Pack may hold murder clue

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32803, 31 December 1971, Page 2

Pack may hold murder clue

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, December 30. A tramper’s pack lying somewhere on the West Coast might still lead to the conviction of the murderer of Jennifer Mary Beard, the young Welsh schoolteacher who was killed under the Haast River Bridge about 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, two years ago. The police believe that the pack contains Miss Beard’s camera filled with a roll of film which would probably reveal the identity of her killer. Detective Inspector E. T. Mitten, head of the Dunedin C. 1.8. and the man in charge of the murder inquiry, today appealed to thousands of holiday-

makers on the West Coast to keep a close watch for the pack, which is known to contain personal equipment, clothing and travellers' cheques as well as the camera. “The finding of that pack would really make my Christmas,” Mr Mitten said. On the evidence of witnesses who had seen the girl in a Vauxhall car with the

man who is believed to be the murderer, and the route taken by the vehicle after the murder, it was a fair assumption that the pack had been discarded by the man in an area between the Waitaha Bridge . and Bruce Bay, said Mr Mitten. The investigation was far from over, although no staff were employed fulltime on inquiries., “Only yesterday 1 received a toll call from another centre in connection with further inquiries into the murder,” Mr Mitten said.