MYSTERIOUS CRIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 6

MYSTERIOUS CRIME

MURDER OF SCULPTRESS DISCOVERY IN LOCKED HOUSE A neighbour, passing the home in Tunis, North Africa, of Mile. Rachel Hautot, brilliant sculptress, early on a recent morning, noticed that two canaries were lying dead in their cage in the window. The neighbour told the police, who broke into the locked house and found the sculptress lying dead in a back room with a silk stocking tied tightly round her neck. A medical examination showed that she had been stunned by a blow on the head with a blunt instrument and then strangled. The state of the body suggested that the murder had been committed at least three weeks previously. The house was in disorder, the contents of every drawer and cupboard being' strewn abo.ut the floor. As Mile. Hautot lived simply, and had nothing of value in the house, the police, are not certain that robbery was the object of the crime. The canaries had died through lack of food. In an outhouse some chickens were found dying from hunger. According to residents in Tunis, Mile. Hautot devoted her whole life to her art. She had executed some notable work for the, French Government, including several statues for Government buildings. / Surrounding the couch on which the body was found we.re many of her statues of Arabs living in the native quarter of Tunis. It was as if the murderer had taken the trouble to move them into position so that their faces were turned toward their dead creator-