AUSTRALIAN CRIMES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 December 1935, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN CRIMES

MURDER OF CLERGYMAN POLICE INVESTIGATION [ UY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] MELBOURNE, December 13. The police searched all night for tire murderer of the Rev. Harold Cecil. He was fifty-nine years of age, and was single. He was found battered to death in his vicarage, St. Saviour’s Anglican Church, at Collingwood, last night. The hunt was continued to-day. Detectives are confident of an early development. A strong theory is that Mr. Cecil was slain by a thief. He is widely mourned in the parish, where he did much work for the poor. HOLMES SHOOTING ' (Rec. December 14, 8 a.m.) SYDNEY, December 12. At the Criminal Court, John Patrick Strong, to-night was found not guilty of murdering Reginald Holmes. ROBBERY ALLEGED SYDNEY, December 13. The detectives are investigating the story of kidnapping and robbery, related by a youthful solicitor’s clerk who, while in possession of £3O, the property of an employer’s client, declares he was taken away in a motor car last Monday, robbed, and finally released in the north coast town of Casino, a friendly motorist giving him a lift back to Sydney.

MONTEREY VICTIMS MELBOURNE, December 13. The girl stowaway, who leapt from the Monterey overnight, has been identified as Phyllis Elbon, aged 22, who left a note in her cabin saying that she was in love with a steward on the Monterey, whom she met ashore at Melbourne on December 6. Her body has not been recovered. The police are inquiring into the death of James Taylor, porter on the Monterey, as cabled to-day. They express the opinion that there has been foul play as the porter’s head was severely injured. He had attended a party on the night prior to his disappearing.