ELDERLY WOMAN IS MURDERED IN HOME AT FOXTON

Grey River Argus, 8 November 1949, Page 5

ELDERLY WOMAN IS MURDERED IN HOME AT FOXTON

PALMERSTON NORTH, Nov. 6 An elderly woman, Emily Christina Hall, a widow, was found brutally murdered in the kitchen of her home at the corner of Cook and Main Streets, Foxton, at 10.30 a.m. to-day, when Constable Ballock forced an entry to the building to investigate a report that she had been missing since 11 a.m. last Friday. She was lying on her back on the floor cf the kitchen with her head badly battered by a household tire shovel, but these wounds were not the cause of death. It has been established by the pathologist, Dr. P. P. Lynch, that she died of strangulation and a broken neck. A gag made out of her own oven cloth was tied over her mouth. She was fully clothed.

Mrs. Hall was 69, and had been a resident of Foxton for more than 20 years. She was last seen by neighbours leaving her house at 11 a.m. last Friday. She w r as not seen to return, but a person was seen visiting the house at 3 p.m. The police were busy to-day investigating this report. An old age pensioner who formerly boarded in. Mrs. Hall.s house was a daily visitor, and it was he who became suspicious w'hen he found the doors locked and all the blinds drawn on Friday afternoon and Saturday. On Sunday he communicated his fears to neighbours of Mrs. Hall, and at his request they contacted her relatives, who notified the police. Inquiries under the direction of Superintendent H. J. Joyce, of Palmerston North, were instituted immediately. Senior-Detective O. S. Power, Detective-Sergeants J. G. Long and J. H. Alty, amp Detective F. Pine all of Palmerston North, are engaged on the case. Sergeant J. Colclough, a finger-print expert, and Constable W. Miller, a police photographer, accompanied by the Commissioner of Police (Mr. J. Cummings) visited F'oxton this afternoon. PALMERSTON N„ Nov. 7 Up to mid-day’ there were no further developments; in connection with the death of Mrs Emily Christina Hall, whose battered and strangled body was discovered in her home in Foxton yesterday morning. Police reinforcements were sent from Palmerston North this morning. No arrest has yet been made and so far the police have suggested no motive for the crime. The deceased was in comfortable circumstances, being the owner of more than one property in Foxton township. She was well known throughout the Manawatu district and, although living alone, was by no means a recluse. Nothing has yet been disclosed to suggest that any considerable sums of money were ever kept in the house. NO CLUE P.A. PALMERSTON N.; Nov. 7. No major clues which might lead to the identity or motive of the murderer of Mrs Emily Christina Hall, who was found strangled in her home at Foxton on Sunday, were unearthed by intensive police investigations today. Routine interviews and the fingerprinting of numerous Foxton residents were carried out, and a brother of the murdered woman, John Alfred Nelson, a resident of Wellington, who visited her house about midday on Friday, went to Foxton at the request of the police. He told them he called to see Mrs Hall about mid-day, but there was nobody home. He then went to the house of another sister in Foxton to see if she were there, but again there was no one at home, so he returned to Wellington.