MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 9, 11 January 1929, Page 8

MYSTERIOUS DEATH

SEARCHING INQUEST GIRL'S DISAPPEARANCE ' (By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post") • .. - • AUCKLAND, This Day. The inquiry .into the death of Elsie Walker, who was found dead in. somo scrub near Tamaki on sth October, was continued yesterday afternoon. An undo of the dead girl, Frank Bayly, farmer, of Papamoa, said that on Ist October in his house there were his ■ wife, himself, five children, and his niece,- Miss Audrey Bayly, who arrived at 4 o'clock in tho afternoon. Mr.'Meredith: "How big is the place at Paparnoa?"—"About 800 acres." "Is tho homestead a big one?"— "Nino rooms, all on one floor." "You have dogs?"—" Yes, two. We had three." "Where are they kept?"—"At the back of the house, tied up." ■ Mr. Meredith: "On the day of Elsie Walker's disappearance, Miss Audrey Bayly arrived from Kotorua in a service car?"—" Yes." "What room did you go to after dinner?" —"The billiard room."

"Did you leave it during the evening?"—" Yes. About 7 o'clock. Then I went back and. stayed till about 9.30.i" , ■ ' ' ".What was the last time you saw Elsie Walker that night?"— : "l don't remember seeing her after we left the table." "Did Trevor, your son, stay in that night?"—" No. He. went to a social in Te Puke, five miles away." "Did he take the car?"—" No." "Does hedrive.a car?"—" Not very well. One of the others usually drove. Bill, the eldest son, or. Godfrey." "How long had Elsie been living with you?" asked Mr. Hunt. "About twelve months." Mr. Meredith: "You and the rest of the family spent the evening just chatting round the house?" —"Yes." "Piano going or anything?"—" No. We have no piano." "If the car went out of the garage it would pass the billiard room window?"—" Yes." ' "Were the blinds down?" —"I could not say." "What time did you go to bed?" —"About. 9.3.0."

CAR NbT HEARD. "Did anything attract your atten-tion?"—-"No, nothing." "You did not hear the car at all?V —"No." Mr. Hunt: "Did you not wonder where Elsie was all the evening?" Witness: "No. Sometimes she would come in and sometimes she would sit and sew in her bedroom. Since she came back from .Tauranga she often did that." • : : ' ' . ■■■.■■■ Mr. Meredith: "What time did you miss ■■ the . car? : Half-past six in the morning^'.'—"Yes. We 1 looked for wheel marks and^saw that the car had gone Tauranga way. My son Trevor, who came home late, told Godfrey that the car was missing, but" I was not awakened. I did not know that the car was missing." I Mr. Meredith: "When did you know that.- Elsie had gone?"—" Straight away.' We called her and found that she was missing. We got in touch with the police."

"When.the body was found she was wearing a boy's coat 1?" —"Yes. That belonged to Tom, who is 10 or 11." "Did you get the fact of the disappearanco broadcast on: the radiol!"— "No." ; „■■■■■ '. -'- ■ ':■'■'■ ■■-■-■■-■ Mr.Hunt: "Girl gone, car gone, and you only tell the local constable. That's all you did. You did not wire to anybody on the road and tell them to keep a look-out?"—" No." . Mr. Meredith: "Your clothes were in the wardrobe, and some money was in the trousers pocket?"—" Yes, £3 155., In the morning it was missing." "Had Bill (the eldest son) been away before-he'came to' you two weeks before the disappearance!"—" Yes."

"For ten or twelve days befcire he went away in August he worked on tho farm?"—" Yes:" ' . "Why did lie go?"—"He annoyed us because he got' married, without telling us. He got married "on 29th August in Auckland." "When did he tell you 'that* he was married?"—"At an Auckland boardinghouse on 24th September." "What was Bill doing in Auckland?" —"He said he had taken a billet in Henderson." ' "Was he working while in Auckland?"—" No." "When did you hear that Elsie's body was found 1?"—" On the Friday. I heard the car'was found on the Wednesday." ■''".* "Did you give any instructions'about the car?"—" Yes, Itold the police to take care of it; ' It was about 9 o'clock on Saturday morning when I heard that Elsie's body was found." : ' "You caught the train at 10.30?"— "Yes. I arrived in Auckland about 11 p.m." ••■•••■ " Where did you go when you arrived in Auckland?"—"To the detective office." \'■ : ■-■■■. \. ] "Where did you go after seeing the detectives next morning?"—"Up to the inquest." ■ "Where did you go after lunch?"— "I wentout- to see Mr. Lusk, who has been' my solicitor for twenty-five years." . "Did you see Mr. Kelly (dotective) I after leaving Mr. Lusk?"—"No, X went to Henderson to sco Bill. His wife was I there, but I did not see her." "You had a talk?"—" Yes. I told

him the trouble about Elsie, and he said he did not know'a word about it." MOVEMENT OF SON. "Did you ask Bill where ne had been putting in his time lately?"—" No. I asked him where the key of tho car was, and he said he left it at home." Mr. Hunt: "Did you discuss Elsie with Bfll?"—"Yes. His mother had written to hini about Elsie leaving, and addressed the letter to him in Epsom. It had not reached him when I was 'talking to him." Mr. Hunt: "Did you not ask Bill where he was on the Monday night™"— "I don't remember." "Now, look, Mr. Bayly, the Monday night Elsie Walker disappeared I should think was a very important one in your life. Surely you can remember .whether you discussed with Bill his whereabouts that night?"—"l may have done. I'm not sure." "I should think the night would impress itself on your memory'?"—" Yes, it did." "When then did you discuss the matter with Bill?" Witness: "The next morning I discussed with him his movements of Ist October. He told me he had gone to Henderson. He had had lunch with his wife, and had done some shopping." When Bayly had been in the box nearly two hours and a half, Mr. Meredith concluded, and the examination by' Mr. Northcroft started. Mr. Northcroft asked Bayly if he had any reason to believe that his son Bill had anything to do with the tragedy. Witness: None at all. The Court adjourned until this morn-