DIABOLICAL CRIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17985, 10 January 1922, Page 5

DIABOLICAL CRIME.

MURDER .OF LITTLE GIRL.

OUTRAGE IN MELBOURNE.

BODY FOUND IN CITY LANE. It would be impossible to imagine a more diabolical crime than thai wnieh was committed iu Aieloourue recently. While on a message on i'riclay, December 30, Alma TirtschKe, aged li, disappeared, fciome hours attwwaras 'her anxious relatives reported her disappearance to tho police, but up to a late hour they were unable to trace her. Early on (Saturday morning tho naked body of the girl was found in a right-of-way at the rear of 95, Little Collins Street. The girl had been shockingly outraged, and afterwards murdered in a moßt fiendish manner. A cord had been placed round her neck, and she had been slowly strangled. The body was found at 6 a.m. on Saturday by Henry D. Errington, who was out gathering bottles. He walked up Gun Alley, aud was about to turn into tin right-of-way when the body of the girl met his horrified gaze. At 1.30 p.m. on Friday tho girl left Messrs. Bennet and Wooloock's shop in | Swanston Street, to take a parcel to her j uncle's residence at the east, end of Collins | Street, and probably she walked up Little i Collins Street intending to enter 'Collins Street through Exhibition Street. jThe detectives believe that she was met in j Little Collins Street by some person, male j or femaie, who, on some false pretext, inveigled her into the Eastern Arcade, the rear of wlu'ch opens into the eastern end of Little Collins Street. Tho crime is admitted to be almost un- ' precedented in the history of Melbourne I It is different from most cases of a similar nature, in that the murderer has left the police practically no clue upon which to j work. The police have found a man who saw the girl in Little Collins Street on Friday afternoon, and another who saw hej in the Eastern Arcade, which extends from Bourke Street to Little Collins Sr-reet, between 2 and 3 p.m. It has aln) been established that the body was not in the lane at 1 o'clock on Saturday morning. An important point is the disposal of the murdered girl's clothing. When found, the body was stripped and no trace of the clothing has been found. There seems little doubt in the minds of the detectives that the murder was perpetrated hi some building close to where the girl's body was found, and the search for clues has extended to all the shops and dwellings along Little Collins Street, between Russell and Exhibition Streets. In hopes of rinding the chi'd's clothing or anything else that might assist in solving the mystery, dust bins and fire I places were ransacked, and two men mads i a thorough examination of thi roofs of I buildings along the whole block, and also searched cellars and outhouses. Shops and offices in the Eastern Arcade were also inspected, and tenants of shops and lodging houses in the vicinity were questioned Inspector Potter, the officer in charge of the criminal investigation branch, states that he knows of no other case in which publio feeling has been so outraged, and this is borne out by the manner in which citizens of all trades and callings are coming to the police with information and suggestions which they think might ba of assistance in the hunt for the criminal. Letters came to the detective office in large numbers, and much of the detectives' time was occupied by interviews with numerous callers who nad information of one kind or another to offer. None of them was disregarded, and every supposed clue was t-übjected to the closest scrutiny. Little of any possible use was forthcoming, however. | Amung the numerous people who (rt- ! fered assistance to the police was an eli derly woman, who routed a singular - dream in connection with the tragedy. In > her dream, she said, she saw three men r in a swiftly-driven motor-car, with a littlo f girl crying on the hack seat. So convinced! - was the woman of the reality of the dream ) that she informed the detectives that dw i could identify the men in the car if she saw them again. .

POLIOS AT A LOSS. A THREATENING LETTER A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE, Jan *. The Tirtschka murder mystery is still bailing the detectives, though it is stated thai an early development nay be experted. During the week-end & letter <waa received by the detectives threatening their Jives unless the inquiries were di»» continued