Daily News Batavia, Genesee County, New York State October 4-1881 Is it Murder or Suicide? A Mysterious Tragedy in Orleans County Yesterday an associated press dispatch from Albion was printed in The News, stating that Nellie WRIGHT, a young woman, had been found drowned in the canal at that place, and intimating that there was foul play. The body was discovered Sunday morning by a boatman and promptly recovered and removed to a vacant house, where the coroner's jury viewed it. After inspecting the remains the jurors adjourned the inquest to yesterday morning, to enable the coroner to make an autopsy of the body. A careful examination of the remains, however, says the Rochester Democrat, gave two or three clues to the identity of the still handsome form and features fixed in death. On one of the young woman's fingers there was a heavy plain gold ring. This was removed and it was found that its interior surface was marked with the letters "F.H. to N.W." The discovery of these initials stimulated further search--The cheap black dress which covered the body was discovered to be on back-side before, with several of the buttons pulled off. Strangely enough the only other clothing she had on was a chemise, a pair of stockings and a skirt. There was a long, deep gash through the scalp, extending back through the top-center of the head to a point near one of the ears, in such shape as to peel back and lay the scalp open. Then there was a bruise over one of the eyes and an abrasion on the nose. With these observations it was remembered by the examiners that blood had flowed from one of the ears when the corpse was removed from the water--an almost unheard of thing in bodies drowned, ordinarily--and that some blood was noticed to have escaped at the nose. This, in view of the fresh appearance of the corpse, warranted careful investigation Two letters were found sewed in the dress pocket, one addressed to her father, "Mr. James WRIGHT, Millville, Orleans county, N.Y.," and marked "send this to father," and the other to her mother, "Mrs. Sarah WRIGHT," and marked in the same manner. They were quite similar in character, each explaining the purpose of the writer to commit suicide by poisoning herself, because of the faithlessness and the wrongs done her by Fred HOPKINS, a young farmer with whom she had been too intimate for some time. After this there was no difficulty in identifying the corpse as that of Miss Nellie WRIGHT whose parents reside in Millville, seven miles west of Albion, and whose father runs a threshing machine and labors on a farm. Once identified, they who saw poor, dead Nellie recalled some of the last sad and bad facts of her life, with which most of the people in and around Albion were conversant. She was twenty years old, and the most comely in form and features of all the eight daughters among whom she was numbered. Poor and illiterate, she had been compelled at an early age to work out as a domestic servant. While thus away from home and those who would have guarded her from harm, she became enamored of one Fred. A. HOPKINS, a married man, son of Farmer Frank HOPKINS, whose splendid place is situated a short distance to the south and east of Albion. Young HOPKINS, though he had a wife and son, became very attentive to Nellie, and subsequently very intimate with her--so much so as to cause a separation between himself and wife. Since then Fred HOPKINS, who is now over thirty years of age, and whose son is almost a young man, has been commonly known in and around Albion as a fellow who was frequently maintaining shameful relations with the brown-haired and dark-eyed girl. In fact one of his last and most important admissions is to the effect that as late as Thursday night last week the young woman slept with him in his otherwise unoccupied house, just west of his father's dwelling. Upon the strength of these discoveries, HOPKINS was arrested, charged with the murder of the young woman whom, he says, he thought more of than any girl living. He was taken to jail. He was quite calm when arrested and at first did not ask with what he was charged, but finally did, and in speaking of the affair protested his innocence. One day last week the girl bought a quantity of strychnine of a druggist in Albion, saying she wanted to poison rats. The physicians' examination found traces of the poison in her stomach. It was also discovered that she had been enciente for about twenty to thirty days before her death. The case is certainly a very mysterious one and the investigation of it will have to be searching to clearly establish the facts. The case is not entirely unlike the celebrated Jennie CRAMER case of New Haven, and is exciting a great deal of interest and attention in the vicinity of Albion. Its progress will be closely watched. *** submitted by Linda C. Schmidt *********************************************