BURWOOD MURDER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 142, 20 June 1927, Page 10

BURWOOD MURDER

POLICE INVESTIGATIONS

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Pott.'*)

CHBISTCHUHCH, This Day. Nothing material in regard,to the person who murdered Gwendoline Scarff at Burwood has been reported to the police, who are still concentrating all their efforts on solving the mystery. An aspect of the case is the reiteration by residents that a woman answering to the description of the.murdered woman had been seen in the district with a man who is described as • being about six feet in height and of very powerful build. There are stated to have been about this man certain peculiarities that would make his identification a comparatively easy matter.

"I could tell him among a thousand," declared one man emphatically, "though I have only seen him myself once, and that was about ten days ago." Another resident stated that he had seen the man often in company with a woman. He endorsed the description given by the firs f. man, and added that he would have no difficulty in,identifying the tallman if he saw him again. One of the residents declared that it would be possible for a fugitive to hide in the scrub almost indefinitely. Assuming, he said, that the murderer had committed suicide, his body might remain in the scrub for months without being found. Throughout Saturday large numbers of people visited the scene of the tragedy. A notable fact was that a l^ge proportion were women. All went to the place where a pile of scrub marked the spot where the body had been found, and some of the more venturesome spent some time scouting in the scrub round about.

It is assumed that the murder took place on the day that the body was found, but it is stated that the police still seek information as to where the girl spent Tuesday night. She left the hotel where she had been staying on Tuesday, deposited her heavy luggage at the tramway depot, and apparently took with her a nightdress and toilet requisites to spend the night elsewhere. Yesterday a party of twenty police made a thorough search of the scrub at the scene of the murder, but without finding anything likely to help their investigations..

The murderer's weapon was a motor spanner, and the general belief is that the murderer either had a motor-car or had the use of one.