HOMESTEAD MURDER

Evening Star, Issue 25180, 20 May 1944, Page 4

HOMESTEAD MURDER

FARMER'S WIFE THE VICTIM 100 MEN SEARCH FOR MISSIHG FARM HAND (P.A.) GISBORNE, May 20. The search for a missing employee on Bexhaven Station, Tokomaru Bay, has continued without remission since the finding of the body of Mrs Lois Rosamond Mill on Thursday evening with her head battered and a belt tightly drawn about her neck. More than 100 settlers have been organised, and night, and day they are on the alert, concentrating their efforts on the bush within a 15-mile radius of Bexhaven homestead. Some are on foot, and others on horseback, and although traces of a person were discovered not far from the home yesterday, nothing further has been found.

The police and the settlers are conducting the' search under extreme difficulties. Shortly after the arrival of the police from Gisborno at midnight on Thursday the weather began to deteriorate. The police were not clothed for outdoor work in wet weather, and their uniforms soon _ became mud-bespattered. Last night heavy rain began, and this morning Bexhaven Stations was isolated from wheeled traffic. The station is 25 miles inland from Tokomaru Bay on the Ihungia road, and the road for seven miles" bogs up in bad weather. The cars attempting the journey this morning were either axle deep, or could not be kept on the slippery portions. A serious problem lias arisen in catering for the large number of men who joined in the search. Last night the 22 police and the neighbouring settlers camped in the homestead and station buildings, and at 9.30 a.m. today the party were still without breakfast. They were still waiting for food to come from Tokomaru Bay. To-day the position intensified with the organisation of many more settlers, who number more than 100. Pack horses are being used to take supplies of food to the station. Police Inspector D. A. Maclean expressed his admiration of the settlers who assisted the police under the worst possible weather conditions in the search of the homestead and neighbourhood. , v The police have not been able to discover a trace of the weapon used.