TWO CRIMES

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 4 August 1924, Page 9

TWO CRIMES

MURDER OF GIRL. FULLER PARTICULARS. 8Y 0 A BL1 —PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT Received Aug. 4, 10.20 a.m. MELBOURNE, Aug. 4. In connection with the Caulfield tragedy, Irene Tuckerman was sent at 11 o’clock on Saturday morning bv her brother to obtain 3s from his mother, who is a widow and works in a grocery shop 400 yards from home, in Crimea road. The girl obtained the money, and immediately left the premises, it is believed that she was seen in Bala-

ldava road, 800 yards from home, a little after 11, and apparently she was not seen again alive. Her disappearance was reported to the police when the mother returned home from work on Saturday night shortly before eight. On Sunday morning a medical student, named B. F. Stewart, and his brother were proceeding to church when they saw a bundle on the roadside, and on investigation it was found to be an old bran bag tied at the end. 'Stewart untied the bag. and found a similar bag inside. This he also untied, and the body of the child was discovered. After satisfying himself that there was no life in the body Stewart notified the police. A dairyman saw the bundle lying on the roadside at 5.30 in the morning, and in the dim light he thought it rubbish and passed on. During the past year frequent complaints have been made by school children that they were accosted by men. and many parents made a practice of meeting children on. the way from school.

The street in which the girl’s body was found is a short thoroughfare, unmade at one end, and hunches' of shrubbery grow by the wayside. The body was only 200 yards from home, and this fact is thought to he significant. It is believed that the body was placed there in the early hours of the morning, as a young man passed the snot at halfpast 12 and saw nothing to "excite suspicion. It is believed that whoever committed the crime carried the victim on foot from some olace nearby.—Aus.N.Z. .Cable Assn.

The girl Tuckerman was a twin child and was one of a family of seven, of whom the mother is the widow of a returned soldier. Bruises about the neck and chest indicate that there had been a. desperate struggle, and that a cord had been used to strangle her. An attempt, apparently unsuccessful, was made to commit a criminal offence. ANOTHER. TRAGEDY. INDICATIONS OF MURDER, Received Aug. 4, 11.5 a.m. SYDNEY, Ang. 4. Details of the Cess nock tragedy show that John Nelson, a miner, went on a shooting expedition and was proceeding through the bush, when, in passing a stagnant pool, lie was horrified to- find the body of a man Moating in the centre. He immediately returned to Cessnock and informed the police, who u ith difficulty recovered the body. The corpse was fully clothed, but hatless. The man's age appeared to be about 45. A letter in his pocket was addressed to “0. Mu-rphy.” On the right- eve and side of the head, were discoloration, which indicated that he had been struck with some blunt instrument, although these facts alone are insufficient to lead to the belief that death was caused by foul play. Two months ago school children, returning home, found lying in the bush three or four hundred yards from the pool an ordinary carpenter’s hammer and a man’s felt hat. Both articles were marked with dry blood stains. An examination of the spot by the police disclosed marks of a. struggle and further blood stains. The children’s find also coincides with the time the bodies believed to have been thrown into the, waterliole. The scene of the tragedy is a lonely part of the bush, -and the pool is hemmed in on all sides by dense undergrowth. The water is stagnant, and is a breeding ground for millions of mosquitoes and kindred pests. The spot is seldom visited. — Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.