DEATH MYSTERY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23413, 1 August 1939, Page 10

DEATH MYSTERY

YOUNG WOMAN'S FATE POLICE INQUIRIES FKESH CONCLUSIONS BODY APPARENTLY MOVED [by TELEGRAM —OWN correspondent] HASTINGS, Monday The exhumation and subsequent examination of tho body of Miss Muriel Esther Reichclt, the 23-year-old Hastings woman who was found dead beside the road early morning of July 20, have been carried out, and as a result, tho • police reported this afternoon that thej' were now in possession of sufficient evidence to clear up the mystery of her death. Inquiries by the police, however, are not quito completo, and Mr. D. Cameron, of Napier, who is in charge of the case, said this evening ho was not in a position yet to give any indication upon the lines on which the investigations are proceed ing. Bofore Dr. P. P. Lynch, the wellknown Wellington pathologist, arrived in Hastings on Tuesday of last week, arrangements had been made under instructions from Wellington for tho exhumation of tho body in readiness for his examination. The exhumation was performed that morning, tho body being reinterrcd that night after Dr. Lynch had concluded his examination, which was carried out in collaboration with Dr. R. C. Cashmore, of Hastings, who was the xoost-mortem.

Tho authorities have now before them tho information which was gained as tho rosult of tho examination of tho contents of tho body, which were sent to the Government analyst, Mr. Andrews, and tho investigations of Dr. Lynch and Dr. Oaslimore. The pathologist's examination is believed to have revealed that death occurred comparatively early in the night, although the body was found at 6 a.m. next morning. Miss Reiclielt left homo on the night 111 question, borrowing her parents' motor-car, saying she was going to a theatre. When she did not return at a. reasonable hour tho parents became alarmed and instituted inquiries. The car was found abandoned in Nelson Street at about 11.30 p.m., but people who passed by the spot where the body was found, some blocks away from the car, stato that nothing untoward was noticed at or about this time-

It is surmised from the period of time between her death and when the body was found that Mi s ss Reichelt did not die where she was found.