MORE CLUES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 143, 21 June 1927, Page 11

MORE CLUES

BURWOOD MURDER

A MISSING MAN

(Special to "The Evening Post.")

CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The detectives are seeking the whereabouts of a man who is known to have been a friend of the murdered girl. TLo police have again turned their attention to the scrub and are making a thorough search. Someone during tin week-end broke into a hut of Mr. Beginald Thompson, at Brooklands, a few miles from the sceno of the tragedy, and stole a razor. No effort is being spared by the police to learn the whereabouts of the man who is said to have known the girl for some time, and who, it has been learned, mysteriously disappeared on the day on which the body of Gwen Scarffi was found. This morning a car load of detectives left for Brooklands. Certain information in the hands of the police throws grave suspicion on the man for whom the search is being made. He had been seen with the murdered girl frequently before the tragedy. It is believed that he is not far from the scene of the tragedy.

Some of the girl's movements after leaving the Federal Hotel have been accounted for. Shortly after her final departure from the hotel on Tuesday night she visited a friend of the family not far from her father's home, and to this friend she explained her relationship with a married man, and stated that she was greatly worried. Apparently her intention was to confide in her mother, but at the last moment her nerve failed her, and she returned to the city.

Miss Scarff Js bank-book, which was found in one of the two trunks left at the luggage office in the Cathedral Square tram shelter, showed that up to within a few days of her death she had £17 on deposit, but the amount wa3 withdrawn in sums of £14 and £3.

Another fact brought to light was that the scene of the murder was in full view of two telegraph linesmen working on poles for the whole of Tuesday morning. This, combined with the fact that the nearest neighbour heard no screams, indicates that the murder did not take place in daylight. Owing to rigor mortis not having set in when the body was found, it was assumed the girl had died an hour or two before. The possibility is that, the" girl was left by her assailant not dead, but dying, and that death occurred somo time after the attack.