LONG POLICE SEARCH

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3446, 22 March 1932, Page 2

LONG POLICE SEARCH

MAN HELD ON MURDER CHARGE.

Sydney, March 10.

After three months of relentless search the police last night arrested a man and charged him with the murder of Alexander Barrie, 89, in his home at Windsor Street, on December 14. Two detectives, dressed as swagmen, trailed a suspect from the border of Queensland to that of Victoria. A young policeman played a leading part in the police search. It was his first job as detective. He walked and rode or drove over 100 miles, and then having found his quarry, boiled a billy with him on the road near Gosford and waited for his comrade to relieve him of his On December 14 last Alexander Barrie was bound and gagged, and deadly wounds were inflicted with the butt end of a revolver. His wife, Mary (85) was also bound hand and foot. Since then the police have been seeking two men who might enable them to sheet home the crime.

rattler" with a bunch of out-of-works. He left the train at Gosford, and contrived to single out one of the men to accompany him. By a stroke of luck Detective Leary had left his car in the district. He and the suspect walked four miles to the car and drove towards Gosford. That was early yesterday afternoon. When four miles from the town they left the car and sat down by the roadside. Near a store Detective Leary went to get some tea. At the same time he telephoned to Superintendent Mackay, and arranged for other detectives to meet him between Wyong and Gosford.

At the C. 1.8. a car was manned by Inspector Miller and five detectives. Police Dash.

They left the Central Yard at 4.20 p.m. and passed through Gosford at 5.45 p.m. The car averaged 50 miles an hour. . The C. 1.8. men found Detective Leary exactly where he said he would be, in the ancient car. Sitting behind was the suspect. The man was arrested, brought to Sydney and charged with murder. At the Central Court to-day, William Morton (26), labourer, was charged with having lenoiously and maliciously murdered Alexander Frederick Barrie in Windsor Street, Paddington "on December 14. It was stated the coroner's inquiry had been set down for March 21. The magistrate remanded Morton to March 21. Morton did not ask for bail.

A Clue.

Detective-Superintendent Mackay and Detective-Inspector Miller, who is in charge of the area in which the crime was committed, spent many days in their effort to find one link upon which a chain of evidence could be forged. Then, one day they received a clue in the Paddington district, which led them to a building in the city, where they found an old suit of clothes stained and tattered. Finally the detectives found a blurred snapshot of a suspect. Detectives Swarbrick and Leary, with nothing more than that to guide them, that day set off along the roads which led them to lonely spots, first north, then south. Simultaneously with the departure of these two detectives, who were dressed as swaggers, and carried blankets, the C. 1.8. was gathering facts which enabled the two men on the road with valuable information. Detectives Swarbrick and Leary parted company some distance out from town. Detective Swarbrick made for the far north, and, with the aid of an old car and a bicycle, he reached Coolangatta.

Search Goes On. In the south Detective Swarbrick,

carrying his swag, walked and rode " as far as the Victorian border. He spent weeks at Wollongong watching the faces of men who passed, and sitting at night around fires in the camps of unemployed. ':; Detective Leary, meanwhile, had made another trip to Queensland. I ;' It was while he was returning from a fruitless search in the far . north that Detective Leary gained information which finally led him to :'. the end of his search. :C , A few days ago he "jumped the