OATES SEVERELY INJURED

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11662, 29 October 1923, Page 7

OATES SEVERELY INJURED

STRUGGLES TO NEIGHBOURS AND FINDS WIFE DYING. Per Press Association. WANGANUI, October 27. Aramobo was the scene of a terrible crime late last evening, Mrs W. R. Oates, wife of a storekeeper, being murdered, and her husband severely injured and robbed. It appears that Mrs Oates visited her htuj’band at the store, and later returned home. Mr Oates, after closing the Ftoro, also started for home, carrying with him the cash takings. On reaching the back door he was felled with a ravage blow from a blunt weapon. Several blows follcFSved, and he was tendered unconscious. MONEY MISSING. When he came to his aenses he found tho money and the assailant had vanished. Oates struggled to a house, and then, with assistance, returned and entered his own home. In the passage he found his wifo suffering from desperate injuries, the brain protruding through the skull, she evidently haying been struck while sitting in a. chair m the kitchen, reading. The woman ran into the paar.ago, where she was struck a violent blow on the head, which split open the skull. WATTED FOR. THE HUSBAND. Tho miscreant then gagged the woman. Finding she hod not the takings from the store, as he had expected, he then waited for the husband, hiding in the doorway of the washhouse. wludi is within a step of the back door Mrs Oates wae conveyed to the hospital in a low state, and died shortly after midnight, the case being hopefrom tho outset. The police were quickly on the scene, hut could discover no trace of the criminal. who evidently crot away quickly with his booty—over £IOO. SEVERELY INJURED. Oates was severely injured about the head, arms, and legs. It is surmised that both he and hie wife were struck with an iron bar, but there is no trace of any instrument used hy the murderer. An Irish terrier, which was in tho houflo, wao also severely injured bv the blow, evidently to stop it making a noise. DETECTIVES ARRIVE. C Tnicf-Detoctive Kemp, Detective Walsh, and Senior-Sergeant Dinnie, fin-ger-print expert, arrived from Wellington to assist in tho pearch for the murderer Mr Oates has been in the grocery hup.inow* wrno three yearn. He is wellknown in cricketing ciroles, being captain of the United Club. Hia parents reside in Melbourne. Ilis wife’s parents, Mr and Mrs Henry, are in busincpfl in a cafe at Palmerston North. The murdered woman .was 32 years of a?e.