Constitutional Whig

Norfolk, July 27.

Horrid Murder!—A friend near Kempsville has communicated to us the following particulars of one of the most daring and atrocious act of homicide within our remembrance:——

On Monday last an Inquest was held on the body of John Rudder, who was murdered in his bed by some unknown ruffian, between 7 and 8 o'clock on the preceding evening. The evidence given in to the Jury by the family of the deceased, was, that Mr. Rudder immediately after eating his supper, retired to bed and soon fell asleep. The rest of his family, consisting of his wife, two daughters (grown.) and two sons. (one about 10 and the other 8 years old,) were sitting in the room in which they supped, and which is separated from the bed chamber by a passage, the doors of the two rooms facing each other, and both left open, when they heard the footsteps of some person, who entered the room where the deceased slept, and were immediately after startled by the sound of blows and a violent struggling. Mrs. Rudder in great alarm, ran into the room, and there beheld a stout colored man in the act of murdering her husband!—She seized the assassin's arm and implored him to spare the life of his victim; but the sanguinary monster dashing her from him bade her begone. or he would kill her too. Terrified almost out of her senses, she caught her youngest son by the hand and fled to a neighbor's for assistance—her other children, equally panic struck, rushed from the scene of butchery and fled in different directions, scarcely knowing whither they went, and rending the air with screams of "murder!" —the murder of their father!—A number of persons were soon collected at the House, but too late to stay the murderer's arm: he had completed his bloody work and fled. On examining the body of the deceased, it appeared that a blow had been given upon the left temple, with a lathing hatchet, and another on the crown of the head, which fractured the skull in a shocking manner—there were two other wounds about the face, which appeared to have been inflicted with the edge of the instrument. Mrs. Rudder was unable to identify the person of the murderer. it being nearly dark, and all that she could discover of him was that he was a colored man. The Jury, therefore, could only return a verdict of Murder, committed by some person unknown.'

We learn further, that a free colored man (whose name it would be improper to mention at present) is strongly suspected, and that a warrant has been issued to apprehend him.
July 30.

The Murderer of John Rudder.—The eldest daughter of the late John Rudder, who was inhumanly murdered on Sunday evening last, whilst asleep in bed, in his house in Princess Anne county, has been apprehended, and is now in Jail, as the murderer of her father! —A younger sister, who was present at the commission of this horrid deed, has given evidence of the fact of her being the murderer.