POLICE INQUIRY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIX, Issue 62, 28 February 1929, Page 3

POLICE INQUIRY

ELSIE WALKER CASE CHIEF DETECTIVE'S EVIDENCE. NO ELEMENTS OF MURDER. Auckland, Feb. 27. The police inquiry into the Elsie Walker case was continued yesterday. Inpsctor Hollis said the main object why Detective-Sergeant Bickerdike replaced Detective-Sergeant Kelly on the inquiry was to have a fresh mind on the case, but also Chief-Detective Hammond was sick and Detective-Sergeant Kelly was then senior. Details of the methods of crime detection employed by the police officers in the case were given by witness after the Commissioner had cleared the Court and had made an order prohibiting the publication of the evidence. The question of the taking of finger prints was discussed and evidence was given by DetectiveSergeant Issell, finger print expert. Mr. Johnstone, to Inspector Hollis; In your theory, did you consider the dogs at the farm? Witness: Oh, yes. There wenthree dogs at the farm, and they did not bark. Had a stranger been about the place they would have barked. The Commissioner: Did you think the girl had driven the ear all that distance at night, over unknown roads ? Witness: Yes. lam told she could back a car, and that if you can back a car vou can drive it. And you still hold your theory?— Yes. After having had all the facts known? —Yes, sir. It is only my theory. INVESTIGATIONS DETAILED. Chief-Detective Hammond then gave evidence. He said that when at home on the night of October 5 he was informed by telephone that n woman’s body had been found and it was then at the morgue. He told Sergeant Cliss, who had telephoned him, to leave things alone until the morning, when he would attend to them. Next morning at 7.45 he communicated with Dr. Murray and met him at the morgue at 8.15. He also sent a message to Detective-Sergeant Kellv and telephoned to Mr. Hunt, coroner, who told him to get Dr. Murray to make a post mortem examination in the morgue. They found the body stripped of clothing. He made no comment in regard to this, but was surprised. Witness requested Dr. Murray to look for certain things and suggested certain causes which might have led to the girl’s death. He also told the doctor to preserve the contents of the stomach for an analyist. “I suggested that it might have been a case of murder, but it did not look like one,” witness said. At that time he did not know who the girl was. A thorough external examination of the body was made by him and Detective-Sergeant Kelly. There was no mark on the body to show the girl had been struck, or had met with any violence, and his experience in such examinations was large. Dr. Gilmore arrived at 9 o’clock. An external examination of the body was made by both doctors, who informed him that there were no external injuries likely to cause death. When at the detective office he read the report of Acting-Detective Waterson, who had seen the body at night and who had reported he suspected violence, he commented that the acting detective had been wrong in assuming violence. It was then that he learnt the identity of deceased. CLOTHING ON THE BODY. The clothing found on the body was given to him by Acting-Detective Waterson. It was damp and was hung out to dry. Witness sent Detec-tive-Sergeant Kelly. Detective Mills and Acting-Detective Waterson to the scene at Tamaki. to search for any weapon and to make an examination of the ground. Apart from that, he told them to examine the car at a garage at Papatoetoe. Before the detectives left he obtained from Dr. Gilmore the result of the post mortem examination, which was to the effect that they could find no injury of any kind. Witness sent for Frank Baylv to conle to Auckland to identify the body, and he had never seen anyone so upset at seeing a body as Bavly was. Bayly was strongly of opinion that the girl had driven the car and had endeavoured to get home to Opotiki, hut that when she got to Rotorua she missed the roads. He told witness that the girl had once started the car with a cranking handle. “We all know,” the ChiefDetective said, “that if a person can start a car with a crank handle he can drive it.” . After talking with an aunt of a certain witness at the inquest, witness was satisfied that the man had not been away from Auckland. On examining the girl’s shoes, lie saw a mark on the waist of the left shoe which indicated to him she had used her foot for the cliitch. Dr. Murray had mentioned a small bruise on the head of the girl. One night the doctor said to him. “I keep worrying about that bruise on the head. I cannot understand, though, why there was no haemorrhage. I think there is a case on the point.” This was before the supplementary report of December. Speaking of the extensive nature of the inquiry in the case, witness said, “In all my 34 years of work in the police department I can say that this case has received much more attention than any other I have known in New Zealand. The case did not merit the large inquiry it received, because it was not murder, nor did it have the elements of murder. The publicity given to it has caused a great deal of investigation which was not warranted.” The Commission adjourned the inquiry until to-morrow.