Murder in the Scrub

Evening Star, Issue 19585, 17 June 1927, Page 4

Murder in the Scrub

Tracing Victim’s Movements

Disclosure Alleged to Waitress

Blood-Stained Spanner in Gorse Bush

Prowler in the Lupins

[Pek United Phess Association.]

CHRISTCHURCH, June 17,

In connection with the Bur woo cl murder it has been established that Miss Scarff stayed at the Hotel Federal from June 9to June 14. Mr T. W. Lewis, proprietor, was approached, but he stated that he was unable to give any information at the moment.

From other sources it was learned that Miss Scarff had registered under an assumed name at tho hotel. She Icll on Tuesday evening, having previously communicated with a taxi driver with whom she was acquainted. She informed certain female members of tho staff that she was going to Wellington. Nothing more was seen of her until the discovery of tho hotly on Wednesday afternoon.

Tho police have so far not recovered the two suit cases which Miss Scarff had With her at tho Federal Hotel The suit cases were removed from the hotel on Tuesday evening, it is behoved, with the intention that they would be taken to the ferry boat yesterday afternoon. Tho police interviewed the driver of the taxi wLich called at tho Federal Hotel for Miss Scarff on Tuesday evening, and took a statement from him. From inquiries made it is ' learned that the girl stayed at the Federal Hotel under the name of Miss Armstrong. When she was recognised by a waitress, she made a certain disclosure, and said she intended leaving for the north with a man on Tuesday night. On Monday last the girl’s mother called at the hotel and urged her to jo turn home, hut she refused. SEARCH IN SCRUB Fffifl OF FOOD AND SPANNER June 16. ‘A large body of police armed with scrub cutters started early this morning to cut the scrub at the scene of the tragedy in an endeavor to find the weapon with which the murder was committed. Shortly after 3.30 p.m.. however, a man named David Davidson. who resides at the Gladstone Hotel in the city, picked up a large bloodstained spanner from a gorso bush near the edge of the road. It was covered with blood from the head to within an inch, of the other end. and was exactly 23yds from the spot where the murdered woman’s head had lain. The Buanner, which had evidently been thrown into the gorse bush, was held by the branches. It was not 2ft from the edge of the road, and was in plain sight. It is remarkable that tho weapon was not discovered earlier.

Later in the afternoon, about 50yds from the scene of the crime, a paper parcel containing a crust of bread, 'innants of cooked meat, ten empty condensed. milk tins, and a radio battery was also discovered in the gorse bushes lining the road. The evidence points to a man having lived in the locality, and that he is connected with the disappearance of newspapers and food from nearbw houses.

This evening a rumor was in circulation that a man had been arrested in connection with the murder, brt on inquiry the police stated that the man whose name was coupled with the rumor was only one of many persons who had been taken to the nolice station for interrogation, and that no arrest was in sight.

1H PYJAiAS STRANGE ANTICS OBSERVED Detectives engaged in the investiga tion of the crime are seeking the identity of a man who, wearing a dark g-ey coat and pyjama trousers, rushed in an agitated state from the lunins two or three miles from the scene of the tragedy early on Wednesday and when he was seen immediately turned back in the direction whence lie came. No stone is being left unturned by the police to learn who the man was. They entertain the theory that he discarded his trousers somewhere in the lunins. Described as being about 6ft in height, the man is said to have had curly hair, and to have been of etockv build. He had no hat. His shirt was open, and he wore no collar. Ho had bicycle clips on, and was wearing heavy boots. “HE LOOKED QUEER.” Seated in a baker’s cart in Jubilee road awaiting his brother, who wa« serving a customer nearby, Mr Alfred Hawtin, who lives at 18 Dean street, saw the man rush from the lupins, turn in an attitude of surprise, cast a momentary glance at him, and then dash back into the lupins. “ He looked queer,” Mr Hawtin said. “He seemed agitated, and appeared to have been running. He came rushing through the lupins at a smart pace, and after he had had a look aj> me he made a dart back again. 1 thought at first that perhaps the man was mentally deranged. His actions suggested that ho was. “My attention was attracted somewhat by the man’s dress. Seeing his pyjama trousers, I thought that he must have lived thereabouts, and probably just got up from his bed. I dismissed him from my mind for a moment, but on looking back where he had gone 1 saw him peering at me through the lupins. He moved about a bit, and I became more and more convinced from his antics that he was not sane. DISAPPEARED. “I saw him watching me from behind a poplar tree near by, I was by now certain that he was mad. I turned for a moment—it was just a moment—and when I looked back he had gone.” When Mr Hawtin’s brother, having served his customer, returned to the cart, he told him what he had seen. “Oh, he’s probably a bit off. but you don’t want to take any notice of that,” said Mr Ernie Hawtin. “ I see lots of those fellows round here ” But the brother, who had witnessed the man’s antics, did not look at it in the same light, and the mysterious man in the pyjama trousers occupied his mind for the rest of the day. It was about 5 p.m. when the Hawtin brothers learned of the murder, and they both remembered at once the man in the lupins When the detectives were informed of what Mr Alfred Hawtin had seen, they lost no time in getting into touch with him. Together with the chief-detective and a posse of plain-clothes men, ho visited the spot in Jubilee road where he had seen the mystery man, and described to them the manner in which he had dodged about in the lupins. PROWLERS ABOUT. Men have been prowling about the district for some time, residents state, and Mrs J. Lewis, who lives close to the scene of the tragedy, declares that she has seen a man emerge from tho lupins on numerous occasions. “We have been very scared of this man for over a month now ” she said. “ I have seen him often. Wo told the police about him, and they sent two detectives down to investigate a week or two ago, but I have seen him since. “ One night I went into the shed at the back of tho house. As I entered the man, who must have been hiding there, sprang up and ran for his life. He has been seen near other people’s places round about, too. “One night recently rny dog was kicked in the stomach by someone near the house. Ho has been very restless. So has tho hull. There has been some stranger here lately.”