ALLEGED MURDER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 108, 16 February 1935, Page 6

ALLEGED MURDER

DEATH OF A WOMAN. HER BODY DISCOVERED IN CREEK IN WATER FOR. TEN DAYS. ARREST OF SUSPECTED MAN. \ A HAWKE’S BAY SENSATION. (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, February 15. The discovery of a very much decomposed female body was made this morning in a creek near the junction of the Onepu and Raukawa roads, about 20 miles south of Hastings. The police and a doctor aro conducting investigations. Medical examination has definitely established that the woman is a white woman. It is likely that the' body has been in the water for two or three weeks. It was clothed in a. red colouredl dress of light material, with brown silk stockings, two linen petticoats, and black shoes with a single cross strap. The dead woman was apparently unmarried. She was five feet four inches in height, and of stocky build.

The police appear more or less satisfied that she Was a stranger to this district, and most certainly did not belong to the neighbourhood in which her body was found. She was about 30 years of age. The district in which the discovery was made is remote from all main and even secondary traffic roads.

FELLOW-EMPLOYEE ACCUSED. HASTINGS, This Day. A sensational development in connection with the Te Heke mystery occurred this afternoon when the police went into the country to arrest a man, who this evening will be charged with the murder of the young woman. The man and woman were fellowemployees on a sheep station of a well-known Hawke’s Bay sheep-farmer and racehorse owner.

Information obtainable from the police this afternoon was meagre and indefinite, but conclusive enough to convey that the woman was apparently taken out and assaulted and left in the water. There are now grounds for believing that she had been in the water not more than 10 days.

The name of the dead woman was Eva Madden, who is believed to have belonged to Wellington.