MURDERS AT GOOMA

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 19, 22 July 1932, Page 7

MURDERS AT GOOMA

A TRIPLE AFFAIR

FARM HAND SUSPECTED

BODY FOUND HANGINO

United Press Association—By Electric Tele'

gr»ph—Copyright. (Beceived 22nd July, S a.m.)

SYDNEY, 21st July

The police aro ; satisfied that the Cooma murders were, committed by Robert Audley, who is a young English farmhand -employed on Ham's farm, He was married, with two children, and was paid off last Saturday. , Civilian' searchers w4o were aiding tho police found the body of Audley, aged 25, whom tho police suspected of th'o crime, banging cErom :i tree a milo from the spot where tho stolen car had been abandoned. A gun was nearby. Tho victims of the murder wore Eileen Ham, -40, and Ettio Tucker, 25. Their bodies were • found by school children in an outhouse of a favni six miles from Cooma. .- '

Detectives ascertained that Mrs. Ham. was shot in the hoad from behindj whilo making cakes. The murderer I apparently crept into the house with a shotgun. -Ettir Tucker, who was her maid, was shot while in the act of telephoning for assistance. Mrs. Ham's husband, who is a stock and .station agent, was miles away when tlio crime j was committed. Tho bodies .were dragged to the shed and concealed under bags, the door was ■ barred, and the telephone wires were cut. The murderei1 escaped in a stolen car, which.was found abandoned sixteen miles away. Tho whole. neighbourhood is in n. state of consternation, as the crime is likened to the act of a madman. Mrs. Ham loaves uight; children. (By Badio.) The' scene of tho murder, was "The Willows" Station. The murderer dragged tho victims 200 yards to the shed. Ho then 'tailed, a bag with potatoes,cut the telephono wires, and drove away in a ear. When he found tho police wero on the trail, ho abandoned, the car. Tho police had difficulty in searching for tho man, owing to *the I inaccessibility of tho^ country.