KUROW TRAGEDY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXII, Issue 10002, 4 May 1925, Page 5

KUROW TRAGEDY

BOY AND GIRL LOVERS. KEPT COMPANY FOR FOURYEARS. MYSTERY STILiTiJNEXPLAINED. OAMARU, April 28. Olive Rutherford, a girl 18 years of age. the vict’m of the Kurow tragedy, and Philip Hud-son. 19 years, had been keeping company for four years, and were formally engaged, with the full approval of the parents. They had been away together on several occasions. Miss Rutherford on the day preceding the accident, had a difference with her mother concerning certain details of the former’s emp'oynient. It is understood that the g’rl left home- on Tuesday morning, April 21, taking a dress basket, and did not go to work. It is believed that a room was taken in a Dunedin hotel, and the dress basket left there. Mrs. Rutherford d'd not see her daughter up to the time of the accident. Consent was given to Hudson by bis oaronts to use the car about 6.30 on Tuesday evening. Hudson was a careful and experienced driver. There is no official information ns to the time the pair left Duncd’n, nor the’r movements up to the time of Die accident. SCENE OF TRAGEDY. No one knows when the couple left Dunedin. The scene of the tragedy is a lonely rocky part of the road, 60 miles from Oamaru. Apparently the car, a two-seater Austin, was not under' proper control when it went over the cl'if, as it had left the smooth part of the road and had just missed a telegraph pole by inches. From the evidence avai'ablc the car was travelling at a fair speed when it shot over tho cliff. The police, including Detective le ,8-euer, commenced inquiries on \VecC nesday afternoon. They found Hudson’s watch stopped at 7.25, bes de the body of the girl ; also a hrt glove, and a man’s handerchief soaked with blood. A man’s lint was found nearby with a bole in the top. An empty cartridge was found beside Olive Rutherford and another near the wrecked car. Empty chocolate boxes and broken lemonade bottles were also •found. The bloodstains led from the bodv of tlie girl clown the side of the hill past the debris of the car and on again over the stones down to the water’s edge. The stains were not extens've, but. sufficient to show the direction in which Hudson went. The rifle-, if used, was not discovered. and it is thought that it may have been taken to the river by Hudson. COMPLAINED OF SORE NECK. Whether Hudson and tho girl were in the car when it went .over the cliff w *ll probably never be uetermineu. When discovered, the girl had a bleeding wound in the top of the skull, ar.d there was a small round bole in the head, au operation was performed on Wednesday evening at 11 o’clock. Her face was scratched, apparently through striking on tlie rocks, and there were severe abrasions about the body. The girl, though unconscious. spoke several times, hut made no reference to the accident, excepting to say that her neck was sore. DISCOVERED BY SHEPHERD. Mr. Condon, a res'dent of Kurow. when passing along the road at 7.10 a.m. on Wednesday, April 22, saw tho c-Sir pulled up on the side of the load near where the accident subsequently happened, and ascertained fiom Hudson waving bis band that all was well. A shepherd who passed on a horse at 7.30 a.m., fn a heavy fog. noticed a disturbance metal on the road where the car had left. it. He went further up the road, and on returning- investigated. Loolcng over the cliff., be saw the remains of the car and a bodv lying on a ledge 25 feet down. Dr. Matbeson, of Whnre/curi, was communicated with, and. assisted bv bis wife, dressed the wounds and conveyed the girl to the Kurow Hotel. -• The death of Miss Rutherford occurred at 9 p.m. on Saturday without her regaining consciousness, except to murmur “Good night” to her mother. The body was brought to Oamaru. and a post-mortem examination, held in the evening, showed that a bullet had entered the top -of her head on tho left side, emerging near the right ear. The hram was bncVy lacerated, and it is remarkable that she lived so long.