Vermont Watchman And State Journal

Criminal Case at Groton—On the 27th
inst., Nancy A. Plummer, of Groton, a girl
thirteen or fourteen years of age, was arrested and brought before Justice Isaac N. Hall for examination, on a complaint signed by
the State's Attorney, charging her with the
murder of Emma Jane Heath, a child seven
years of age, by poisoning. The complaint
contained a count for manslaughter. The
testimony produced by the Government
tended to show that the respondent on the
twenty-eighth day of June last, carried with
her to the district school a solid white substance about an inch and a half in length
by three fourths of an inch in width, and
during the day gave pieces of it to the said
Emma Jane Heath and to her younger sister, without giving them any caution in regard to it or informing them what it was,
and that these children had other pieces of
the same which they obtained of another
child who had it of the respondent. That
they ate of it and were soon after taken
violently sick, exhibiting all the symptoms
of poison; and that Emma J. died on the
second inst. Also that the respondent gave
a piece of the same to another girl and told
her that it was poison. The testimony also
tended to show that the respondent exhibited this substance several days before, and
then said she had it of her father. When
questioned after the sickness of the children, she at first denied ever having it at all,
but afterwards admitted it and claimed that
she found it in the road. There was some
proof tending to show that her father had
such an article in his house. Pieces of the
substance found with the children were tested and the main ingredient found to be arsenic.

The respondent produced evidence tending to show that her father never had any thing like this in his house. That she
found this substance in the road, and did not
know what it was. And that these children
were not taken sick as soon after eating of
it as they would have been had their sickness been caused by arsenic.

The court concluded to bind over the respondent for trial at the County Court for
manslaughter. S. W. Slade appeared for
the prosecution, and J. Potts for the respondent.—Caledonian.