PUKEKAWA CASE Unknown Person Fed Baby

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32383, 24 August 1970, Page 14

PUKEKAWA CASE Unknown Person Fed Baby

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 23. An unknown person almost certainly fed the 18-month-old baby daughter of the Pukekawa couple, Ma and Mrs D. H. Crewe, between the day her parents are presumed to have been killed and when the baby, Rochelle Janeane Crewe, was found five days later.

This has been made clear by Detective Inspector B. T. N. Hutton, who is in charge of the investigation into the presumed murder of Mr and Mrs Crewe. “The evidence I have indicates quite strongly that she would have been fed,” he said.

The baby was found in a very distressed condition in the Crewes’ house on June 22. The police think that Mr and Mrs Crewe were killed on June 17.

A week has passed since Mrs Crewe’s body, wrapped in a bedspread and copper wire, was found floating in the Waikato River near Puni, five miles west of Pukekohe. More than 30 police and Army officers—still weary from the intensive search oil the Pukekawa district last month—continued their scouring of the Waikato River, its banks, and its mouth in the Tuakau area at the week-end. Helped by seven members of the Auckland Canoe Club, the searchers found no sign of the body of David Harvey Crewe. The search will continue unremittingly this week, as the level of the river drops further. Mr Hutton, who revealed last week that Mrs Crewe was

killed by a .22 rifle bullet found in her body, said he did not think any other weapon was used. He said he would still like to hear from any South Auckland resident particularly those in the Pukekawa area—who had either lent sold, or lost a .22 rifle, or believed they had had one stolen from them, in the last three months or so. Asked if scientific examination of the contents of Mrs Crewe’s stomach had shown anything significant Mr Hutton said he was still' closely studying this aspect of the investigation. He was still working on the presumption that the bodies of Mr and Mrs Crewe were taken from their house on the night of June 17.