ELSIE WIKER MYSTLRY

Evening Star, Issue 20254, 15 August 1929, Page 7

ELSIE WIKER MYSTLRY

THOMASEN-BAYLY CORRESPONDENCE FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS MRS THOHASEN EXPLAINS [Spiciai. to the ' Star.’] AUCKLAND, August 14, The Auckland ‘Star’ to-day pub lishes the following from its special repiescntatives at Wanganui;— "There is a good deal yet to be told that has not seen the light of day,” declared Mrs M. Thomnsen, when a ‘ Star ’ representative showed her a copy of Monday’s paper, containing letters and statements relating to the Elsio Walker mystery. The letters were released for publication by the legal representatives of the Bayly family, from whose home the dead girl disappeared. Both Mr Thomasen and his wife w k ere very pleased at the opportunity of perusing the Auckland ‘ Star ’ of Monday evening, containing the letters and the statement released by Mrs Bayly’s solicitors in Auckland on Monday. Both read the matter very carefully, and while doing so Mrs Thomasen remarked emphatically that there were several inaccuracies in the story as told by Mrs Bayly. Airs ■ Thomasen herself said she had heard it was suggested that she had attempted to blackmail Mrs Bayly. “ Mrs Bayly and 1 were friendly, as neighbours, for many years at Papamoa,” she said, "and notions? was further from my mind than ever to attempt to blackmail, or extort any money whatsoever from her. As the mother of children of my'own,. I had kept quiet about ray having seen Bill Bayly on the train on October 1, but I intended to tell Airs Bayly before I left Papamoa.”

“Yes,” interposed Air Thomason, " about three weeks before Christmas, just prior to our leaving the district for our present home here, the wife paid a neighbourly call on Airs Bayly. Before slip went she said to me: ‘ Arthur. I’m going to tell Airs Bayly that I saw Bill on the train that night.’”

.Referring to the remarkable interview in a room of Foster’s Hotel, Airs Thomasen said she had remarked to her husband while she was on the way into Wanganui to see Airs Bayly; ‘ Now, I wonder if this is a trap.’ “We went to Airs Bayly’s room at the hotel,” she said. "It was about 2 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, June 22. 1 had not been there long before my suspicions were ..confirmed through Airs Bayly repeating in a most insistent manner: What do you suggest ’ I also heard noises in the adjoining room. I had enough of that, and went out into the street. Altogether, the interview lasted about one . and three-quarer hours. "While we were in the street I could not help but notice that when we passed certain men Airs Bayly spoke very loudly.” "Of course, the wife was wrong in the first place in not telling all she knew to the police.” Air Thomasen said. “She knows that now. and that is why she ■wants the matter cleared up.” “Tho suggestion of blackmail is absurd.” Air Thomasen said. “ What could w - e do with £IO,OOO, or even less —keep it in a tin Why. the detectives inquired most minutely into our financial position.” "Look here.” interrupted Airs Thomasen. "If I wanted to blackmail Airs Bayly or anyone 'else I would have done so before I left Papamoa.”

Living at 15) Cook street, Hamilton East, is a'married sister of Mrs Thomason—Mrs Harriet Richardson, Like her sisters, she was born in a house which stands a few feet from the entrance to the drive to the Bayly home at Papamoa. She is therefore quite familiar -with the locality. At the time of the Elsie Walker tragedy she and her husband were staying at Matata, near To Puke. Mrs Richardson told a ‘ Star ’ representative this morning that she was fully acquainted with the fact that her two sisters, Mrs TJiomasen and Mrs Langdon, said they had seen Bill Bayly on the train on October 1. A few days after the tragedy they were all at Tauranga together, when the disannoarance of Bavly’s motor car was naturally the subject of discussion. She remembered Mrs Tbomasen remarking later in the day: “Oh, bv the way, did I tell you Bill Bayly was on the train that night!” Mrs Richardson declared that during the same or the following week she told Miss Besznak. the district nursr, at Matata, that her two sisters had seen him on the train. She also said Mrs Langdon distinctly heard a car pass along the drive after midnight on the night the Baylys disappeared. She was certain it was after midnight, as they had visitors at the house until -late. As tha house stands right alongside the drive, she could not have mistaken it for a car passing along the main road,-which is some chains away. She stated that Inspector Eccles, who knew the district, had admitted to her, after having made an inspection of the place, that it was unlikely a mistake in this direction could be made. Recently, Mrs Richardson said, Detectives Bickcrdiko and White called on her and asked her why Mrs Thomasen had not spoken before. Mrs Richardson told them that her sister had always said she would only speak if a certain member of the Police Force got into trouble over the case. The detectives asked whv she thought he would get into trouble, and she replied that “ it was common gossip that he had not been thanked for what he had done by headquarters.” Asked how it came about that Mrs Langdon, in an interview by a detecto the interview with Mrs Thomasen, denied that she had seen Bill Bayly on the train, Mrs Richardson explained that the interview, while subsequent, was only a few hours later. Mrs Langdon was interviewed in Auckland bv one detective almost simultaneously with Mrs Thomases in Wanganui. Mrs Langdon knew Mr* Thomasen had intended to keep the matter quiet for the sake of tho Baylys, and she was not going to let her down. She did not know that just a few hours before her sister had been interviewed in Aangamii. Mrs Richardson concluded by stating that the reason her sisters had not stated in the first place when inter viewed that they saw Bill Bayly on the train was that tho Bayly* had so much trouble, and that they felt sorry for them , , ' Mr H. O Cooney, of 1e Puke, solicitor and counsel for Mrs Thomasen, in an interview, ■ made the following statement: — “I have soon the- statements published in the Auckland of the 12th in»t. T. have to say that i yeas Arsti awtvr© of the

Bayly correspondence when Mrs Thomasen came to To Puke subsequent to the meeting in Foster’s Hotel, Wanganui. Mrs subsequent to that interview gave to the police a full statement of alj the information in her possession. Under her instructions I handed to the police any correspondence brought to Te Puke. Mrs Langdon at Te Puke made a full statement to the police. It is contrary to fact to say that such statement does not support her sister’s statement. ' Mrs Thomasen was instructed to refrain from discussing the matter with anyone other than the police, who are the proper persons to make all the necessary inquiries. 'This ’instruction was given in order to leave the police untrammelled in their subsequent operations by either propaganda oi newspaper publicity. As, however,- a firm of solicitors in Auckland has seen fit to release for publication by the Press a portion only of tha correspondence, thus tending to mislead both the newspapers and the public, I invite, subject. of course, to the consent of the .police, the publication of all the correspondence available, together with the statements made in connection with the matter to,the police. So far as Mrs Thomasen Ms concerned, she now demands a full and proper investigation into the whole of tho transactions at and around the' interview at Foster’s Hotel. Wanganui, as the published reports to date have created in the minds of the public an entirely erroneous impression of what actually took place at tho interview.”