WAIKINO MURDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24413, 26 September 1940, Page 9

WAIKINO MURDER

DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON, Sept. 25At a meeting of the Executive Council this morning the death sentences on Douglas Herbert Cartman, who was convicted at Waihi of murder was commuted to imprisonment for Me. Cartman was charged with the murder of Mrs Elizabeth Agnes Hamilton, aged 27, at Waikino. 140 miles from Auckland. At the trial the Crown Prosecutor staled that on the night or the tragedy Mrs Hamilton went for a walk accompanied by a boy named Lloyd Moran, aged 15 years, the son ot the proprietor of the hotel where she resided. When they had not returned at 1 a.m. a search was made. At daylight Mr Moran crossed the Awaroa bridge, about 12 chains from the hotel, leading to the Waitawheta road, and, looking down a steep bank, saw the body of his son. The boy was dead, with a severe wound on the left side of the forehead. The surface of an old quarry nearby was disturbed as if there had been a struggle, and a shoe worn by Mrs Hamilton was found there. Mrs Hamilton’s body was found four miles further along the Waitawheta road, towards Waihi, in low scrub and fern. A bloodstained tyre lever was lying alongside the head and on a portion of the road further back the police found a tyre mark that could have been made by a body held under the car In the course of the extensive search for the car Cartman’s car was examined in addition to many others. His car had the right headlamp missing and the front apron badly buckled. When interviewed later by the police Cartman said: “I will tell you the truth. I have been worrying about what 1 did. If I had not had so much drink it would not have happened.” He then made a statement that he ran over both Mrs Hamilton and the boy. his suggestion being that both were killed outright.