MURDER AT WAIKINO

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 13006, 4 April 1940, Page 5

MURDER AT WAIKINO

TWO PEOPLE DEAD YOUNG WOMAN AND YOUTH NO CLUE YET DISCOVERED Auckland, April 3. Found apparently brutally murdered In the Waitawheta Roat, a mile east of Waikino, 138 miles southeast of Auckland, the bodies of a boy and a woman provided this morning the opening drama of what is likely to be a sensational police case. The victims were: Mrs Alice Hamilton, aged 27 years, Cook at the Waikino Hotel whose husband, Lance-corporal Frederick Hamilton, is in training with the Second Echelon ■ at Papakura Camp; and Lloyd Moran, 16-year-old son of Mr J. J. Moran, licensee of the Waikino hotel. The bodies were found w r ith the heads battered in, separated by three miles from one another, along the Waitawheta Road, which runs off the main road connecting’ Waihi and Paeroa. It is suspected that the assailant or assailants were in a motor car. Tragic Evening Stroll Mrs Hamilton, tvho is a member of the well-known Katikati famiU of McClung, had been cook at the Waikino Hotel for a period of seven or eight years, and she was a friend of Lloyd Moran, a pupil at the Waihi High School. As was frequently their custom, the two of them went for a walk at 7.15 last evening. They, did not come back.

What happened after they left the hotel and before their bodies were found —the boy’s at 6.30 a.m. and the woman’s at 10.30 a.m. to-day—-is at present being investigated by the police. Sergeant Dunn, of Waikino, and Detective J. Hayes, of Hamilton, were in charge of the early inquiries, but detectives left Auckland this morning to join them.

What is known is that when Mrs Hamilton and the boy did not return from their walk within a reasonable period anxiety was felt at the hotel and, as the night wore on without news of them, Mr Moran organised n party. This party went up the main road towards Walhi, five miles away. First Body Found

It is stated that near the junction of Waitawheta Road, half a mile irom Waikino, the searchers found a woman’s white canvas shoe and a torch.

The search party turned up Waitawheta Road, and a dog, owned by Mr L, A. Cooper, who was with the party, made the next grim discovery, it was revealed as a bloodstain on the roadway, which at that place, a few hundred yards from the main road, has a quarry site ou one side and a deep gully on the other. , A search was made to the left, the quarry side, and a few yards in from the side of the road was found a second canvas shoe.

Mr Cooper went to the other side, where the Waitawheta Stream runs down a steep gully from the wellknown falls of that name, towards the Ohinemuri River. There, five or six yards below the level of the road, was seen the body of Lloyd Moran, held up by gorse bushes. He had apparently been rolled off the road, and his head was brutally smashed in. Signs of Struggle Tile road at that stage is metal and in a fairly rough state. Later investigation revealed that a struggle had ensued at the place where the shoe was found. There was blood oh the ground there in addition to other signs. The body had .been carried across the road, a blood track showed, and rolled down the bank. The police were immediately communicated with and the search parties augmented. They continued with the investigation over a wide area, but it was hot until 10 a.m. that the further discovery was made. At 10 a.m. Mr T. C. Marshall, a member of the engineering staff of the Ohinemuri County Council, was o v ut with an assistant inspecting a bridge at Butler’s Hill, three miles away on the Waitawheta Road where Lloyd Moran’s body was found. When Mr Marshall got out of his car at that point his attention was attracted by something white among the scrub about five or six yards from the roa>d. < Investigating, he found there the body of Mrs Alice Hamilton.

The body was completely unclothed. The head had been brutally battered - with some heavy instrument. The legs were badly bruised, but not battered. Mr Marshall at once communicated with Sergeant Dunn and the police immediately went to the place where the body lay. At a late hour to-day the bodies had not been removed and no one, except the police, was allowed to approach until detectives had completed the task of taking photographs and making notes of evidence. Use of Car Suspected.

From the position of the bodies, found at such widely separated points, it has been assumed that a car was used by the guilty party in removing them from some point in the locality as yet unknown. It is not known definitely whether Mrs Hamilton was dead before her body was placed in the scrub or whether the attack was made in her case at the spot where it was found by Mr Marshall. Mrs Hamilton, whose age is given as 27, but who was stated by some who knew her to be some years older than that, perhaps even 35, was a big, strapping woman and' it is stated that it would have taken a strong man to overmaster her in a struggle. Auckland Detectives Sent Mrs Hamilton, as stated above, had been an employee of the hotel, and an intimate friend of the licensee’s family. Her friendship with the boy was that of an older woman who had taken an interest in his

schooling, sports and hobbies since first making the family’s acquaintance. Waikino, which is in the Oliinemuri County, on the banks of the river of that name, is in the centre of the mining district of the Waikato. Waihi Investments and Exploration, Ltd., has a battery with 200 head of stampers there, which is said to be the largest battery in New Zealand. The area in which the bodies were found is on rising country, at the back of Waihi. It is open, and although there is no bush, there is a fair amount of scrub in the vicinity of the stream, which is little more than a creek running down between steep banks from the Waitawheta Falls, which can be seen from the main road. Superintendent J. Lopdell, of Hamilton, who is shortly to go to Wellington on promotion, and Detective A. J. White, have arrived at Waikino from Hamilton, while a police ear containing Detective-Ser-geant J. Walsh and Detective B. Slater, left Auckland at 11.20 a.m. ■to-day. Those officers joined Detective J. Hayes, Sergeant Dunn and the large squad of police, mostly recruited from Hamilton, already on the investigation. The inquest will be opened at Waihi.

HUSBAND IN HOSPITAL Taken Sick At Camp Lance-Corporal Frederick Hamilton, husband of the murdered woman, was informed of the death of his wife this morning. He is at present a patient in the Auckland Hospital, where he was taken yesterday from Papakura camp for treatment for an illness. WAS IN AUCKLAND Father of Dead Boy Mr J. J. Moran, father of Lloyd Moran, had the management of the "Royal George Hotel, Newmarket, several years ago. He left there to take over the Waikino Hotel and had been there ever since. Lloyd was the only son, but there is also a daughter, aged 18 years. It is understood that Mr Moran was to leave the hotel in the near future.