MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 80, 15 October 1928, Page 4

MYSTERIOUS DEATH

BODY OF GIRL FOUND DISAPPEARANCE OF CAR (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. Investigations by detectives extending over a week have, so far failed to solve tho mystery surrounding the death of. Miss Elsie Walker, aged 16, whose body was discovered in some scrub nbar a stone quarry in the vicinity of Kuox Home, Taintiki, on tho evening of sth'; October. When found, the head of tho girl was lying in a small pool of blood, and it is believed She had' iaiu there since the previous Tuesday. Simultaneously with her disappearance from tho home of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bayly, Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, it was discovered that Mr. Bayly's'car had vanished. It was recovered at 2 o'clock on Tuesday afternoon in a side street iii Papatoetoe. Seven miles away, the body of the girl was found by a labourer threo days later. How tho girl came to bo in the quarry, and the reason for the visit is baffling tho police. No one seems to have noticed her or the motor-car which is believed to have conveyed her to the locality. It is generally surmised that she walked to the spot and then collapsed from sheer exhaustion. If she drove Mr, Bayly's car from Paparnpa it would have been all ill-night journey, and the walk from where the car, wasfound to the quarry would have taken at.least two hours. By this time it would have been' broad daylight. The.body was found 200 yards off tho road. Medical examination failed to reveal the cause of death, but the authorities are awaiting tho report of ail analyst. Inquiries made' concerning the girl's movoments on Monday, Ist October, have elicited tho fact that she was last noticed at Mr. Bayly's home about 7.30 at night, when she .was outside; !Barly oh Tuesday morning the garage was found to be open and the car missing. Wheel marks on the road near the Bayly home, which are believed to have been made by the car, and which tho police have examined, pointed in the direction of Eotorua, indicating that the driver of the car had turned that way at an average speed of 25 miles an hour- without a stop. The journey to Auckland, via Eotofua, \v6uld occupy a little over eight hours of an expert motorist's time. Over six gallons:7'i}f petrol were in the car on Ist October, and the car would do approximately 30 miles to a gallon. Hor father, Mr. D. Renzy Walker, states that his daughter had never driven tho, car in her life. "She would have been 17 on 20th October," he said. "To my knowledge she had never driven."a ear, and she had been in a 1 service ear only three times. She had been in Mrs. Bayly's car,'too, but 1 am told she never at any time drove it. The only suggestion that she could drive came from the four or five yeara old son of Mrs. Bayly, who said he had seen Elsie take the car out of the garage one day when tho family was away, wash it, and put it back again. Sho was last seen on Monday evening about half-past seven. No one in the house heard the car being taken awa^-, and Elsie was not found to be missing Until nest morning. The same afternoon the car was seen in Papatoetoe. .' My daughter had ne^er been .further north than Kotorua, -irhieh she ■visited some tiiiVe this year with her aunt.''' . When the car was in the gara'go at thd Bayly home on Monday afternoon a 'spare Wheel was on the back, according to Mr. Walker, yet when it was found on Tuesday afternoon, ho said, it was Seen that otic of the whepls had been changed, apparently in the journey, and that the discarded wheel was in the back of thisrear. '' ' / ' ■ ' .:■ ''The. last time I saw Elsie was about three months ago, when she was happy and bright," said Mr» Walker. "On that, occasion she said she Was quite happy at Mrs. Bayly's place, and I gave, liei' a eliec[uo. for £3. It was arranged between us that 1 should meet her about a week ago yesterday, when. I would have gone to Mrs. Bayly's house. She Was quite a normiil, bright girl, and had no worries." When,she Was last noticed in the yard the girl was wearing a house frock, apron, and pair of sand shoes, but when.the body Was found at Tamaki an did overcoat w&s covering the frock. The coat belonged to one of her cousins.