Youth Tells Of Finding Bogle’s Body By River

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30127, 10 May 1963, Page 13

Youth Tells Of Finding Bogle’s Body By River

(A’.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

SYDNEY, May 9. A 16-year-old youth told the Bogle-Chandler inquest today that Dr. Gilbert Bogie's face was blue when he found his body beside the Lane Cove river on January 1.

The youth, Michael William McCormick, of Liverpool, Sydney, said he had thought Bogle was a drunk “sleeping it. off” when he first saw the body.” McCormick said the body had been covered with a carefully-draped suit and a piece of carpet about 3ft by Kin protruded from under the suit coat.

He said there was “blood or mud” on the cuff of the shirt Bogle was wearing and a few spots of blood around his nose. McCormick, unemployed, but formerly a golf club maker, said he had seen Dr Bogie’s body “lying on its belly” in a small grassy clearing about four feet off a track beside the river.

He had found the body on his way to the nearby Chatswood golf course to meet a friend and look for golf balls, just before 8 a.m. Mc-

Cormick said he had not seen anybody else or any moving cars in the area. New Zeala.nd-born, Dr Bogle, aged 38, a scientist, and Mrs Margaret Chandler, aged 29, whose body ( was found nearby by the police, died after a New Year’s Eve party at the Chatswood home of Mr and Mrs Kenneth Nash. Sketch Copied When the third day of the inquest opened at the Central Court this morning, the City Coroner (Mr J. J Loomes) explained why he had allowed newspaper artists to copy a sketch Dr Bogle took to the party. Mr Loomes said: “I feel that only good can come out of the publication of the sketch. Perhaps some sinister construction may have been placed on this sketch by the public in the sense that it may have been indecent or suggestive or something along those lines . .

whereas it is nothing of the kind.”

Mr Loomes was replying to Mr W. D. T. Ward (for Bogie's relatives) who attacked newspaper reproduction of the sketch.

The hearing adjourned for three hours at 11 a.m. today while Mr Loomes, barristers and police inspected the river bank death scene. The party stayed 40 minutes at the scene, then drove to the Nashs’ home before returning to the city. Before this morning’s adjournment, the witness, lan Douglas Hewitt, a sales manager. of Newport, resumed the evidence he began yesterday. Asked by Mr Ward if he had noticed anyone on the veranda of the Nashs’ home when he was going to his car on leaving the party. Hewitt said: “No—apart from the Nashes. who were with us ”

He had not noticed Bogle and Mrs Chandler going to the front door. He had nodded good-bye to several people but could not remember who they were. The last time he could remember seeing Chandler was in the lounge at the supper time, Hewitt said. When the hearing resumed this afternoon Sergeant Goode was granted leave to interpose a witness who works at night. He is John

Richard Martin, a milk vendor, of Mortlake. He was the first witness who was not a guest at the party. Martin said he had entered Waratah street, where the Nashes live, between 4.15 a.m. and 4.20 a.m. an New Year’s Day. Mr and Mrs Nash were outside their home. Martin said he remembered one vehicle moving towards him when he came into the street. A light, box-type car. a small Austin or Prefect or

something of that type. A woman had been driving the car, which was not a Holden, he told Sergeant Goode. Questioned by Mr M. At-

will (for Dr. Bogle’s relatives), Martin said that as far as he could see there had been no-one else in the car. Martin told Mr Atwill that he was usually in Waratah street about 4.15 or 4.20 a.m. He kept "pretty close to time" as he had a small transistor radio strapped to his chest with a fitted earpiece and he listened to the time signals. Mr Murray gave Martin this description of a vintage Vauxhall car: an old type, of silver aluminium colour, folding hood, long wheel-base, and with a loud engine noise. He asked Martin whether he had seen such a car in Waratah street. Martin said he had not noticed any other car and had not recalled hearing any car pull away. When Martin completed his evidence, Hewitt was recalled to the witness box. Hewitt said he had been in the dining room when coffee was served to the guests. As far as he could recall, coffee was poured into cups in the kitchen and he had taken them from the servery and distributed them. Mr Collins: Is this the situation? The coffee that came from the kitchen was black. Anyone who wished to add milk or sugar did so from some other source? Hewitt: I believe so. It was substantially correct that apart from an absence which had been mentioned, for the remainder of the evening Chandler had spent some time in the company of his wife. The only times he remembered seeing Chandler were either with his wife or close to her side. He told Mr Murray that on

two occasions he had seen Mrs Chandler standing or seated alone, and on the couple of occasions he had spoken to her she appeared normal in every way. At Another Party

Hewitt said he had not observed Chandler during the period between midnight and supper. Mr Murray then asked Hewitt if he now knew that during that period of time (between midnight and supper at 3 a.m.) Chandler had visited another party at Balmain. Hewitt replied: “I subsequently learned that, yes.” Mr A. D. Collins (on behalf of Mrs Chandler’s parents and three brothers) then questioned Hewitt.

Hewitt said he remembered seeing sugar on the diningroom table but he could not remember the milk. It could have been added in the kitchen. At the time the coffee had been distributed, he could not remember if Mr and Mrs Chandler were in the dining-room. “I can remember them being there for part of the supper time but not for the final coffee part,” he said. Asked did he recollect them being there while the main course was being served, Hewitt replied: “Not particularly. I can remember them during part of the supper procedure, but not during the hot dish or the serving of the coffee.” Some of the guests had got up and moved around from place to place in the room during supper.

He said he remembered handing the Chandlers some sort of dish, but whether it was food or coffee he could not recall. He believed he had handed them a dish of each of the courses. Discovery Of Body The next witness was McCormick, who saad he had arranged to meet a friend, Denis W'heway, at the Chatswood golf course, where it runs down to the Lane Cove River, on New Year's Day. “As I walked along the track I noticed there was a log on the track. I looked at the log then I glanced down towards the river and I saw a man lying on his belly. I thought he was a hobo who had been drinking, and was sleeping it off.

“I looked at him and saw his face was turning blue,” he said. “It didn't look right.”

Sergeant Goode: Did you go to him? McCormick: I stopped on the track about four feet away. I just looked at him.

McCormick said: “I could not see any signs of breath-

ing. It occurred to me he was drunk. I left him and continued along the track." McCormick said he had not seen any signs of anyone else about.

He had gone to the golf course and met Wheway to look for balls. He had decided to go back along the track, about 9 a.m., he said. They had walked straight along the track and the man was still there. "He was exactly in the same position as I first saw him," McCormick said. "We stopped and I took a further look at him.”

Sergeant Goode: Did you notice any change in his appearance?

McCormick: The only thing I noticed was that his face had gone a bit darker than it was.

McCormick said he had spoken to a Mr Little at a nearby shop, and said he thought the man was dead. “When we got back to the body we showed Mr Little and he said ‘He certainly looks as if he is dead,'" McCormick said. Called Police

McCormick said they had looked at the man’s clothes “to see if they were moving.” They had then returned to the shop where Mr Little telephoned the Chatswood police.

McCormick said when he had first seen the man he believed his clothes were on. When he had returned to the scene with Little he could see a piece of carpet "sticking out from under” the man's coat.

“That made me look twice and I saw his clothes were only lying on him,” he said. Neither he, Wheway, nor Little had disturbed the body. “We did not go near it,” he said. The clothes were in the same condition when the police arrived as they had been when he had seen them earlier in the morning. Bogie’s clothes had lain on his stomach, pulled up over the body, with his arms slightly out, he said. The coat had been draped over his shoulders and down lis back. It had been neatly done, McCormick said.

McCormick said a piece of carpet could be seen coming out from the bottom of the coat about three inch.:. Bogle's trousers had been neatly laid alon., and over his legs, but he had been unable to see the waistband of the trousers because of the carpet. Bogie’s trousers had apjieared to be neatly and carefully positioned along his legs, with the seams running on each side of the leg. The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.