The victim, the youngest child in a large Wendish family, resided in the South Australian town of Towitta, located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) west of Sedan.

Her brothers raised the alarm, finally notifying the local constable, but Bertha was found the next day violently murdered, having been stabbed and slashed around 40 times.

[6] The inquest into Bertha's death, headed by the local Coroner, Dr Ramsey Smith,[7] was held shortly afterwards, with suspicion quickly falling on Mary.

[12] The nature of the case, and the lack of a conviction, led to media speculation that Mary’s father, who had a history of violence, or her boyfriend, 21-year-old Gustav Nitschke,[13][14] could have been responsible.

[15] While both of them had possible motives in preventing Bertha from revealing incriminating evidence, Nitschke had an alibi that he was in Adelaide, and it was deemed unlikely that Matthes could have ridden to the scene of the crime and back again in the dark.