Emma Gill Disappeared From Her Home Three Weeks Ago, And Her Parents Have Since Heard Nothing Of Her - She Said She Was Going To Visit The Young Man Arrested. In A Suburb of Bridgeport.
[Special Dispatch to the Baltimore Sun.]

Bridgeport, Conn., Sept. 21. -- Light seems to have fallen at last on the Yellow Mill Pond mystery. The woman whose dismembered boyd was cast in seven stone weighted parts into the shallow waters to be revealed by receding tides, was Emma Gill of Southington, Conn.

Walter C. Foster, a young man, who had been attentive to Emma Gill, is a prisoner here tonight at police headquarters. His attentions the young man admits. Beyond this the police have been able to extract little from him. He is not accused of the young woman's death, nor is it held that he is directly responsible for it. He is a prisoner merely on suspicion, and on the discovery of those at whose hands hands she met death and disememberment.[sic]

While Fred Gill, Emma's brother, was at the morgue in this city, weeping over the the face which he had recognized as his sister's, Foster was under arrest in Hartford. He had been taken into custody there about 8 o'clock in the morning on instructions from Captain Cowles, of the New Haven police force, who had been in telephonic communication with Superintendent Birmingham here.

The New Haven police had been searching for Emma Gill for some time. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gill, had instigated the search. Her father is a culler in a manufactory at Southington. Emma was a servant in the family of James H. Pratt, of that place. She started on her vacation a month ago last Friday, but returing in a week, complained of illness, and told her parents that she was going to visit Walter C. Foster, her suitor, in Stratford, a suburb of this city. Her letters she asked to have sent to the Stratford postoffice, in care of "J. Jones."

She was never again seen alive by her relatives. Her mother wrote to her as directed, but there was no reply. A second letter, with words written on the envelope to the postmaster that if it were not called for it be returned, was soon, was received marked "unknown." Fearing for the girl's safety, the parents appealed to the police of New Haven. The Yellow Mill Pond mystery at once suggested the line of investigation. A description of that woman corresponded with that of Emma Gill. the parents said this, but fearing a repetition of the mistake made in the Perkins "identification," the parents refused to come here to view the face at the morgue.

Undeterred by this, the police continued their search, and at length early this morning felt confident that they had progressed far enough to justify the arrest of Foster. Superintendant Birmingham called up the Hartford police by "phone and learned that, while Foster admitted knowing Emma Gill and having been friendly with her, he had not seen or heard from her for several weeks. A search of his room disclosed a photograph of the girl, also evidence of his movements for the last ten days. Police Captain Arnold, of this city, was sent to Hartford, ad after spending the day in that city and Southington reached here tonight with Foster.

Superintendent Birmingham personally searched the prisoner. Foster stood the ordeal unflinchingly and in perfect silence, and was then locked up.

"There is our prisoner," said the Superntendent as the man disappeared, adn his tone showed the relief he felt after long days of strain. "There is no doubt in my mind about the identification," added Birmhingham. "I am positive that the woman was Emma Gill. I was always distrustful of the Perkins and other identifications. I am sure, absolutely sure, of this one."

The superintendent said that to all his questioning Foster had stoutly maintained his innocense of any connection with the girl's death or knowledge of the cause. He admitted that he had been attentive to Emma Gill and had corresponded with her, but insisted that his last letter from the girl was on September 5, when she wrote him from Southington. Superintendent Birmingham said that beyond this the police had been unable to extract any admission from the man.

The police are trying to trace Emma Gill's movements in Stratford. This suburb lies beyond the Yellow Mill pond and the Bishop avenue railroad crossing, at which it is supposed the stones were procured to weight the body. In the Stratford postoffice, in an effort to trace the "J. Jones," in whose care Emma Gill had asked that letters be sent, the police found one letter addressed to the girl, and this they took. They learned further that another had been returned to the mother. Beyond this the postmaster was not positive. He said he was under the impression that a third letter had come for the girl, but if so it had been called for by a man. No "J. Jones" was unearthed by the police, thought they made diligent inquiries.

After Foster had been placed in a cell Superintendent Birmingham and Detectives Arnold and Cronan drove to Stratford, looking for Charles Plum, a fish market proprietor, who had taken an afternoon train for Hartford. It is said that he knew Emma Gill and had been seen in her company. The police also today questioned Robert Judson, driver for an express company, and Seymore Welles, a market gardener, who are said to have known Emma Gill.

The police have no clue to the house in which the girl died or where her body was cut up. They now incline to the belief that this occurred in the east side on the section of the city, adjacent to the Yellow Mill pond and the Bishop avenue crossing. Their duty is to locae this house, ad to this end they are bending their energies tonight. It was rumored late tonight that a woman living near the Bishop avenue crossing had been arrested, but the police deny it positively.

[Transcribed & Contributed by Nancy Washell]

Sept 22, 1898 - The Baltimore Sun

NANCY GUILFORD ARRESTED

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Woman Who Killed Emma Gill Captured at Liverpool

Sept 22, 1898 - The Baltimore Sun

NANCY GUILFORD ARRESTED

--------------------------------------------------Woman Who Killed Emma Gill Captured at Liverpool

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Woman Who Killed Emma Gill Captured at Liverpool