Carl Witting

Caroline Witting, a, Prussian immigrant, was tried for drowning her three youngest children in a South Island creek in 1872. The case shares striking similarities to other incidents of murder and attempted suicide uncovered in this study; nonetheless, this mother was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang for her crime. Caroline Witting was in an abusive relationship with a violent man who was convinced that their youngest child was not his. She had spent two months in hospital suffering from depression and 'mental derangement' after the birth of the child – witnesses attested to her being delusional, suicidal, and having 'a mind that was not properly balanced'. In the ten months since the birth she had complained constantly of headaches that she feared would 'bring her to something that she was not aware of'. After a heated marital argument, Caroline took four of her children to the Waikiwi Creek where she first attempted to drown nine-year-old Augusta. The child escaped to the far side of the creek where she witnessed the murder of her three young brothers. Augusta testified that her mother had kissed the baby and told him 'goodbye' before throwing him into the water. She also reported that her mother told the other boys, aged eight and four, to 'go down and she would come to them' as she held them under the surface of the water. Caroline was discovered the next morning wandering in the bush in her petticoat and a pair of sheepskin slippers, and 'in a great state of mud and wet'. Source: THE OGRESS, THE INNOCENT, AND THE MADMAN: Narrative and Gender in Child Homicide Trials in New Zealand, 1870 - 1925 by Debra Powell.