A TRAGEDY YOUNG WOMAN MURDERED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 95, 19 October 1909, Page 7

A TRAGEDY YOUNG WOMAN MURDERED.

SHOT AT THREE TIMES. HER ASSAILANT ESCAPES. [BS TELEGRAPH — PHESS ASSOCIATION.! CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The building known as ''Burns's Silver Grid," Manchester-street, was the sceno of a tragedy last evening, about a quarter to ten, when a servant named Alice Edith Newman was shot by anunknown man, and died almost immediately. The murderer ran out of the building and got clear away. From the statement of a boarder in the place, it appears that the pair were quarrelling, and that tho man fired three shots and then escaped. The building is used as a boardinghouse and an amusement parlour, tho front portion of the ground floor being occupied by slot machines, a billiardroom, and temperance bar and eatinghouse Upstairs there is accommodation for boarders, the rooms running along a passage, at the end of which the tragedy occurred. WHAT A BOARDER SAW. No on© saw the shots fired, as tha building was clear in that portion atf the time, but a boarder, who had just gone to his room, is pretty certain that no one else but the man whom he saw arguing with the woman could have fired them. This boarder's name is Warwick, and he was going to his room, and passed the couple near the stairhead, where they were talking. He went on to his room and closed the door, but immediately heard three revolver shots fired. He ran to the door, and it was opened by the girl, who ran hrto his room bleeding from the mouth and face. He rushed out, calling "Murder !" and "Police!" and secured a constable, who brought Dr. Thomas, who pronounced life extinct. Tho body was removed to the morgue. A detective was soon on the scene, but no trace was found of the man who fired the shots, and the only guidance available was the word of Warwick, whose description tallies with that of a. mm who has been previously convicted of minor offences. NATURE OF THE INJURIES. Dr. Thomas examined the body at the morgue. The weapon used was a revolver of small calibre, and of three shots fired two took effect. The other apparently missed the woman altogether. At the moment it was fired she must have been standing between the man and the door of her room, for the bullet pierced a cloth "motor-cap" hanging behind tie door, penetrated the panel of the 'loor, and, striking the wall of the passage outside, fell to the floor. ■ One bullet struck, the woman in the temple aud the other in the neck. ,The latter pierced the jugular vein. The injuries were so serious that death quickly followed, the woman being dead when the doctor arrived. A PREVIOUS INCIDENT. Warwick's statement is substantially as stated above ; but he adds that the man who fired the sjiot claimed the girl as the wife of a second man, and warned Warwick, who had been out with her three tinles, not to have any more to do with her. VICTIM SAID TO HAVE COME FROM WELLINGTON. Describing the girl's personality, Warwick said he judged her to be about twenty-five years .of age. She was rather a beautiful girl, of da,rk Spanish type, and appeared rather quiet. She seemed to have "no time" for the first man, and very indignantly denied any suggestion that she had been married to a second man. She had not been at the' boardinghouse very long. It is understood she came from Wellington. The police arc on the hunt for the man believed to be implicated, but there is no trace to date. MAN ARRESTED. [bt telegraph— peess association/) Later. Tho police at Prebbleton found a man named Roberts, recently from Australia, who is suspected to be the murderer of the girl Newman. j The man is now under arrest, and two men have gone out to identify Jiim.