CONSTABLE'S DEATH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19765, 12 October 1927, Page 14

CONSTABLE'S DEATH.

ESSEX MURDER MYSTERY. SUPPOSED CLUES USELESS. LONDON, Oct. 2. Most of the clues obtained in connection with the murder of Constable Gutteridge, who was found dead in a lonely Essex ro&d on Wednesday, have been discarded, says the Weekly Despatch. The handkerchief, marked "A. H. Miller," has been traced to its owner. He lieves at Brixton, and has given a statement to the police. The biscuit box has also been identified. It was discarded months ago during a house removal. Microscopic examination showed that the revolver found on the Thames foreshore at Hammersmith, had not been fired by the murderers, and the bullets and the finger prints found on the windscreen of Dr. Lovell's car have not yielded a real clue.

The Scotland Yard Record Office's slender hope of effecting an arrest lies in the finger prints on the steering wheel. The Bishop of Barking (Et. Bev. J. T. Inskip), preaching at the funeral of the victim, characterised the crime as dastardly and un-English. It marked, he said, a development of the criminal spirit, which was regardless both of the sanctity of property and of human life. Constable Gutteridge need not have died if he had chosen an easier course, but he would they have been untrue to himself and to police traditions. The murdered man's widow, a pathetic . figure, collapsed during the service. After four days the driver (James) and conductor (Payne) of an omnibus havo recalled that a car roared behind them at 30 miles an hour in the mist of Tuesday night, and almost collided with them. As it swung past Payne noted part of its number as <I T.W. 612," but James recorded it as " T.W. 6120." The police believe the motorist lost himself and his companion in the fog for two hours after the murder, and when he found the route drove wildly towards Brixton to abandon the car before many people were about. Payne and James have furnished a full description of the car's occupants.