Will The Real Killer Please Stand Up

Written by Darren Gallant, former PEIGHS member

On May 13th, 1859, a part of our little island's silence was shattered with the community of lot 57 waking up to discover that one of their own was brutally murdered and raped in a callous way no one had ever seen before.

Ann Beaton was a 41-year-old single mom living in the community of Orwell, Prince Edward Island, along with her brother, Murdoch, in a farmhouse near the intersection of Route 210, the Queens Road, and Route 24, the Murray Harbour Road. There were the Mathesons, who her family had come from Scotland on the Mary Kennedy with, and the MacPhersons, not too far from them, whom Ann called friends. Although it was a community of only 500, it was easy to be lonely if you didn't fit in with the religious and noble regulars, which Anne and the Mathesons didn't.

The Reverend in the community was named Rev. MacDonald, a very evangelical preacher, who, because of the secluded and unstructured religious state the community was in, preached that he and his fellow, "MacDonaldites", were the Chosen people of God, and that they would lead others in the Millennium. Anyone who did not see this vision in his community was in grave danger of losing their soul to the evil one, and even worse, taking their fellow neighbours with them. This type of person or persons was not looked upon very kindly by others around them.

Rev. MacDonald had two revivals from 1826 to 1860. The first one, Ann, showed the community how she felt about the preaching that Rev. MacDonald was doing in town. She was at the back of the revival when, for some reason, she stood up, walked to the front of the congregation, removed the candle and the Bible from the Reverend's hands, and stood on them. Once this deed was done, the Reverend told all present that, "Ann sealed her own frightful fate at that very moment."

On May 12th, Ann Beaton decided to go visit the MacPhersons to see how the material Mrs MacPherson was weaving for Murdoch was coming along. She stopped in the Matheson's house along the way for a little while; for what, no one really knows. When she was ready to leave, they told her to stick to the main road since it was dark out, but Ann, being Ann, took a shortcut along the stream, at the back of her brother's farmhouse. This place was known as The Hollow, a small area where one could cross the stream, and it was full of bushes and shrubs. It had a peaceful, serene feeling, and Ann loved walking here.

            On May 13th, Ann was found by her brother at the rear of his farm, bludgeoned to death in a pool of her own blood, down by the Hollow. He ran to get help and found the Rev. just as his other revival was drawing to a close. Murdoch proclaimed Anns' death, with the same people present as the first one, where the Rev. had professed that Ann had sealed her own death. Coincidence?

            When the Coroner had arrived to perform the initial death report, they moved Ann's body to the barn on the property. Her body was mutilated. She had been struck many times with an object capable of inflicting so much damage that she could barely be identified. She was also raped violently, and a footprint could be seen on her leg. It was one of the blows that the coroner reported could have killed her from the force with which it was done. Her face was hit so hard that the blows had caved it in and caused an eye to pop out of her orbital bone. She was cut and torn from the face, right down to her feet. A little bit later, a grubbing hoe, used to remove stumps while clearing land, was found with blood and hair on it close by. When handled, it was said to be of an unusual weight and craftsmanship.

            It belonged to the Mathesons.

           An inquest was started to find Ann's killer. Everyone questioned said, without a doubt, that the Mathesons had to have done it. Everyone was so scared of the Mathesons that they even feared for their own souls around these people. The inquest concluded when the community's request was fulfilled. They requested that Ann's body be dug back up and placed on a table in a local building, with everyone present. They believed that if the guilty party placed their hands upon the deceased, the wounds would flow blood. They never did, and Ann's body was placed back in the ground with no ceremonies conducted at all.

            The Mathesons were arrested and placed in the brig. They paid the bail set for them and were freed until their trial. The jury was called to order, and after some time, they concluded that the Mathesons, although feared by the community, were innocent and could not be tried again for this crime.

            There have been many different stories told about who is guilty; some even say it was a spirit sent to make her pay for her sins, while others say she even deserved her fate. But whatever happened, it was brutal enough to change the hollow's name to Goblin's Hollow. In fact, for years after, children wouldn't drink from it or even get close to it.

            After 150 years, there is still no killer caught, no remorse expressed. What is for sure is that a community was ashamed of Ann for being a single mom and having placed an embarrassing stain on the "Chosen Ones".

            There is no justice for her troubled soul. Some say that if you are near her grave, you can hear moans and screams coming from the ground below