A BOY'S DISCOVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 139, 16 June 1927, Page 12

A BOY'S DISCOVERY

CHRISTCHURCH MYSTERY

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHEISTOHUECH, This Day

After 1.30 o'clock yesterday afternoon a boy named-Eric Mumford found the body of a woman in the broom in a paddock in Lake Terrace road. Tlio head was smashed in, two deep wounds being inflicted, one over each eye. The body was that of a. woman about 30 years of age. Nearby were an umbrella, a brown paper parcel, and an attache case. In the attache case were a clean nightdress, a comb and brush, and odds and ends used in a woman's toilet. The parcel contained two pairs of shoes and a fur.

Mumford states that he was just riding into the scrub in Lake Terraco road in search of his cows when he saw a man, small in stature and wearing a dark suit and a dark felt hat, running through the broom. At the same time he noticed a leg protruding through a gap in the scrub. Tho man was headed in a north-easterly direction, which, if continued, would bring him out on to Bottle Lake road. The boy immediately went to the spot, and, gathering the position from a glance, rushed off to give the alarm. He did not survey the location in minute detail, and thought that the body on the ground was that of a man. He did not see the face of the man who was running away.

"I think I have seen the woman on a number of occasions," added the boy. "She used to come down Bottle Lake | road and meet a traincar at about midI day. On it would be a man iv a tweed suit with no hat and dark hair brushed straigh 1- back. He would join the woman and the two would walk a little way down Bottle Lake road, when they would turn into the broom and sit down to have lunch. The woman always carried an attache case similar to the one found with the murdered woman's body. The man would be of about 25 years of age, and the man I saw running through the broom I judged to be also about that age. However, I havo not seen the pair for nearly a month, and even when I used to see them it was not every day. They would coino on a Monday and then I would not see them again until Wednesday." Dr. Beverage Davis, who examined tho body before it was taken to the, morgue, found that in additioA to the wounds on the forehead there were wounds on the scalp itself. The wounds indicated that they had been inflicted by s,omo heavy instrument, possibly of iron. ..-.,.., OBSERVATIONS OF RESIDENTS. Residents state that a woman, thought to be the dead woman, has been repeatedly seen in the immediate vicinity of the tragedj during tho past month. They state that it was the custom of this woman to arrive about midday each day. It is presumed that she came from town, though occasionally she was observed to como from the direction of Bottle Lake road. She always carried her lunch and waited about until a man-arrived by a tram from tho city. This ■ man, who is doscribed as having been of short, stocky build, and always well dressed, is declared by young Mumford to be similar to the man whom he saw yesterday dashing away through tho undergrowth. When the pair met, after the arrival of tho man from town, they proceeded always to the same spot in the lupins, just a few yards from tho roadway, about two chains distant from the scene of the tragedy. Investigations made by curious residents furnished them with tho evidence which satisfied them that the habit of the pair was to picnic each day in the lupins. They almost invariably left after a stay of a couple of hours. One significant fact in connection with tho tragedy is that the bag which the woman always carried is declared by youiig Mumford and his father to be identical with that found beside tho murdered woman yesterday. Tho hatfound beside the body is also stated to be identical with that which the woman was seen wearing. MAN'S QUEER ACTIONS. Tho detectives engaged in the investigation of the crime are seeking the idontity of a man, who, wearing a dark grey coat and pyjama trousers, rushed in an agitated state from tho lupins two or three miles from tho sceno of the tragedy early yesterday afternoon, and, when he was seen, immediately turned back in the direction whence ho came. No stone is being left unturned by the police to learn who tho man was. They entertain the theory that he discarded his trousors somewhere in the lupins. He is described as being about 6ft in height. Tho man is said to havo had curly hair, and to have been of stocky build. He had no hat, his shirt was open, and he woro no collar. He had bicycle clips on, and was wearing heavy boots.

While seated in a baker's cart iii Jubilee road awaiting his brother, who was serving a customer nearby, Mr. Alfred Hawtin, who lives in 18, Dean street, saw a man rush from the lupins, turn in an attitude of surprise, cast a momentary glance at him, and then dash back into the lupins. "He looked queer," Mr. Hawtin said. "He seemed agitated, and appeared to have been running. He came rushing through the lupins at a smart pace, and, after ho had had a look at me, he made a dart back again. I thought at first that perhaps the man was mentally deranged. His actions suggested that he was.

"My attention was attracted somewhat by the man's dress. Seeing his pyjama trousers, I thought that he must have lived thereabouts, and probably just got up from his bed. I dismissed him from my mind for a moment, but on looking back where ho had gone, I saw him peering at me through the lupins. He moved a bit and I became more and more convinced from his antics that he was not sane. I saw him watching mo from behind a poplar treo nearby. I was by now certain that he was mad. I turned for a momentit was just a.moment —and when I looked back he had gone."

Together with the Chief Detective and a. posse of plain-clothes men Mr. Hawtin visited the spot in Jubilee road where he had seen the mystery man, and described to them tho manner in which he had dodged about in the lupins.