TAMAKI TRAGEDY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 January 1929, Page 5

TAMAKI TRAGEDY

ELSIE WALKER’S DEATH.

REMOVAL OF BODY. ■ CORONER. ASKS QUESTIONS. . (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ! AUCKLAND, Jan. 15.'v. I The inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Miss Elsie;Walker, aged 17, whose body was found, in scrub near Tamaki on October 5, was . continued for the iourtli day to-day; The girl disappeared on the night .of -.' October 1 from the' house of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bayiy» of P'apamoa, Bay of) Plenty, with wlioni. she had been staying for over a year-.;’. Detective Waterson said that on the night the body was found he received instructions about 11 p.m. to go to'the morgue. The instructions were that the body was there and.' that detective investigations were noeessary. Among those present were two doctors. The body was lying dressed on the slab. Witness examined' it for signs of injury. He found the face' very bacHy beaten. It had the appearance of having been knocked about. The left cheek was missing and the angle of tile jaw was badly injured. An eye ’was swollen and the hair was much covered with blood. Apart from the arms the rest of the body, .showed no signs of injury. There was no hat, but the body was fully dressed, with the overcoat buttoned up. There was no money in the pockets; but two letters \ and two handkerchiefs were found in • the -pockets of the overcoat.; ■" -...f J 1 Pieces of the clothing were produced, including a fragment of silk which appeared to be torn or cut. The initials G.N.L.8., those of Godfrey Bayiy,-were seen on a handkerchief found ill the" pocket. Blood stains were observed by witness on the skirt. He was sure the stains were there before lie removed the clothing from the body. 1 Describing his visit to the place where the body' was found, the detective said that traces of -blood were found on the leaves under the bush where the girl was lying. In reply to the coroner, witness said the doctors were there when he was examining the body, and they .also looked at it.

The Coroner: Don’t you think it was very improper for you to remove; the clothing f—The regulations say we mus’t thoroughly examine the body. ; ;“~7 But see how essential it was tnat.we,.! should know the relative position of the

garments.—l knew exactly how they were on the body. y The Coroner: But don’t you see-that by rolling the clothing up as you did you caused stains to appear in different places, so that no one could, tell theywere on the front or the back. i Air. Hunt then asked' whose duty witness considered it was to make the.: ,

report to the coroner, to which wit- f ness replied that it would be made by the officer in charge of the case, Sergeant- Kelly. ’.. . L..’_ Mr. Hunt: You knew the girl was :■ missing from the same place as the car? - .. . ; . .. Witness: Yes. : * - ; 7 > 1 Evidence was given hv two men who.; had seen a girl early op the morning ■ of October 2. A newspaper carrier saw . a girl about 4.45 near Papatoetoe,. arid ; a road worker saw a girl about-;; 9 • o’clock the same morning walking, in the direction of Panmure. The . second witness said there was a young man in the neighbourhood about _ two hours afterwards. He was idling under a shop verandah. - j Detective Kelly detailed the police linvestigations in the case. V Witness ~ said they were first advised of tlie - L finding of the body about 8.30 on the evening of October 5. He fold Constable Collins to view the body and under no circumstances to' remove it, from the condition it -was found ini-

iAbout 9.80 Constable Collins rang wife., ness and reported the result of his examination. He said he thought the girl had either committed suicide or had crawled in . the scrub and died.*‘l told him to remove the body to the morgue,” said witness. “What you should have done was to send somebody to look after the -body until the morning and then made the examination,” said Mr. Hunt. Air. Hunt: You did not know of stains on her clothes at that stage Witness: I had seen some on the clothes and the dress. I noted various marks on the garments, , _y y Air. Hunt: “Why didn’t you tell the doctor about the blood? Witness: The reason I did not tell, the doctor of the. stains was because of the fact that the doctor told the chief detective that the girl had not been interfered with and. that he- sus-

pected poison. ' • - At this stage the inquiry - was adjourned until to-morrow.