GIRL’S BODY FOUND

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29901, 15 August 1962, Page 16

GIRL’S BODY FOUND

Man Charged With Murder <N Z. Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH. Aug. 14 A squad of Hawera police combed the banks of the Tangahoe river tonight in an effort to find the head from the mutilated body of a Hawera girt Caroline Louise Leach, aged 18. of 301 High street. Hawera. which had been found in the river earlier today. Detective - Sergeant G. Hogan, officer in charge of the investigation, said searches had been carried out throughout the day under the direction of Detec-tive-Sergeant R. Q. Petherick. of Hawera, and SeniorSergeant A. O. Jessen, of Hawera.

Police were being hampered by the swiftly-flowing river and the search was complicated because the sea is only three miles from where the body is believed to have been hurled into the river.

Detective-Sergeant Hogan said the search had continued until dark and would be resumed at first light tomorrow.

Police found the girl’s clothes piled up near bloodstained grass 50 or 60 yards down a path leading from the road to the river beneath the bridge. Not far away they found a blood-stained knife.

The search for the girl’s body, carried on through the night, came to an end at daylight when the searchers sighted the body caught among branches in the river. 300 yards downstream from the bridge. Miss Leach was educated at the Hawera Technical High School. She began work in a Hawera drapery business in February. 1960. James Patrick Travers, aged 38. a brush hand, of 301 High street, Hawera, appeared in the New Plymouth Magistrate’s Court this afternoon charged with the murder of Miss Leach. No plea was taken and Travers was remanded in custody until August 20 by Mr A. W. Yortt. S.M. Detective-Sergeant Hogan appeared for the police Travers was not represented by counsel.