DOUBSLE MURDER?

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 89, 17 April 1939, Page 9

DOUBSLE MURDER?

DUBBO MYSTERY.

! SEARCH FOR TWO MEN. CAMP SITE DUG OVER. —— ( (From Onr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 13. Armed with shovels, spades and grappling irons, 100 men, including 45 police, to-day began a search near Dubbo for the bodies of two men who the police feel certain have been murdered. The men are Thomas Robinson, 72-year-old pensioner, and a man aged between 20 and 23. whose name is believed to be cither Boyd or Gora. Robinson lived in a camp on the bank of Brumiuangcn Creek, which runs into the Macqiiarie River, nine miles from Dubbo. He picked up a living by casual work on surrounding farms, so no alarm wae caused at the Dubbo post office when he did not draw his pension for six weeks. When however, friends noticed that he had not been at his eanip for a considerable time they liercime alarmed and notified the policed

About the same time the police were also notified that the yonnjr man had :<lso Loon missing from Xarrotnine for a week or two. The day after detectives went up fr - Sydney to inves i«w«e the •1. »i.> mystery ti.ey <ook po==-*sion of two horses and a snll?y. One horse afld a sulky is believed to have been the property of Robinson and the other horse the property of Gore. The police arrested a man of GO on charges of having had the horses and sulky in his possession when they were reasonably suspected of having been stolen, and of having no visible means of support.

Earth Stained With Blood? Becoming convinced very carlv 3n their investigations that the two* men had l»een murdered the defectives organised the search which began to-day. They have divided it into three partiesOne party is concentrating on dragging operations in the Macquarie Kiver. The second is digging over and examining the earth around Robinson's camp, and the third is dicing at Timbrebongie reserve. 12 miles from Xarromine, where the detectives ex]>ect to find the body of Gore. Samples of ashes and earth from TSohinson's camp have lwcn sent to Sydney for analysis. The earth is believed to l>e stained with Mood. The detectives have been told by boys that a little more than a week ago they saw something in a chaff hag floating down the Macquarie River. The boys Raid they threw stones at it and each time the object was struck it slowly sank but always rose again to the surface. The detectives believe that the object in the bag was Robinson's body and hope by systematic dragging and searching of the riverl»anks to find it, although by this time it may have been washed many miles downstream.

Oia Crime Recalled. Tf the detectives are right in their belief that both men were murdered by one man on different days at widely separated pla<x»s. this suggests that the murderer used the same cunning as William Moxley. who in 1932 murdered Dorothy Demsie] and Frank Wilkinson, and to make discovery more difficult buried their bodies five miles apart at Holdsworthy. Moxley was captured a few day« later in French's Forest on the outskirts oi Sytlney and was liaascd for the double murder. Only twice before have the X.S.W. police undertaken such an intensive search for t3ie bodiee of pe<»pJc believed to have lieen murdered. The- first occasion was the hunt for the bodies of M«»xiey*« victims. The second was the search, which failed after a three months' hunt by 300 men between Forbes and Grenfell. for the body of William Henry leavers, who was murdered in September, 1936. The men wlio were believed to have killed him escaped in an old model grey car which has never been traced.

Went to Bank, Vanished. The police also have another myetcry to solve. On Saturday Miss Kathleen

Claughessy, daughter of the licensee of

the West End Hotel, Bahrain, left the

hotel in a taxi to take £100 to the bank. Apparently 'everyone had for-

{rotten that it was a bank holiday. The girl, who is only 181, has sot been Men since.

TTc-r parents at flrrt thonght that «he might have gone on to the show for the day, but when she had not returned by night they communicated 'with, the police. On Monday a man who refused to give hie name and address rang; up the "Sun 5, and asked the newspaper to tell the girls* parents not to worry, "as . everything w,~.s 'ML" Hβ said he had been a friend of hew for two years. When aeked where aha was, he replied, "She might be in Australia, and she might not be. HI bet £5000 the police -wont. And her, because I am the only perron who know* where she is." He added that she had some money with her, that he did not intend to tell the police where she was, and that he was only a go-between and could not tell any more because he had to keep • promise. He then hung up the reeeiwr before he could be asked any magm: '»■'. questions. _~' Next day the police received *J22r*-C by post containing all **?... h*rt»which the girl had «f*»--,S I Z B Ser---bank. In the I*""* "fiLR *****§ note, printed *■"•*, QTwA «*