Murder of Nell "Alma" Tirtschk

 

Nell "Alma" Tirtschke named after her mother was born on 14 March 1909 at a remote mining town in West Australia, Australia. She was the oldest child and in 1911 her father Charles Tirtschke accepted a position with a mining company in Rhodesia and the family moved there. Soon after in 1912, her little sister Viola was born. During Nell's third pregnancy she died and Charles unable to take care of his daughters full time sent them to their grandparents. The whole family helped raise the two girls.
By 1921 Henry, Alma's, and Viola's grandfather died and the grandmother took all parental duties. Alma was described as shy, studious, and well behaved and excelled in her studies. Her grandmother raised the two girls and was a strict disciplinarian and would restrict the girls from social activities with other students this could have been the reason why Alma was shy and didn't make friends readily. She was also described as having soft speech and a soft manner.

On the afternoon of 30 December 1921, 12-year-old Alma was sent on an errand by an aunt. She was supposed to get a package of meat from her uncle's butcher shop in Swanston St. Melbourne and deliver it to a customer on Collin's street. It wasn't supposed to take more than 15 minutes and Alma was typically fast with her errands.

When Alma didn't return her family began to worry because they knew she was reliable and responsible. She was reported missing and the family and police searched for the girl through the night. It wasn't until early the next morning that her nude body was found in Gun Alley a laneway off of Little Collins Street. The poor girl had been raped and strangled to death.

She was last seen alive between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m. at the corner of Alfred Place and Little Collin Streets close to where her body had been found. Among the men interviewed about the murder was 29-year-old Collin Ross, a saloon manager, and was seen with a girl matching Alam's description that day outside his saloon.

Collin was known by the police and had recently been acquitted in the shooting and robbery of his customers.  He claimed that he had been tending the bar the whole night and had not killed the girl. He nominated several witnesses who did see him tend the bar that night. Police were convinced it was him, he was arrested on 12 Jan. 1922.

Even though police were convinced of him being the murderer family members of Alma didn't believe it to be him. Collin had, throughout the trial, claimed innocence. The trial then began on 20 Feb. John Harding who was previously found of perjury was in jail with Collin. He testified against Collin and claimed that Collin made a confession to killing the girl.

A detective noticed several strands of blonde hair on a blanket inside of Collin's home. Alma's hair was compared to the blanket's and Charles Price a trained chemist looked at the hairs and claimed they came from the same person. This helped lead to a conviction against Collin. He was sentenced to death on April 24, 1922 by hanging

 In 2008 hairs that were claimed to have come from Alma were tested. It was found that those hairs did not belong to the girl and the man who claimed Collin made a jailhouse confession had been subject to perjury and it's possible he lied about the confession.Collin has been pardoned for Alma's murder. It's unknown who had actually attacked and killed the young girl.

Collin Campbell Ross

SOURCES:
Murderpedia

Wikipedia