MURDER MYSTERY

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 12007, 9 December 1924, Page 11

MURDER MYSTERY

YOUNG MAN’S BODY FOUND. ROBBED OF MONEY. Was Eric Stanley Watkins, 22, a South Australian, whose -body- was found in the Yarra on November 13th, murdered or stunned in the Adelaide express on the night of November 6th? ' , , - The best efforts of the police have failed to disclose that he ever left the train alive Definite knowledge of Watkin’s movements ceased when he said good-bye to his-parents at Kybyholite, South Australia, on November 6th. He boarded the express to Melbourne to purchase at, new motor-cycle from a city cycle house, to whom lie -had already sent his old machine -as part payment. ‘He disappeared entirely, from the time he hoarded the train until his body was found in the Yarra a week later. His bags have not yet been found, strengthening the theory of foul play. ' ; ■ The police on the case point out that the spot at which the body must have got into the river, to be found where it was, hear the Anderson , street bridge, would be at a part little known to many of the' residents of Melbourne, let alone a young country man who had never-been in the city before. “Watkins, met a gang of crooks on tbeexpress,” says the “They fleeced him of his money, £ls, and he had an argument. ‘ A rubber black jack of the type usually carried by such crooks could have stunned him without leaving much of a maTk. After that it is believed he was flung into the river.