SHOCKING MURDER

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 12

SHOCKING MURDER

LITTLE GIRL FOUND DEAD KILLED BY BLOW ON THE HEAD i [Per United Press Association.] r fc WELLINGTON, April I<L With a wound on the back of lief, head, Vera Forster, aged four and a-half years, was found murdered in al, clump of scrub beyond the Upper Huttfj last evening. She had been missing alii* day. The body was discovered a hun-i* dred yards from her parents’ home* 1 A piece of stout iron piping was found lying near the body. The girl was the youngest of th# four children of Mr James Valentin#! Forster, of Maori Bank, Upper HuttJ She had been playing around the house} during the morning. Her absence wasj not noticed by her parents until about! noon. The parents, becoming axiousJ notified the police. A search party wa*| organised, the aid of about forty help-? ers being enlisted. The locality i<| sparsely populated, the nearby hill* being covered with dense scrub. Shortly before 9 o’clock two youth* noticed a splash of colour in the scrub, k and on investigation they discovered the girl’s body. Lying near the dead girl was a piece of iron piping about' 2ft in length and almost an inch and' a-half in thickness. It was stained with blood. . The case is said to be unparalleled in the history of the district. The girls’ parents are natives of England who have resided in the dis* trict for the past eight years, MAN ARRESTED CHARGED WITH MURDER WELLINGTON, April 16. Horace Frank Livermore, alias Johnston, was arrested early this morning and charged in the Police Court today with the murder of' the child at the Upper Hutt yesterday. On the application of Sub-inspector Ward a remand was granted till April 22. Livermore was detained soon after the discovery of the child’s body last evening, and was charged with the murder at 2 a.m. He was brought to Wellington by detectives, and appeared in the Magistrate’s Court before Mr T< B. M‘Neil, S.M. He is a single man, and was employed by Mr Forster as a labourer, and had been living with the Forsters since September last. Mr Forster keeps a poultry farm, and is employed by Mr J. T. Benge. The murdered child was the youngest of four, there being another daughter and two sons.