COUNTRY LANE DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

COUNTRY LANE DRAMA.

GIRL'S STRANGE STORY.

Scotland Yard detectives are investigating an extraordinary case in which a 23-year-old motor mechanic is alleged to have offered poison to a girl, and to have taken some himself with fatal results. The girl. Miss Farrow, aged 28, a secretary, of Courtlands Avenue, Hampton, Middlesex, went for a motor car ride with Reginald Stewart Rogers, who lived with his parents at Addison Road, Teddington, Middlesex, and, according to her story to the police, the man attempted to assault her. Subsequently, he tried to strangle her, and she lost consciousness. On recovering, the man asked her to suck a white tablet, at the same time placing a similar substance in his own mouth. The substance tasted bitter and Miss Farrow threw it out of the window of the car, and ran screaming into the Kingston by-pass road, where she was taken home by Mr. C. Johnson, of Garratt Lane, Tooting. When Roger's body was found a small piece of white substance was near it, and pn the running board of the car was a larger piece. The affair took place in Old Claygate liane, Thames Ditton, and Rogers was found several hours later in some bushes about 100 yds from the car, face downwards, in heavy mud. He had been dead several hours. The police found the car abandoned, with several articles of clothing in it. Miss Farrow had known Rogers for some time, and he asked her to accompany him on a drive. They drove about ror two hours, and it was on the way home that the incidents happened. Homo Office specialists have been asked to ascertain the nature of the poison, and the police have obtained possession of correspondence at the home of the dead man. This, it is expected, will throw some light on the tragedy.