WOMAN’S TERRIBLE DEATH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3823, 21 June 1927, Page 24

WOMAN’S TERRIBLE DEATH.

fOUND MURDERED IN I SCRUB. AFFAIR ENSHROUDED IN MYSTERY. CHRISTCHURCH, June 15. Some time to-day a woman, aged about 20 years, was murdered in some broom in > paddock in Lake Terrace road, Burwood. About 1.30 o’clock a small boy, who was searching through the scrub for Borne cows, found the body. He asserts that he saw a man running away from it. He communicated immediately with the Rev. C. A. Tobin, who v.’ent to the scene and found the body of the woman. The head was smashed in, two deep wounds being inflicted, one over each eye. The body was lying on its back, and was that of a short, fairly stout Woman. The dark short hair was,matted with blood, and there was much blood on the ground round about, indicating that there might have been a struggle. The woman was dressed hi a navy blue dress with black stockings and black shoes. A greenish coloured cardigan and a fawn overcoat, fastened with one large button, were also worn. A black hat of some plush material, with a cerise flower in front, was under a bush about four feet from the body. The woman was wearing brown kid gloves, Which were stained with blood.

All round the small open space in the Broom, in which the body was found, Were bloodstains. A light blue waterproof coat was smothered in blood. The woman’s head had lain on it. Nearby were a short umbrella of stylish shape, a brown paper parcel, and a small attache case. In the attache case were a clean nightdress, a comb and brush, and odds and ends of a woman’s toilet. On the blue cape were found several pieces of bone, showing that the blows struck were delivered with considerable force. The brown paper parcel contained two pairs of shoes and a Black fur.

Dr Beveridge Davis, who examined tne body before it was taken to the morgue, found that in addition to the wounds in the forehead, there were wounds on the tecalp itself. The wounds indicated that they had been inflicted by some heavy Instrument, possibly of iron. In the scrub four yards away from the body was found a tuft of human hair, brown k colour, and about six inches 1 ng. It Was not the colour of the woman’s hair, fend looked as if it had been tugged out in * struggle. The woman’s hands were Ifenched, and although he- gloves were

soaked with blood there was no blood on the hands themselves. THE BODY IDENTIFIED. PORTION OF BLOOD-STAINED SHIRT FOUND. CHRISTCHURCH, June 16. The young woman wh o was murdered in the scrub at Burwood yesterday afternoon has been identified as Miss Gwendoline Scarff, a daughter of Mr Walter Scarff, who is well known as a member of the Heathcote County Council and as a participant in other public affairs. She was in her twenty-first year. Mr Scarff, who is a carrier, lives at 11 Torrington street, at the foot of Cashmere Hills. The girl was not living at home when she left for Burwood. Until two days ago she was employed as a cook by a resident of MacMillan avenue, Cashmere Hills. It is said that a few days ago she left her employer’s home with the expressed intention of going to Wellington. The place of- the murder is about 25 yards off the Lake terrace road, and about 100 yards from the Burwood tea rooms, occupied by Mrs King. Actually it ig on an unformed road, which separates land held as the Burwood Domain and land leased from the education authorities by Mrs King are covered with broom, seven, road, and the education reserve leased by Mrs King are covered with broom, seven, eight, and nine feet high in places. Cattle graze over the land, the broom being crisscrossed by their tracks. ' There are no signs of a struggle leading up to the plot where the murdered woman wag found, which fact leads to the supposition that she either entered the scrub voluntarily or was chased into it. The area is sandy, but in places it is covered with turf. At the place of the crime, although there were pools of blood and small pieces of bone, which told of the violence of the blows struck, the ground was not cut up by the struggle.

Eric Mugford, the 15-year-old boy who, when riding on his pony, disturbed a man at the spot and discovered the body, came on the scene just before 1.30 p.m., but it is significant that a damaged wristlet watch on the woman had stopped at 12.30 p.m.

Possibly the most important clue in the possession of the police is a tuft of brown hair about 6ih long, picked np by Chief Detective W. E. Lewis a few inches from where the woman’s hat was placed. Its appearance suggested that it had been torn from the head by a bloody hand. One end was stuck together as though by congealing blood. ’ The other end showed the roots. Clearly it did not come from the young woman’s head, for her hair was much darker—almost black. When Eric Mugford first came upon the scene he heard a movement in the scrub. “I thought it was one of the cows,” he said,, “and I turned and saw I

had the right number. Then I saw a man. He was in a dark suit and had a dark hat. I could not see his face, for his back was turned to me. He ran towards the north-east, his arms pushing aside the scrub. At the same moment I saw a leg round the corner, and I thought it was the corpse of a man. He seemed to have his throat cut, and I galloped to Delamain’s store, and then got the Rev. C. A. Tobin.”

It appeared that there was some difficulty in getting a doctor. Finally Dr Beveridge Davis was communicated with, and he wasted no time in getting to Burwood. He made a uick examination of the body, but it was a careful one. Two deep indentations, slightly curved, were on the woman’s brow, and the head had been battered by a number of blows. The wounds immediately over the eyes had caused the flesh to swell below, and made the woman look much older than she actually proved to be. Her thickset body was another cause of the miscalculation. Dr Davis estimated the age at between 35-and 40. A batch of young constables -searched the scrub looking for the weapon, which must have been blunt and heavy, and the blows must have been very violent, for pieces of splintered bone lying round testified to that. These pieces of bone were collected carefully, and where two big pools of blood had been the turf was carefully lifted and taken away for examination. The search for the weapon used was fruitless, and the breaking of the scrub in various tracks might easily have been made by the cattle. The Bottle Lake road meets the Lake Terrace road at the Burwood tea rooms, the area between forming a triangle. At the place of the murder the distance between the two roads is about 300 yards. The discovery of the torn portion of a shirt was made at the side of the Bottle Lake road, about 100 yards from the intersection. It shows that if the man who ran from the body were the murderer, he did not pursue the north-easterly direction he was then following, but came round in a semi-circle, entering and crossing the Bottle Lake road where a track through the scrub leads to the Burwood School.

Mrs Delamain, who has a small store near the scene of the tragedy, states that she heard screams coming from somewhere near the Lake Terrace road about 10.30 a.m. “They were distinctly feminine,” she declared. “I thought they came from outside Mugford’s.” Mt Mugford’s residence is opposite the Burwood z tea rooms on the Lake terrace road.

Several men who work in the neighbourhood also state tha't they heard screams about 10.30 a.m., a time, however, which is two - hours earlier at least than the probable time of the tragedy. On the other hand, both Mrs King and Mrs Combs, who were in the yard at the tea

rooms and nearer the scene than any of the other residents, declare that they heard no screams.

The attache case, which was found yesterday lying a yard from the woman, was also well bespattered, and the indications are that the woman before she died had rolled slightly towards it. The fact that the murderer tore off a portion of his shirt dovetails with the story of a halfclothed and excited man having been seen at North New Brighton. A friend of Miss Scarff says that she was an unusual type of girl, and had been very strictly brought up. Miss Scarff joined the Girls’ Club started in Sydenham by the Y.W.C.A. in 1923. She was a member for some time. For some time she was a nursegirl. Information has been received that a man dressed in a dark grey coat, white pyjama trousers, with cycle clips, and heavy boots was seen running through the lupins near Jubilee avenue early yesterday afternoon. This information was supplied by Mr Alfred Hawtin, of 18 Dean street,’ St. Albans, who accompanied his brother, Mr Ernest Hawtin, on a bakery round yesterday. Mr Alfred Hawtin was seated in the baker’s cart waiting for his brother, who was attending to a customer near No. 84 Jubilee avenue, North New Brighton, when he saw the weirdly-garbed man who rushed from the lupines, stopped, turned, and raced back into the lupines. Mr Hawtin says that the man was about 6ft in height, of solid build, and his hair appeared to be curly. He had no hat, and his shirt was open. He ran through the lupines and seemed to be agitated. When he saw Mr Hawtin he paused, and after a look at the man on the cart, turned and darted back into the scrub, but he did not go far. Partially hidden he peeped through the lupines, moving about from one vantage point to another. He stood behind a poplar tree and stared. Mr Hawtin looked away for a moment, and when he looked back the man had disappeared. “It was his clothes that caught my attention,” said Mr Hawtin. “It didn’t look right for a man to be running round like that.”

When Mr Ernest Hawtin returned to the cart he dismissed the incident with the remark, “he’s probably a bit off, but you dont want to take any notice of that. I see lots of those fellows round here.” The road on which the cart was standing runs from the sea front to the back of the racecourse, and it would have been possible for the murderer to make his way across the country to*tfcis spot from the scene of the tragedy.

The murder has once more raised the question: What happened to Irma Timms? In January of this year, on the day of the New Brighton gala, the little girl Timms disappeared. She has not been found. A sinister aspect is given to her disappearance by the adventure of another small girl on the same day. This girl lives with her parents in Lonsdale street, close to the New Brighton Domain, which extends from New Brighton to North Beach. The Timms residence was situated in Keppel street, which runs into Lonsdale street at right angles. On the day of the gala the girl from Lonsdale street was accosted by a man who induced her to sit on the bar of his bicycle. He was heading for the sandhills of the domain when she became frightened and got away from him. She went home and told her parents, and her father searched for the man without success. Then came the news of the disappearance of Irma Timms. In the New Brighton Domain is a big area of broom and undergrowth similar to that at Burwood —dense, and in places 10ft high, a perfect hiding place. The North Beach entrance to the domain is about three miles from the scene of yesterday’s tragedy. In the domain a man could live for some time if he could secure food, and nobody would know of his presence. The broom at Burwood provides also an ideal hiding place for a lengthy period so long as food could be obtained. All through the present year

burglaries have been occurring at intervals at New Brighton and North Beach. At the present time Burwood is the centre of a big area that is not served by police protection. There is a station at New Brighton and one at Richmond. From North Beach to Richmond is country that is lonely and deserted—an area in which only roads cut through the acres of dense scrub. Long before the present tragedy the residents have lived in a condition borderi»g on terror through various happenings. Certain people have been the prey of petty thieves, and women

have been molested. The district came under notice some years ago as the scene of the outrage on a woman committed by a man named Griffiths. Scrub grows right to the metal on .the road, and residents say that the Waimairi County Council does not compel property-owners to cut the broom back. There are women in the locality who will not venture outside at nights. Nurses at the Bottle Lake Hospital do not use the road with any feeling of security. BLOOD-STAINED SPANNER FOUND CLOSE TO SCENE OF TRAGEDY. CHRISTCHURCH, June 16. A large body of police armed with scrub cutters started early this morning to cut the scrub at the scene of the tragedy iu an endeavour to find the weapon with which the murder was committed. Shortly after 3.30 p.m., however, a man named David Davidson, who resides at the Gladstone Hotel in the city, picked up a large blood-stained spanner from a' gorse bush near the edge of the road. It was covered with blood from the head to within an inch of the other end, and was exactly 23 yards from the spot where the murdered woman’s head had

lain. The spanner, which had evidently been thrown into the gorse bush, was held by the branches. It was not two feet from the edge of the road, and was in plain sight. It is remarkable that the weapon was not discovered earlier. Later in the afternoon, 50 yards from the scene of the crime, a paper parcel containing a crust of bread, remnants of cooked meat, 10 empty condensed milk tins, and a radio battery were also discovered in the gorse bushes lining the road. The evidence pointed to a man having lived in the locality, and that he is connected with the disappearance of newspapers and food from nearby houses. This evening a rumour was in circulation that a man had been arrested in connection with the murder, but on inquiry the police stated that the man whose name was coupled with the rumour was only one of many persons who had been.’ taken to the police station for interrogation, and that no arrest was in sight. RESULT OF POLICE INVESTIGATIONS. TAXI-DRIVER’S ORDEAL OF ' EXAMINATION. CHRISTCHURCH, June 17. What probably would provide the most important evidence that would serve to identify the murderer of Ellen Gwendoline Isobel Scarff are the handbag and purse of the unfortunate girl, for it is known, that they were filled with intimate correspondence and snapshots, and. it is possible that some of those letters would ba from the man who killed her. It is almost certain that she would have been carrying her handbag and purse when she made her ill-fated visit to Burwood, but both are missing-. After she left the employ of Mrs Densley Wood, MacMillan avenue, Cashmere, where she was employed as a Miss Scarff stayed at the Federal HoteL from June 9 to June 14 under the assume*? name of Armstrong. While there she made certain admissions to female ..members of the staff, and she was to have left on the evening of the murder for Wellington. It was Monday when the girl’s mother, having learned where she was staying, called at the hotel and asked to see her daughter. Her mother urged her to return, and she. refused. It was on Monday afternoon, that Miss Scarff presented herself at the office, and asked that a taxi-driver of her acquaintance should be called up from a city stand. She waited in the hall for a space, and then returned to her room, requesting- the porter before she did so, to send- the taxi-man up when he arrived. He came shortly afterwards, and the porter took him upstairs to Miss Scarff® room. Miss Scarff was standing near th® threshold. “Oh! it’s you,” she said, addressing the man as he stepped in. They had an interview, lasting for about 20 minutes. Miss Scarff left the Federal or* Tuesday evening in time to connect with! the ferry train. Her luggage had precede*! her. She walked out of the door, and. that was the last seen of her. There was no arrangement for a taxi to take her to the station. Besides the attache case and the brown paper parcel containing- articles of toilet and clothing, which were found! by her body, she is known to have possessed two suit cases. These have been found in the left-luggage office at the Tramway shelter in Cathedral square. A week before the murder a relative of the girl commented on the fact that her handbag was stuffed with letters and snapshots, and told her that they should be destroyed. ‘‘Yon don’t want to carry all that rubbish round with you,” was the advice given. The’ girl laug-hingly promised to destroy them, but did not do so. So far as is known several persons were interrogated yesterday by the police and a taxi-driver, who is a married man, was questioned at the police station by the detectives. The police are very reticent-. Perhaps the most interesting statement is that of Mr E. V. Crouch, a tram conductor. He had noticed a rather plump young woman and a stoekily-built young man wearing a blue suit who used to travel by tramcar to Burwood. What attracted his attention was that they ! al-ways travelled in different seats, they would get out at different stops, and meet at the Lake Terrace road. Their be- > haviour suggested subterfuge. 1 The significance of the statement that a 1 man had been seen in his pyjama trousers ! in Jubilee avenue on Wednesday has been - set at nought by the owner of the trousers. ’ He says that he went out to his motor car 5 in a hurry with his pyjama trousers on. In an interview to-day the taxi-driver r from whom a statement was taken by 5 detectives engaged on the case yesterday, 1 declared that Miss Scarff had never been ■ in his cab. ? “Did you take her to the Hotel Federal J on the night of June 9?” he w-as asked. “No, I did'not.” “Did you call for her on the evening that she went away?” ) “No, she w T as never in my cab.” “Did you know her?’ “I knew her since she was a kid.' 1 “When did you last see her?” “On Saturday afternoon, opposite' 5 Todd’s Motors.” t “Do you think you know the man who 1 committed the crime?” i “No.”

He stated that he was home with his children on the night that the girl left the Hotel Federal. “I could not have taken her there, nor could I have taken her away from there,” he said. “I was off duty. I have been on day duty.” He stated that he was talking to the girl and a male friend on Saturday afternoon, when he received a .call, and left

them with the words: “Good-bye, and good luck.” Then the taxi-man went on to tell how he was taken to the police station yesterday afternoon and kept there until long into the night.” They kept me there from 2 in the afternoon until 10 at bight,” he said. “I’m going back this morning. They told me they had found a piece of shirt. I would not wear a shirt like that—an old thing patched up the way it was. They told me about a spanner, and asked me if I would let them have-my finger prints. I said they could have them, and anything else. When I saw the girl on Saturday afternoon she told me how she had told her mother over the phone that ‘We are going north.’ ” Her mother said: “Who arc?” and she said: “It doesn’t matter about that.” “Whom did she mean?” “I don’t know. I was called away.” ■ INQUE3T ON VICTIM. ADJOURNED SINE DIE. CHRISTCHURCH, June 17. The inquest on the victim of the Burwood tragedy was opened this afternoon before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M. Walter William Prideaux Scarff identified the body as that of his daughter. Ellen Gwendoline Isobcl Scarff. The witness, who was greatly affected by the tragedy, and who had completely broken down when identifying the body, again broke down in the witness box. The inquest was adjourned sine die.

, NO ■ FRESH DISCLOSURES. CHRISTCHURCH, June 18. The police have obtained a statement from a woman to whom Miss Scarff is said to have revealed her relationship with a certain man, and to have made a number of startling disclosures involving him. “I have nothing to say,” was Inspector Cameron’s brief reply to any questions put to him regarding the murder, but it is known that the police were today visiting homes in the Burwood district with a photograph of the dead ■woman in the hope that someone may have recognised her. The remains of the victim have been interred in the Sydenham cemetery. SYSTEMATIC POLICE SEARCH. CHRISTCHURCH, June 19. No arrest has yet been made for the murder of Gwendoline Scarff. To-day a party of 20 police made a thorough search of the scrub at the scene of the murder, but without finding anything likely to help their investigations. Occasionally men have camped in the scrub for days or weeks, and a search was for traces of such people. The police, however, found none. In any case the murderer’s weapon was a motor spanner, and the general belief is that the murderer either had a motor car or had the use of one.