WOMEN BEATEN TO DEATH

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28154, 18 December 1956, Page 20

WOMEN BEATEN TO DEATH

Police Find Valuables Untouched In House fN-Z Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 10 pjn.) MELBOURNE. Dec. 17 Homicide detectives searching the! house in suburban North Fitzroy. where an elderly bedridden widow and her daughter were murdered late las* week, found a diamond as big as a green pea and jewellery worth thousands of pounds. They found the old. double-storeyed home a treasure house of Chinese antiques. statues, and expensive silverware. in their search, the detectives took possession of about £l5OO in money found in a bedroom, diamond rings, gold brooches, gold tie-pins- marquisite brooches, six gold sovereigns and five half sovereigns. Dozens of boxes and bars of chocolate were found all over the thickly carpeted and richly furnished home. The women, who had been elubbed: to death 24 hours before their bodies were found, were Mrs Mary Boanas. aged 83. a widowed invalid, and her daughter. Mrs Rose Fisher, aged 62. a widow. They had spent a great part of their lives in China and the Boanas family was reputed to be worth £A250.000 before they fled from the country after the Japanese invasion in 1936. Newspaper reports say that Mrs Fisher s husband at one time owned the Peking “Daily Mail” newspaper. He intended to follow his wife to Australia, but was captured by the Japanese and killed. Mrs Boanas’s husband, who remained in China, was tortured, according to reports published today. He came to Australia after World War II and died here of pneumonia after a fall about three years ago. Police are looking for a killer who apparently had robbery as a motive for clubbing the two lonely women, but there is no evidence that he ransacked the house or took anything.