GRIM DISCOVERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26773, 17 May 1948, Page 4

GRIM DISCOVERY

Woman’s Body in Trench INVESTIGATIONS NEAR PRISON

P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, May 16 The body of a woman was found by the police in a shallow trench in farm country about a mile from Paparua prison on Saturday morning. It was later identified as that of Bertha Bessie Amy Day, aged 27.

Two rabbiters noticed what appeared to be a grave in a paddock about a chain from the road near the prison. They notified the superintendent, Mr C. E. Herrington, and subsequently the police found the body lying at full length, face up, in the trench.

The face was not disfigured, but the back of the head was battered. The woman was wearing one red shoe and no stockings. The other shoe was later found in some bushes near by. From early police investigations it appears that she died about 20 yards from the trench where the body was found.

Superintendent D. J. O’Neill, Inspector T. Holmes and Senior Detective F J. Brady, with other members of the force, went to Paparua from Christchurch. They were accompanied by the coroner, Mr H. P. Lawry, and the pathologists at the Christchurch Public Hospital, Doctors A. B. Pearson and D. T. Stewart. They made a search inch by inch of a spot on a strip of grass 10 yards wide separating a shingle road from a barbed-wire fence. This spot, right beside the fence, was partly hidden from view