END OF A LONG SEARCH.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 September 1927, Page 2

END OF A LONG SEARCH.

GIRL'S DEATH AVENGED

Two years ami ■ a-half ago a Jittlo girl, Nellie Clarke, aged nearly 12 years, was murdered at Birkenhead, England, in circumstances of, frightful brutality. The local police could find no trace of the miscreant who had encompassed the death of the little girl. Aflter three weeks Scotland Yard was called in, but, following a long ami patient investigation, the metropolitan oUlcers returned to London without, making an arrest. The News of the World, however, has now been enabled to disclose the fact that the murderer of Nellie Clarke was traedd by the "Yard'' men, and was executed in Germany, where he had committed four similar crimes.

On January 10th, .1925, Nellie Clarke, who lived with her mother and stepfather, attended an afternoon concert given by the Mayor of the borough to entertain orphans of soldiers ami sailors. She was accompanied by her brother, John, aged l.‘l, and having spent a ha.ppy afternoon, returned home to tell her mother all about it. Little dreaming that a malignant fate was dogging the child’s footsteps, her mother sent her out on an ewfind which should havc occupied her only a few minutes.

From that errand the child never n/tuiiieU alive. Her delayed return, at Htsi accounted for by the assumption that she was playing with some companions, did not for some time cause any alarm but as the hours wore on her parents became uneasy and went out in search of her. No trace of Nellie eoukl be found. The police wore informed but though the neighbourhood hvas searched as well as it could be oh that dark January night Hiey, too, failed to laid the child. Hunt for the Murderer,

lit was 9 o'clock the following morning before Nellie was found. Then, on llhe roadside a few hundred yards from her home, a passerby saw her sitting apparently asleep leaning against a 'telegraph pole. He crossed over to the tchildi■ and found that she was dead. The police were immediately sent for •and the body was take® to 1 tihe mortuary. There an examination by medical men revealed tire fact that the child had been foully murdered. .Death was due to primarily strangulation. Ait once the police commenced a hunt for the murderer. Nellie's boots wore muddy and they should not have boon if she had walked only as far as the shop to which her mother had sent her. This Jed the police further afield. A close scared of the surrounding distridt was made, and eventually a button from the child's frock was found du a pathway in Bock Lane West, a 'thoroughfare which leads to a ttrldge igiving access to the docks. Search as they would, the police .could find no duo to the‘murderer. An anonymous letter, supposed to come from a courting couple, told the officers that a man had been seed near Rock Lane West carrying a child on his shoulder's. It was obvious that Nellie had been carried from the place where she was murdered to the spot where her body was found, but the police were never able to locate the scene of the tragedy. Scotland Yard Aid Called To Help.

Weeks' elapsed and still the police were baffled. On January 23rd the watch comimittee : decided to ask for Hict assistance of Scotland -Yard, but it was not until February 3rd that Chief Inspector Savage., of the Criminal Investigation Department, took up the investigation. A stain of oil on the child's clothing suggested to Mr. Savage that the murderer was a man who came into contact with engines ami wore clothes soiled with oil, A number of men who might have oil on their clothes were looked up and'their movements on the night of the crime wore inquired into. But nothing came of it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Savage had tinned his attention to the docks, and a long and thorough investigation resulted. Crews of ships wMcih had been in port at the time the crime was committed were examined, and other ships which had left for foreign shores were^ traced to their destination, close inquiry being made about the men who manned them. Mr. Samgc came to the conclusion that tho murderer was a seafaring nfan of foreign birth, but the task of finding’ him was rendered almost impossible because with the lapse of time the crows of the ships which had left Birkenhead after the crime was committed were scattered to the four corners of the world. Solution of the Mystery.

And so the mystery remained unsolved for many months. But once Scotland Yard takes up an inquiry it never entirely drops it. Thus it came about that some time ago a man was arrest ted in Germany and changed with the murder of a child who had been done to death in the .same manner as had Nellie Clark. Scotland Yard, with the Birkenhead mystery still unsolved, became suspicious, and at once made enquiries. They found that the man arresfled in Wurtemberg was a German who ha'd gained bis living as a stoker on ti'amip steamers. His movements wore traced back to 1924., and it was eventually found that on the day that Nellie Clarke was murdered this man was in Birkenhead Docks serving as a stoker on a ship which left for Bremen' a few days later. The German police proved that the stoker had altogether commit ted four similar crimes in Germany. With praiseworthy despatch he was tried, sentence 1 and execute! —Nellie vlark’s murder being thus avenged.