MYSTERY DEATH

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11539, 16 January 1932, Page 9

MYSTERY DEATH

MELBOURNE POLICE BA I I 1,E1.). SYDNEY, Dec. 21. Mystery surrounds the death ot Gwendoline Pitman, a single woman, who was found terribly burned and barely conscious near her home at Marysville (Victoria) one day - last week. Tile circumstances of tile case constitute one. of the most- baffling mysteries in the history of Australian crime. Of a well-connected and wellknown family. Miss Pitman.' who was f 3 years of age, entered into partnership some time ago with a man ot artistic tastes, 'll ley built a quaint house which they called “The Log Cabin.” and fitted it up as a curiosity shop, combining photography and hairdressing with the sale ol curios and works of art. They established a modest trade with tourists. Miss Pitmail lived alone in this cabin on the outskirts of the little town of Marysville. and her partner made his home elsewhere. On three occasions, during the past twelve months she made attempts to take her own life, and her sister Olive vanished into the bush in 1920 and was not heard of again. Miss Pitman was last seen alive by her partner the night before she was discovered terribly burned. She was evidently expected a visitor fi>r tea or supper, for her table was sot for two. Who tlie person’ was she expected, or whether anybody did visit her, has not been ascertaihde. She was found early the next day lying in a small clearing on the banks of a stream-near her cabin, so shockingly burned as to be almost unrecognisable. Her body was blackened by fire from the waist up. Strangely, there was a burn on one leg under an undamaged silk stocking, and her hands were not so badly burned as the rest of her body. The police ask: Would she not have made some attempts to beat out the flames with her hands if* she had been aide to use them? The left side of her bead was charred as though she had lain in a, fire. All her hair was gone, and the .scalp was burned through. It appears that her injuries could not have been caused solely by llie lucre flaming of her petrol-soaked clothes.

Still alive when found, Miss Pitman murmured to the police, “Petrol —the only way out.’’ Then she lapsed into unconsciousness. Just before she died she is said to have made a statement, the nature of which the |)olice -'refuse to reveal before they have made further inquiries. A resident of the town has informed the police that he hoard a motor car leave the town at midnight, but the police ‘have not yet established whether .Miss Pitman bad a, visitor , If she soaked her clothes in petrol tlio police are at a loss to understand why .slio left, her house, and how .she climbed the high fence that- surrounds' her home. A little . safe, in which she , kept her , valuables wns found to,.be. intact. Generally the suicide theory is exploded •by the taeti that the woman was found some distance from the spot where, it was obvious, she received her -injuries. Her partner can throw no light, on the .tragedy, and it .was .only after he had i made, a. search Chat her body was discovered. , , . ■ .