THE PALMERSTON MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 73, 27 March 1920, Page 7

THE PALMERSTON MURDER.

HARRY DEELEY MISSING. A RKWARD -OFFERED. (By Telegraph—iPrcss Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Government has offered a reward )f £200 for information leading to the irrest of Harry Deploy in connection with the alleged murder of Mrs. Etheline vVebby at Palmcrston Xorth on the ISth net. Dceley is a labourer, 37 years of age. A telegram from Palmerston Xorth revived on March 18 gave the following account of the finding of Mrs. Webby "a body :— '■Indications point to a brutal murder having been committed in Palmerston North last night.' Early this morning the body of a woman with her throat cut was found lying by a fence where it is overhung with trees in an unformed street running between Ruahine Street and Fitzroy Street. "A resident of the vicinity, Mr. Wells, was passing through the street between six and seven o'clock when he observed the body and summoned the police. The woman appeared to have been dead for some hours. "Investigation disclosed that the body was that of a married woman, Mary Etheline Webby, aged 44 years, who resided with her husband, Felix Webby. The latter iH a dairyman in the employ of a local firm of contractors. There i; 1 one child, a frirl nine years of age. ''Tim face of the deceased was covered with blood, but there were no marks on the body other than the injuries to tin , throat. Xo instrument by which the deed could have been performed was found, so that the inference drawn by the police is that the woman was murdered. "Inquiries made at the police station elicited the information that the wounds inflicted were extraordinarily severe, the throat having been cut from ear to ear. The police are of opinion that such a wound could not have been inflicted with any other instrument than a razor."