SYDNEY MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 280, 24 November 1921, Page 8

SYDNEY MURDER.

FOLLOWED BY SUICIDE. A GRUESOME STORY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 10. The district of Redfern was alarmed by a terrible murder on Tuesday last when a woman named Marie Ward, known in the district as Mrs. Copeland, woe murdered in her room. A little daughter, ten years of age, vas the pitiful means of "bringing the police to the scene. The child was locked out of the house when an argument started between the woman and a man. Feeling that something was amiss, the little girl ran to the police station and two policemen eventually returned with her to the house in Redfern Street. They found a locked door, but could hear moaning within the room. When they forced the door they found a vile spectacle. The woman was lying on the bed with her head battered in. The floor was covered with blood, and it was wiped across the boards, evidently by the murderer, who had attempted to clean up the blood after the attack. But he had abandoned this, and was gone when the police arrived.

Seldom have the police of Sydney been called in upon a more depressing murder. The little girl, a wisp of a child, ten years old, was the terriiied witness of the finding of her mother. The woman made an incoherent icmark, and was then taken to the hospital where she died the next morning.

A man named Holly Copeland was immediately arrested and taken to the Redfern Police Station. He was allowed into the yard for exercise on Thursday morning, and it was noticed that he took oft' his boot and shook it into his hand. He then licked the nalm of his hand. About 10.30 a.m.. when a policesergeant went to Copeland's cell, the man suddenly collapsed. He was taken to the hospital, but was found to be dead.

A post mortem is being held to find out if he died from poison, which he apparently had concealed in his boot.