DHEADFUL MUTILATIONS

Evening Star, Issue 17314, 30 March 1920, Page 4

DHEADFUL MUTILATIONS

SHARK OR MURDERER? ■ WELLINGTON HARBOR MYSTERY. [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March 30. An inquest concerning the mysterious death of Eliza Jane Hebberd, whose body was found in the harbor on Friday last, was opened yesterday and adjourned till April 12. It is now suggested that the wounds were inflicted by"‘a- fish—possibly a young shark—while the woman was in the water. _ In support of this ‘theory it has been said tjiat the unfortunate woman may have fallen into the water at some spot where it was shallow, and may have floated out, to be attacked later by fish. Prior to the inquest there was a general consensus of opinion that the woman had been foully murdered. The left ear, according to report, was completely gouged off, and, what was then regarded as a mysterious circumstance—namelv, that the clothes were not disarranged—is no longer mysterious in the light of tli<s new theory. Deceased was about 40 years of ago, the wife of (Mr Ghas. Ambrose Hebberd, a dyer, of 49 Kent terrace. She left her home about half-past 4 on . Thursday afternoon (March 25), and was then apparently in good health and spirits. The body had therefore been in the water onlv a few hours when it was sighted bv the captain of the Pateena.