WEST COAST MYSTERY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 27 November 1930, Page 5

WEST COAST MYSTERY

TR OLLEYMAN ’ S DISAPPEARANCE.

UNSUCCESSFUL POLICE SEARCH

(By Telegraph —Press Association.) GREYMOUTH. Nov. 25. Despite continued searching by the policei in the bush country, there is no •sicTii vet of Ernest Mansfield Burr who has 'been missing since November t from his home at Marsden.

STORY OF' DISAPPEARANCE.

BLOODSTAINS IN BEDROOM,

For four days now detectives and experienced bushmen have searched the dense bushland, with its thousands ot abandoned mine-shafts, which. surrounds the house of Ernest Mansfield Burr at Marsden, from which Burr disappeared on the night of November 7 states the Greymouth correspondent of the Christchurch “Star.’.’ So far nothing has been seen or beard of him. There is some evidence that he may have gone away of his own accord 1 , but the police are working on evidence which would indicate that he had been murdered.

Burr, a thirty-year-old married man, was employed as a locomotive trolleyman at Ogiivie’s mill at Marsden, ten miles out from Greymouth. A few weeks ago his wife went away. He remained at the house alone until November 7, when with an acquaintance he visited Greymouth. He returned home after midnight, but when morning came was not to be found.

BLOODSTAINS. FOUND. The neighbours, though mystified, did ■not place any sinister meaning on the absence until a few days ago, when one of them rang Mr Burr’s, brother at Ngahere and told him. Inquiries were set- on foot at once, and! the house was searched. 11l a back bedroom where Burr was accustomed to sleep it was found that the sheets, pillows and mattress had been removed, and the walls and 'bed were bespattered with blood. A search was commenced, but almost at once came word that two men had seen a man answering Burr’s description riding a bicycle near Runanga. This was discounted almost immediately, however, as it was known that Burr did not own a bicycle, though times he borrowed one from a friend. The acquaintance in whose company Burr had spent the night, Mr Frederick Tibbies, a farmer of Nelson Creek, told the police, however, that Burr had mentioned to him that he was going away next morning early, and a neighbour, Mrs A. S.' Johnstone, stated that just as dawn was breaking on November 8 she thought she heard sounds of movement at Burr’s place. Mr F. H. Tibbies states that he called for Burr about 7.30 p.m. with his car, and that the two of them went into Greymoutli together. There they were joined at an hotel by Mr Tibbies’s brother and another friend, and spent the evening together. Mr Tibbies drove the four of them home, dropping his brother and friend at South Beach, a few miles out of Greymontli. “I intended staying the night at Burr’s” said Mr Tibbies, “but when wo got there lie told me after we had been talking a. while that he was going away early next morning. He did not say where he was going, -but I thought, knowing that lie had drawn his pay the day previously, he was going back to Greymouth. I decided that it wasn’t worth my while to stay there for the night as lie was leaving early, so went on to Nelson Creek. I thought after I left that it was strange that he did not say where he was going.” “Burr’s manner during the evening was just as usual,” Mr Tibbies said, “and lie did not look as though anything was wrong.”

BROTHERS’ BELIEF. Burr’s brothers are positive that lie would 1 nob go away without lettin.g them know. He was very much attached to. his widowed mother and eight brothers. Further, they point out that Burr’s larder had apparently only recently been restocked, and that a bankbook and other articles had l been left. The only things missing were the best suit of clothes which he had been wearing that night. There were other intimate details about the house which indicated that the owner did not intend to stay away. An impetus was given to the search by the discovery that the big punt at the lake at the old 1 Maori Creek dredging ground is missing, and men worked all day dragging the lake, but they met with no success.