DEAD BODY FOUND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1913, Page 7

DEAD BODY FOUND

IN SCRUB AT YARRA BAY BLACK-TRACKER'S DISCOVERIES. (By Telegraph.— Press Association.— Copyright.) SYDNEY, 19th August. An aboriginal girl was gathering bottles discarded by Sunday picnickers in the scrub at- Yarra Bay, when she diecovered the body of a man at first supposed to be that of Thomas George Mawer, aged twenty-seven years, a native of Scotland, and a clerk, who arrived here two years ago. Apparently death occurred early on Sunday night. It was found* that a bullet had entered the middle of the man's back. Later, the body, though having a Temarkable resemblance to that of Mawer, was positively identified as that of Charles John Sfratton, a wharf labourer, 33 years of age, who left his home at Chippendale on Sunday afternoon, saying that he was going to Yarra Bay to play two-up. It is not known how much money he had when he left, but only le id was found on the body. The police are disinclined to believe that he was- murdered. They say that the scrub is frequented by parties in search of small game, and that possibly Stratton was shot by a stray bullet. A black tracker found tracks leading to«a 6pot where a couple had been sitting, eating oranges, and also a man's track from the spot where Stratton's body waa found to the spot where the empty cartridge lay. It is stated that Stratton had been frequently seen in that locality by night.