BRUTAL MURDERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 5

BRUTAL MURDERS

TWO IN A FEW DAYS.

WOMAN KILLED WITH AXE 1 SEAMAN'S HEAD BATTERED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 10. After a comparatively long period ■without any serious crime,, two particularly brutal murders have been, committed in the last few days. One of them aroused a lot of public interest because the victim, Miss Constance Sommerlad, 38, was a niece of Mr. Sommerlad,.M.L.C., for many yearswell known in the State as head of the Country Press Association.

A sister of the dead girl, Miss Dulcie Sommerlad, who is a nurse at Coonabarabran, had arranged to spend a few days with her sister Constance, and on Friday caught the mail train from Glen Innes to Tenterfield. Boarding a service car at Tenterfield, she arrived at the farm at 7.30 a.m., and was somewhat surprised when her sister was not waiting to greet her. No one appeared to be stirring about the f arm so Bhe wenfc into the house There she was confronted with a horrible eight. Her sister was lying near the doorway of her bedroom in a pool of blood, dressed only in her nightgown. At first the nurse thought that her sister had fallen and struck her head on something, but when she bent over her she found that her head had been battered •with some weapon like an axe, and she was dead.

tit H °r nfled ' she called out to her brother, ■Mr. kne Sommerlad, 25, and, receiving no reply, rushed from the house in search ot him. Not finding him in any of the tarm buildings she then decided* to look on the side verandah, and found him J ying on a bed soaked in blood. At first she thought that her brother Had been murdered like her sister, and was covering him with the bedclothes when he stirred and mumbled and said, *ranlc, ease me." In his half-conscious condition he evidently thought that his brother Frank was in the room.

Nurse Sommerlad immediately telephoned for a doctor and the police, and soon an intensive manhunt had been organised throughout the district. All Melbourne police stations were notified, roads were patrolled, and broadcasting stations were supplied -with a description of the man whom the police wanted to interview. It was found that a utility truck had been stolen from the farm, and one which answered to the description of the missing vehicle was seen the same night between Toowoomba and Ipswich. A dash northwards by two detectives resulted in. the arrest on Monday of John Trevor Kelly, 25, a motor mechanic, who was at first charged at Brisbane with having stolen a truck and was ordered to be returned in custody to Tenterfieldj where he was charged with having murdered Constance Sommerlad, and with having inflicted grievous bodily harm on Eric Sommerlad.

Kelly, who is at present on remand, is stated to have not long been released from a prison farm, and appeared to be glad to get a job when Eric Sommerlad engaged him for' his farm. It is believed that Eric Sommerlad was attacked first, and that Miss Sommerlad was then. attacked in her "bedroom and was rushing from the room to seek her brother's help, not knowing that he had already beeh laid low, when she was struck down in the doorway. An axe covered in blood was found lying against the wall of a spare bedroom, where it had evidently been thrown by the murderer.

, There are 12 other children in the , Sommerlad family, who are all well- • known farmers in the district. On the Ideath of her father five years ago Miss • Sommerlad's mother moved to Glen Innes with two other sisters who con- ■ duct a beauty parlour there. The station property was divided into three parts, and Miss Constance Sommerlad went to live with her brother as housekeeper on one of the farms. They soon became a very popular couple, and the farm was one of the recognised show places in the north. It is only about two miles from a station owned by the Minister of Transport, Mr. Bruxner. Displayed His Honey. The second murder was committed in a lavatory at the rear of a hotel in Redfern, Sydney, the victim being Eric Carlson, 51, a Swedish seaman. Carlson had been waiting to join a ship, and it is believed that he had about £9 in his

pocket before he went into tie hotel. Police learned that he had two drinka, and that because he disliked drinking alone had shouted for others in the bar. In doing so apparently he displayed his money and thereby led to the attack on himself. He had a game of cards and then he and another man went, to a small bar for another drink.

From that point his further movements could not be traced until he was found dead with his head battered either by some blunt weapon or by a brutal kicking. The murder was committed on Wednesday afternoon, and at 10 o'clock next night a labourer was arrested and charged with the crime. Even hardened detectives were shocked when they saw the extensive skull fracture which had caused Carl son's death. A puzzling feature about the case is that a washerwoman was washing clothes in an adjoining shed at the tjine of the murder, and did not hear any sounds of the struggle. Neither did a pensioner who was chopping wood in the hotel yard only ten yards away. Calson's private papers, were scattered on the floor along with his pipe and spectacles, but all his money was gone.