The Carleton Sentinel, Woodstock, N.B., July 7, 1933
SUSPENDED SENTENCE - Defendants Dismissed from Custody
MUST RETURN BODY TO ITS GRAVE IN COLDSTREAM CEMETERY
News article courtesy of Lloyd Webber
The cases of George Foster, 22, and Eldon Foster, 26, brothers belonging to Fredericton, who were charged with offering indignity to a human body, by removing it from a grave, were disposed of in the police court here Thursday afternoon by Magistrate C. M. Augerton. The younger man consented to the magistrate's jurisdiction and pleaded guilty to the charge. He was allowed to go on suspended sentence. The information against his brother was withdrawn. There was no public hearing. The defendants were first brought before the magistrate on Tuesday and hearing was set for this afternoon at two o'clock. They were then released on bail. The case was set for hearing in the town hall yesterday afternoon and at two o'clock a large number of witnesses and spectators had assembled including a considerable number of residents of Coldstream where the offence was committed. Neither the magistrate nor counsel had arrived at the hour for hearing but about 2:30 several witnesses were summoned by telephone to the office of G. W. Montgomery, who represented the Crown. As time went by feeling began to run high among the Coldstream people, several of whom were directly interested in the case through relationship to Dow Stewart, whose body was disinterred. A few minutes after four o'clock R. P. Hartley, K. C., of Fredericton, deputy attorney-general, left Mr. Montgomery's office and in answer to questions from newspaper-men announced that the case had been concluded by imposition of a suspended sentence on George Foster and the withdrawing of the information against his brother on condition that they replace the body in the grave from which it was taken. P. J. Hughes, K. C., of Fredericton, Represented the defendants. The occurrence leading to the laying of the charge happened last Friday morning. The two boys had formerly lived in CoIdstream, and have relatives buried in the Belyea cemetery there. The younger of the two, who is a medical student at McGill, wanted to obtain a body. On Thursday night they went to the house of a relative in Coldstream, saying they were on a fishing trip. In the early hours of the following morning they called at the home of Amaziah Wheeler, also known as Amaziah Fisher, and asked for his help in removing a body from the cemetery, saying that it belonged to a relative and was to be re-interred elsewhere. Wheeler accompanied them to the cemetery and they opened a grave belonging to Dow Stewart, who was buried there about eight years ago. When they had dug down to the coffin, according to Wheeler, they broke it open and put the remalns into a bag. They were noticed at the grave by a nearby resident who asked them what they were doing and was told that they were movi|g the body of a relative. After taking the body the defendants went on a fishing trip, passing through Coldstream on their return trip home on Sunday. The grave which was opened is located only a a few feet away from that of Bennie Swim who was hanged here eleven years ago for a double murder.