The Towitta Tragedy Multi-Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Introduction
The township of Towitta is located on the edges of Long Plain, approximately 5km NW of Sedan. It is little more than a collection of houses and was originally surveyed around 1877 because of its proximity to a large and excellent water reserve that was used to sustain the stock that often camped in the area while being herded along the stock route.
Background.
This is the first cache in the Towitta trilogy.
Ideally, to follow the story you should next visit GC2WNXB "Coming Home to Die", followed by the last in the trilogy, GC2WNX8 “My Sister's Keeper".
It is a place rarely mentioned either then or now, but there was a time at the turn of the 20th century when the name “Towitta” was on everyone’s lips and newspapers were eagerly scoured to read the latest news of the horrific event that unfolded there. This cache takes you to the significant locations where the Towitta Tragedy took place.
In 1902 Matthes Schippan had been in the area for 27 years and had cultivated a 65ha farm whose settlements included a cottage with a kitchen garden and substantial farm buildings. Matthes had recently built a ‘new’ house to replace the crumbling pug and pine, and this house was built to last – along with two huge underground water tanks and a cool underground dairy.
Matthes’ family included his wife Johanne, two sons, August (18) and Wilhelm (16) and two daughters, Mary (24) and Bertha (13). Just after midnight, in the early hours of 02 January 1902, while the parents were staying with relatives in Eden Valley, the two sisters were alone in the house whilst their brothers slept in an outbuilding.
According to Mary’s court evidence, she was in bed asleep when she was awoken by a man lying across her, who she said was armed with a knife. She managed to escape his clutches, and ran out of the house to summon her brothers. None of them went back to the house to check on Bertha; instead her brother August ran to a neighbouring house (1.6km east along the road) to say someone was bothering his sisters. The neighbour told him to report it to the local policeman, who was another of their neighbours. August returned all the way to their farm before, in the company of Mary and Wilhelm, setting out for the policeman’s residence, also about 1 km away.
Only on return with the local constable, was Bertha’s fate discovered. Her throat had been slashed 5 times and she had struggled about the cottage that was now awash with blood, to die on the floor of her parents bedroom. She was just 2 weeks shy of her 14th birthday.
An inquest into the murder was conducted in one of the Schippan farm outbuildings. The proceedings were adjourned at least once and therefore went on for some days. The area all the while was beset by reporters and photographers along with mobs of shocked and curious locals who thronged around the farm.
When the proceedings concluded, the Coroner, William Mulligan, announced that on evidence it seemed that Bertha Schippan met her death “by having her throat cut by Mary Augusta Schippan”, her sister. Mary was committed to stand trial – a trial that was to last for 6 headline-filled days in March 1902.
Meanwhile, Bertha was buried in the Sedan cemetery almost immediately after her murder. This is most likely the reason that 14 days later on 16 Jan 1902, her body was exhumed and “certain parcels” were removed for further examination.
During Mary’s trial, the papers were filled with column upon column of detailed coverage, and it emerged that she had been having ‘improper relations’ with a local farm labourer Gustave Nitschke; and had been for many months. Bertha apparently became aware of the relationship only a few days before her murder, and this was floated as a motive for Mary to have killed her – to prevent Bertha from telling their father, who would have been incensed, to say the least.
This and other theories were unable to be substantiated however, and the evidence against her was almost entirely circumstantial; there was actually very little to tie Mary to the grisly murder, and she was subsequently acquitted of the crime. This was a very popular verdict at the time and was met with cheers in the packed courtroom.
But Mary’s reputation, after her liaisons with Gustave Nitschke became public, was forever tainted. There were also many in the district who believed she DID kill her sister. Eventually the whole family moved from Towitta in 1908 to a small farm at Lights Pass, near Nuriootpa.
Mary never married, and after her father died in 1911, she lived with her mother at Lights Pass until she contracted tuberculosis, eventually dying of the disease at the age of 41 on 4 Jul 1919. She was buried at Bower.
In later years, relatives of Gustave Nitschke put forward the theory that the father, Matthes, did it, but officially the murder of Bertha Schippan was never solved and no real motive was ever put forward as to why this innocent 13 year old with no known enemies would have been butchered in this horrible manner, and the case remains one of South Australia’s most baffling crimes.
The Cache.
The initial co-ords will take you to Sedan cemetery where the body of Bertha Schippan lies. You will need to locate her simple grave and identify the series of numbers on her plaque (the original, simple generic one). In order, from top to bottom, assign each number an alphabetical letter A to H. The cache is located at:
S 34 (D+E) C . (G-H) D (A+E)
E 139 A (E+F) . (H-E) D (B-F)
If you have the correct numbers, the cache should be 8.7km from the cemetery.
This will take you to the vicinity of the Schippan Farm where poor, young Bertha was murdered. The pug and pine cottage where the crime took place is long gone, however the ‘new’ house that Matthes built is still standing.
You are looking for a long, round container. It’s on the public side of the fence. Please check that the container is sealed tight before you return it.
Whilst logging the cache, please pause and offer a thought for Bertha. RIP
There was a non-trackable, personalised coin in there for the FTF prize. Congratulations to Flipper & Co for achieving that.
The idea for the cache was inspired from a recent article written by Samela Harris published in “SA Weekend Magazine” on 24 Apr 10. Factual information was gained from archives of “The Advertiser”, and from the transcribed extracts of the trial found in the book “The Trial of Mary Schippan” by Peter Donovan.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures