ELEMENT OF MYSTERY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 48, 20 November 1928, Page 3

ELEMENT OF MYSTERY

YOUNG MAN’S DEATH

Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, November 19. Mystery surrounds the death of Wi - liam James Mowbray, aged 21, a son of Mr. James Mowbray, of 147 So ® er ' field Street, Spreydon, who was kiliea bv a fall over a cliff at Sumner, presumably on Saturday night. The bodv was found on the flat top of a concrete garage by Mr. C. G. Walsh, at 9.30 on Sunday morning. Nothing very enlightening came out at the opening of the inquest this morning, and the proceedings were adjourned sine die to enable the police to continue their inquiries. Mowbray left home at about 2 p.m. on Saturday to spend the week-end, as was his custom, with some companions fishing at Taylor’s Mistake. The body was found by Mr. C. M alsh, who was walking into Sumner from Taylor’s Mistake. He thought he saw a man asleep on the top of a concrete garage below the cliffs near the tram terminus in Nayland Street, but on making a closer examination he found that the man was dead. He immediately communicated with Constable Hampton, who, on reaching the spot, found that the man had been dead for some hours. He had apparently fallen over the cliff, a distance of about fifty feet sheer, and while his head was badly smashed, no other bones appeared to be broken. From appearances, the accident had evidently taken place during the night. It is surmised that he missed his footing at the junction of two dangerous paths on the top of the cliff right above the garage. Amongst the grass there were signs of footmarks slipping to the brink. No bushes or growth of any kind provide any grip, and as a huge cavern recedes from the cliff face into the hill, the drop would have been an entirely unbroken one. Although there are several houses in the vicinity, no-one remembers hearing anything unusual during the night, and although the body could be seen from the road no one had noticed it till Mr. Walsh came over the hill. Many people passed over the same ground yesterday, one party of four finding considerable difficulty in passing safely over the very spot where the accident occurred. In fact, they were assisted by a resident over the bad spot.