tuashans, Sea Shells, Mousquims, Squamish,) news arrived that Mrs. Crote [Crart], the wife of one of the Sappers and Miners, had murdered her family and cut her own throat; and I am sorry to say it turned out too true. By the evidence before the coroner’s inquest that was summoned the same day, it appeared she had been in a desponding way for some time about being out here. And when the news about the murder below arrived, it turned her brain completely, and she was heard to say that sooner than the Indians should kill her children, she would kill them herself. During the night she appeared uneasy, getting in and out of bed many times; and when her husband left for his work, she locked the door, and attacked first her little son, about eight years of age, who was putting on his shoes and stockings. She cut him with a razor in the leg, side and back of the neck, and he was so stunned by the attack that he lay still. She then crossed the room, razor in hand, and cut the throat of her little daughter, a pretty child of three years old, with long flaxen hair, which lay dabbled in her life’s blood when seen by the Jury. She nearly cut her head from her body. She then made a cut at her infant, but did not cut deep, and it will perhaps live. Last of all, she cut her own throat, and unlocked the door, rushing on the balcony, wringing her hands and gurgling “I have done it!” Assistance immediately came, but she died in three-quarters of an hour, presenting a horrid sight. The Jury returned a verdict that she murdered her daughter and wounded her other children, and killed herself while under the effects of temporary insanity
