ELSIE WALKER CASE

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 16 August 1929, Page 5

ELSIE WALKER CASE

FURTHER INTERVIEWS.

MRS. THOMASEN’S STATEMENT. REASONS FOR PREVIOUS SILENCE ■ GIVEN. Further statements regarding. tilie Eisie Walker case have been made to the “Auckland' Star” by Mrs Thomason and her sisters. “There is u good deal yet to be told that has not seen the light of day,’ declared Mrs M. Thoinasen when a “Star” representative showed her a copy of Monday's paper containing letters and statements relating to the Elsie Walker mystery. The letters were released lor publication bv the legal representatives of the Rayly family, from whose home the dead girl disappeared. Roth Mr Tliomasen and" his wife were very pleased at. the opportunity of perusing the “Auckland Star” of Monday evening, containing the letters and the statement released by Mrs Bayly’s solicitors in Auckland on Monday. Both read the matter very carefully, and While doing so Mrs Thoinasen remarked emphatically that there were several inaccuracies in the story as told bv Mrs Rayly. “Unfortunately,” Mrs Thoinasen said, “I am so far away front Mr Cooney, my solicitor, and I do not know just exactly how much I should tell you without first conferring with him, but I will tell you what I wilt do. I will give you a letter to Mr Cooney, and if he thinks fit for me to release the whole of the story I can assure you that 1 will do so without the slightest hesitation. There is a; good deal vet. to be said that hast not seen the light of day. “Yes,” she added with emphasis, “that’s their side of the story.” “And,” added 1 Mr Tliomasen, “ours will be unfolded. The police have certain particulars that we think will clear up tih-e lnn-tt-er. and' wKieli slioixld b-e disclosed.” “INTENDED TO TELL MRS RAYLY” Mrs Thoinasen herself said she had heard it was suggested she had attempted to blackmail Mrs Ray ay. “Mrs Rayly and I were friendly as neighI hours for many years at Papamoa,” silie said, “and nothing was 1 further from my mind than ever to attempt to blackmail or extort any money whatsoever from her. As the mother of children of my own I had kept quiet, about my having seen Rill Rayly on the train on October 1, but 1 intended to tell Mrs Rayly before I left Papamoa.” “Yes,” interposed Mr Thomasen, “about three weeks before Christmas, just prior to our leaving the district for our present home here, the wife paid a neighbourly call on Mrs Bayly. Before she went she said to me: ‘Arthur, I’m going to tell Mrs Rayly that I saw Rill on the train that night.” Mrs Thoinasen then said: “Yes, I went up, but found Mrs Rayly crying. It appeared that Rill’s wife had written to Mr Rayly suggesting that the baby should be named after him. Mrs Rayly said she was upset because she was not mentioned in the letter. In the state that she was in, crying, what woman could tell her?” The husband continued the narrative : “I asked the wife on her return if she had to'itl Mrs Rayly, and she replied that, she had not.” At this stage Mr and Mrs Thomasen said 'they would like to make it quite clear that- they did not leave Papamoa hurriedly, as rumour had suggested. H© said that he had purchased the property at Panarangi last August, two months before the disappearance of Elsie Walker, and he moved; to his new home inst before last Christmas. They lived in a- tent until he got his own housi l .sufficiently advanced to transfer

his wife and four children. Mr Thom a sen went on to say that a few weeks after they arrived at Paparaugi his wife became very worried over the whole matter. Site knew that she had not told Detective-Sergeant Kelly when he interviewed her on October 19 that she had seen Bill Bayly on the train. “She was restless in her sleep, andl her health was becoming impaired,” he said. “Often at night she would wake up very excited after having dreamt about the Baylys and Papoimoa. One morning about 4 o’clock she aroused me and said: ‘Look here, I’m going to get this thing off my mind. We are o-oing right away to see our solicitor.’ A short time after we were on the road for Hamilton, and later to see Mr Cooney.” THE WANGANUI INTERVIEW. Referring to the remarkable interview in a room of Poster’s Hotel, Mrs Thomason said she had remarked to her husband while jihe was on the way into Wanganui to see Mrs Bayiiy, “Now I wonder if this is a trap.” “We went to Mrs Bayly’s room at thee hotel,” she said. “It was about two o’clock on Saturday afternoon, Jime 22. I had not been there long before my suspicions were confirmed through _ Mrs Bayly repeating in a most insistent manner, ‘What do you suggest ?’ I also heard noises in the adjoining room. I had enough of that and went into the street. Altogether the interview lasted' about one and three-quiarter hours. While we were in the struct I- could not hefip but notice that when we oasssd certain men Mrs Bayly spoke very loudly.” “Of course, the wife was wrong in the first place in not telling alii she knew to the police,’ Mr Thomasen said. “She knows that now, and that is why she wants tiife matter dleared up.

“The suggestion of blackmail is absurd,’ Mr Thouiasien said. ‘‘What could we do with £IO.OOO, or even less? Keep it in a tin? Why, the detectives inquired most minutely into ■our financial position.” “Look here, interrupted Mrs Thomason , “if I wanted to blackmail Mrs Bayly or anvone else I would have done so before I left Pa.pamoa. ”

“USE TO LIKE THE BAYLYS.” She added that she wanted to be quite fair to Mrs Bayly, inasmuch as Mrs Bayly did not know that she (Mrs Thomason) had seen Bill on the train until she wrote to her. She expained that her only motive for not telling the deteetivey that she had seen Bill on the train was on account of neighbourly sympathy in the worries the Baylys naturally had at the time over the disappearance of Elsie Walker. “I used to like the Baylys,” she said. “You see, I lived alongside them for many yeans, but now Mrs Baytiy is going to be sorry that she brought this matter up, that she informed the police about- her idea, of it. It is all wrong. Just wait until I make known the whole of what I know. Mrs Langdon iailso knows what I do about the train incident and other tilings.” The ‘ ‘Star’ ’ reporter asked Mrs Thomasisn how it was that recently Mrs Langdon, her sister, when asked if she saw Bill Bayly on the train, had said she did not support Mrs Thomasen’s statement. “Ah, but you see my sister and I have not been eorresponding for months and have not seen each other,” Mrs Thomasen repliied, “and she knew all along that T was keeping quiet about it.” Both Mr and 1 Mrs Thomasen thanked the pressmen for calling and said they were pleased to ha.ve the chat with them. They said they were not wor-

ried in the slightest degree over the matter.

MRS THOMASEVS SISTER

Living at 19, Cook Street, Hamilton East, is a married sister of Mrs Thomasen, Mrs Harriett Richardson. Like her sisters, she was born in a house which stands a few feet from the entrance to the drive to the Bayly : home at Papamoa. She is, therefore, quite familiar with locality. At the time of the Elsie Walker tragedy she and her husband were staying at Matata, near r |'e Puke. Mrs Richardson told a “Star” representative this, morning that she was fully acquainted with the fact that her two sisters, Mrs Thomasen and Mrs Laugdon, said they had seen i Bill Bayl.v on the train on October 1. A few * days after the tragedy they were all at Tauranga together, when the disappearance of Bayly’s motor car was naturally the subject of discussion. She remembered Mrs Thomasen remarking later in the day, “Oh, by the way, did I tell you Bill Bayly was on the train that night?” Mrs Richardson declared that during the same or the following week she told Miss Besznak, the district nurse at Matata, that her two sisters had seen him on the train. She also said Mrs Langdon distinctly heard a car pass along the drive after midnight on the night the Bayly’s disappeared. She was certain it was after midnight, as they had visitors at the house until late. As the house stands right alongside the drive she could not have mistaken it for a car passing along the main road, which is some chains away. She stated that Inspector Eccles, who knew the district, had admitted "to her. after having made an inspection of the place, that it was unlikely a mistake in this direction could he made.

Recentlv. Mrs Richardson said, Detectives Bickerdike and White called on her and asked why Mrs Thomasen had not spoken before. Mrs Richardson told 1 them that her sister had always said she would only speak if a’ certain member of the police force got into trouble over the case. The detectives asked whv she thought he would scet into- trouble, and she replied that “It was common gossip that he had not been thanked for what he had done by headquarters.” SIMULTANEOUS INTERVIEWS. Asked how it came about that Mrs Langdon, in an interview by a detective, subsequent to the interview with Mrs Thomasen. denied she had seen Bill Bayly on the train, Mrs Richard-

son explained that the interview, while subsequent, was only a few hours later. Mrs Langdon was interviewed in Auckland by one detective almost simultaneously with Mrs Thomasen in Wanganui. Mrs Langdon knew Mrs Thomasen had intended to keep the matter qniet for the sake of the Baylys, and she was not going to let her down. She did not know that just a few hours before her sister had been interviewed in Wanganui.

Mrs Richardson concluded by stating that the reason her sisters had not stated in the first place, when interviewed, that they saw Bill Bayly on the train, was that the Baylys had so much trouble, and that they felt sorrv for them. Like Mrs Thomasen, Mrs Richardson is a well-educated, refined woman, of open demeanour. She said she was grateful that she had been asked by the “Star” to make a statement.- She felt that a good deal had yet to be cleared up.

“PUBLISH IT ALL.” Mr H. O. Cooney, solicitor, counsel for Mi's Thomasen, in an interview, made the following statement: “I have seen the statements publish in the ‘Auckland Star’ of the 12th inst. I have to say that I was first, aware of the Thomasen-Bayly correspondence when Mrs Thomasen came to Te Puke subsequent to the meeting in Foster’s Hotel, Wanganui. Mrs Thomasen, subsequent to that interview, gave to the- police a full statement of all the information in her possession. Under her instructions, I handed to the police any correspondence brought to Te Puke. Mrs Langdon, at Te Puke, made a full statement to the police. It is contrary to fact to say that such statement does not. support her sister’s statement. Mrs Thomasen was instructed to refrain from discussing the matter with anyone other than the police, who are the proper persons to make all -necessary inquiries. This instruction was given in order to leave the police untrammelled in their subsequent operations by either propaganda or newspaper publicity “As, however, a firm of solicitors in Auckland has seen fit to release for publication by the Press a portion only of the correspondence, thus tending to mislead both newspapers and public, I invite—subject, of course, to the consent of the police—the publication of all the correspondence available, together with the statements made in connection with the matter to the police. “So far as Mrs Thomasen is concerned, she now demands a full and 1 proper investigation into the whole ef the transactions at and round the interview at Foster’s Hotel, Wanganui, as the published' reports to date have created in the minds of the public an entirely erroneous impression of what actually took place at the interview.’