THE ESSEX MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20319, 30 January 1928, Page 7

THE ESSEX MURDER

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. AN ARREST EXPECTED. (Presa Association—By Telegraph— Copyright J LONDON, January 27. It is expected that a murder charge in connection with the death of Constable Gutteridge will be preferred at the weekend as the result of recent discoveries and inquiries.—A. and N.Z. Cable. One of the most mysterious murders of recent years, the victim of which was a popular county constable, took place at about 3.30 a.m. on September 27 of last year in a desolate spot near the old-world village of Stapleford Abbots, on the main road from Romford to Ongar, in Essex. The constable was William George Gutteridge, aged about 40 years, who had been 17 years in the police. He left a widow and two children —a girl of 12 and a boy of 4. Bloodstains and the medical evidence indicated that after being shot the constable staggered or was carried across the road and placed under the hedge on the other side, where he was again shot twice —once through each eye. What the detectives have been trying to discover is: Was Gutteridge murdered while he was taking particulars from someone in a motor car? Was he shot while talking to the occupants of the car? Did he then scramble to the other side of the road and, knowing h'mself to be dying, did he try to write a message in his notebook for those who found’him? Did his assailant see him doing this and therefore return to complete his murderous work, so that no evidence should be left? Was it the deed of a maniac or of thieves? A number of witnesses from the Stapleford Abbots district were examined at Romford Police Station by Scotland Yard officers. Questions were asked and an* swered relating to a man of violent temper who lives in the neighbourhood. An elderly woman and her son who live in a cottage about 1000yds from the place where the constable met his death informed the police that shortly after 3 a.m. they heard sounds as if two raep were excitedly arguing or quarrelling in the road. The mother and son mentioned to each other at breakfast that they had been wakened by the voices. It was not until nearly two hours after thi* that they learned that a police officer had been murdered. v: