STRANGE STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 4, 6 January 1933, Page 7

STRANGE STORY.

MURDER MYSTERY. BODY FOUND IN FIRE. Man Wrongly Identified by-Father-in-law. EVIDENCE OF SHOOTING. (United F.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) I ' " ' (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, January 5. ' What appeared to be a simple case of a man overcome by smoke caused by a fire in an office while he was typing at a' desk developed into an extraordinary murder mystery. Samuel Furnace, master builder: at Chalk Farm, had an office in a shed. An alarm was given on Tuesday night that the shed was on fire, and firemen found a man who was later identified as Furnace amid the ruins. 1 The first sensation occurred when a post-mortem by Sir Bernard Spilsbury, Home Office pathologist, revealed three shots in the body. Now detectives have found that the dead man was not Furnace but Walter Spatchett, a young rent collector. The murder was carefully staged, a sheet of paper on the typewriter, which survived the fire, being manifestly intended to suggest that the victim was contemplating suicide. His father-in-law positively identified the body as that of Furnace, but Spatchett's father recognised a bank book and photographs which were found on the body as belonging to hie son. The police are searching a furnace in connection with the shed murder. A full description of the case will be broadcast to-night. Chalk Farm is an important railway junction, three miles from St. Paul's station, on the London, Tilbury and Southend railway.