On New Year’s Day 1902, 14-year-old Bertha Schippan was brutally murdered. Today, more than a century later, it remains one of Australia’s most mysterious unsolved murders.
With their parents away visiting relatives, Bertha and her brothers had been left in the care of their 25-year-old sister Mary. According to Mary, she was awakened in the middle of the night when Bertha’s body fell on top of her. She panicked and roused her brothers, who ran to get help, summoning the local policeman after their closest neighbors refused to give assistance. Bertha had been brutally murdered, her throat slit five times.
Mary was ultimately put on trial for the murder of her sister, even though the evidence presented against her was pretty circumstantial. Dried blood was found on her clothes, but her family explained that she had been helping to slaughter sheep in the days before the murder. The prosecution pointed to the fact that Mary had washed her hair as evidence of her guilt—clearly, she had been washing the blood out of it.
Mary’s supposed motivation was her relationship with a man named Gustave Nitschke. It was speculated that Bertha might have discovered the relationship and threatened to tell Mary’s parents. Nitschke confessed to the relationship on the stand (the crowd were ushered from the room first, so they weren’t offended by the revelation), destroying Mary’s reputation in the process.
But sympathy increased for Mary as the trial wore on, and the courtroom erupted in cheering when the jury pronounced her not guilty. The case remains unsolved to this day.
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