Staunton Spectator, And General Advertiser

NO. XI.
A MOST PAINFUL EVENT

On Tuesday morning last, within about two miles of our town, the body of a white female in a perfect state of nudity, was found, after the disappearance of the snow, under which no doubt it had laid ever since the snow had fallen, which was recognized to be the body of Mary Reep, a resident of the neighborhood of Hillsborough in our County, and of a respectable family.

This case, in point of painful suffering, stands almost without a parallel, and cannot fail in calling forth the most heartfelt feelings and sympathies from all who may hear of it. The facts are briefly these:

A few days previous to the falling of the late heavy snow, which commenced on the 27th ultimo, and with some intermission continued for several days, the deceased who was subject to fits of insanity, and when in that state of mind prone to wander about her neighborhood, left home under the influence of one of these fits, and wandered about for several days, very lightly clad and altogether without protection to the feet, (always refusing to wear shoes,) through the cold freezing weather and "pitiless storm," having been occasionally seen at a distance by some persons, until she reached the Catoctin Mountain, where at a point of it some nine miles from her home, her clothes were found, some ten days after her absence by some one of the numerous parties of her neighbors who had for days most anxiously searched for her, she being in the habit of casting them off when these fits were on her. This painful discovery satisfied the humane persons in search of the unfortunate female, that, with the snow more than a foot deep in the mountain and the weather freezing cold, when found it would be the mortal part alone, the spirit no doubt having departed. And this was the fact as announced above.

The place where the body was found was about two miles from where the clothes were discovered; having thus laid under the snow until it melted, about fifteen days, supposing that death ended her sufferings about the commencement of the snow-storm.

One of the arms and parts of the body were somewhat eaten and torn, as if by birds, but the Inquest Jury had no difficulty in rendering a verdict from the facts—of death from exposure to the weather.—Leesburg (Va.) Washingtonian, Jan. 19.