Body Not Yet Identified

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 1

Body Not Yet Identified

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, June 3. ; The police today de- ! nied that they had sent j a cable message to the . Scottish police to tell the 1 parents of Miss Lesley Margaret Soutter that J the body found at Ep- | som on Tuesday was f their daughter’s. t

“We have not yet established definitely that the body is Miss Soutter’s, although we have reason to believe that it is,” said Chief Superintendent F. O. Scott.

The police sent advice that the body might be that of Miss Soutter. No positive statement could be made until identification had been established.

The message from Scotland said Mr John Soutter, fathei of the missing girl, said a close friend of his in Auck-land-Mr William Pacitti, oi 11 Merfield street, Glen Innes —would make arrangements for the burial

“There is not much point in my going to New Zealand,” Mr Soutter said, “and as Mr Pacitti has been Lesley’s guardian since she went out to New Zealand, I know I can leave everything in his hands. “Mr Pacitti and I went out to New Zealand together and served together in the Royal New Zealand Navy during the last war.”

Mr Soutter declined to give the name or whereabouts'of

the girl’s fiancee. “I spoke to him last night and the poor boy is very shocked,” Mr Soutter said. “He left here to return to

i New Zealand but has been r held up in the United Kingi dom because of the seamen’s :■ strike f s s

“A telegram from the New Zealand police to the police at Oban informed us that Lesley’s body had been found

on open ground in Epsom, Auckland, but nothing more. I would like to thank the New Zealand police on behalf of my wife, Sally, and myself, for all the trouble taken on our daughter’s death.” SEARCH FRUITLESS The exhaustive police inquiry into the discovery of the body continued today.

But about 40 police who searched inch by inch around

the Auckland Badminton Association’s hall made no significant finds. Mr Scott said the police had interviewed several persons in connexion with the shovel found near the body. He was not yet in a position to say whether anything of value had resulted. The shovel is of Japanese manufacture. The handle, normally 34J inches long, had been cut down to Hi inches and pared off round the edges. These shovels, which bear the brand name “Elephant,” were first imported in 1963. Mr Scott appealed to hard-

ware merchants or members of the public who might know anything about the shovel to come to the help of the police.