A WOMAN MURDERED

Otago Witness, Issue 3818, 17 May 1927, Page 29

A WOMAN MURDERED

BODY FOUND IN TRUNK. LEFT AT CHARING CROSS STATION. LONDON, May 10. When a trunk which had been deposited ftt Charing Cross station was opened this morning it was found to contain the decomposed body of a woman. Scotland Yard officials expressed the opinion that it was an obvious case of murder, recalling the Mahon case. The body was completely dismembered, some limbs having obviously been torn from the trunk. Each part was carefully wrapped in brown paper. Identification will be very difficult, but the detectives hope that some help will be received from the discovery of a woman’s handbag beneath the remains. None of the employees is able to recall who deposited the trunk, which was left three weeks ago. The detectives consider that the murder was committed some weeks before then.

Ihe body has been removed to the Westminster mortuary for a pathological examination. Meanwhile Scotland Yard is searching- the lists of missing women in the hope of finding a clue.

VICTIM IDENTIFIED. LONDON, May 12. The victim has boon identified as Minnie Barnatti, the wife on an Italian waiter.

MOVEMENTS OF THE VICTIM. LONDON, May 12. Scotland states that Mrs Earnatti. or Bonati, nee Budd, was British born, and was 37 years of age. Her right index finger was slightly deformed.

She left her husband in 1923. and lived with a man in London and Tilbury until •Tuly, 1926, and she had since resided Marylebone and Chelsea as Mrs Roles, obtaining her Jiving daily as a cook. For the past six weeks she had lived at Fulham as Mrs Budd, and was last seen alive on May 4, when she left her lodgings. saying that she intended to visit her mother at Marylebone.

A CURIOUS DEVELOPMENT. LONDON, May 12. One of the most curious facts of today's investigations was Scotland Yard’s discovery that Mrs Bonati was last seen alive on Wednesday week, two days before the trunk was deposited at Charing Cross station. The medical opinion is that death occurred a fortnight before the examination of the body. Following this an entirely new construction of the crime has been built up as a working basis, and this has caused Scotland Yard to issue a full official statement.

TRAIL GROWS WARMER. LONDON, May 14. Scotland Yard learned to-night from a domestic servant friend of Mrs Bonary that the latter received a telegram on May 4—“ l am out. Come and see me.’ - This corresponds with the time she left her rooms at Chelsea, when she was last seen alive.

The police believe that the murder was premeditated, in view of the fact that the trunk was purchased before Her death. The first tneory that the murder occurred at Brixton is not strongly supported. The police are now concentrating on locating a man who was released from gaol last week.