FOUND BY POLICE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17452, 29 December 1930, Page 7

FOUND BY POLICE

BLOODSTAINED CLOTHES SEARCH TOR SLAYER MURDER, OF MARY DEAN It was reported from Melbourne on Friday night that the police, who have been investigating the mysterious murder of Miss Mary Dean, which occurred on the night of November 21, when she was returning from a theatre in the suburb of Elwood, visited a house in El wood, and after searching the place, seized some bloodstained clothing belonging to a- man who lived there. The man said he was unable to account for the stains.

Further developments are expected.

Miss Dean, as far as the police can ascertain, attended a theatre party in Melbourne (m November 21 with several friends, and was last seen by them when me ooarcted a train at Flinders street station. One of the theatre party on Thursday night was Mr. Colin Colahan. a young Melbourne artist, and Miss Dean’s fiance. He told the police, who subsequently verified the statement, that ifter seeing Miss Dean on to her train he returned home to his flat and was preparing for bed at midnight when lie received a telephone call from Miss Dean, who said she was speaking from St. Kilfla? She discussed'with him a project which she was worried about—that if resigning from the Education Department and taking up journalism as a profession. lie told her not. to worry about it that nighty but to go home. REVOLTING CRIME From then until 2.15 a.m. on Friday Miss Dean’s movements are unknown. At 2.15 a.m. her body was found outside a house in Elwood. Her head was battered in, a stocking was tied round her throat, and there "were gashes and cuts on her neck and shoulders, and other atrocious injuries had been inflicted on her. It is suspected that her assailant used a tire-lever.

At the spot where- Miss Dean was attacked, a gateway, canopied by a tree, made an-ideal spot in which the murderer lingered. Marks of the struggle which Miss Dean put ‘up before her assailant overpowered her were evident. Her groans were heard by occupants of the house at 2.15 a.m. Miss Dean died shortly afterward. / Suggestions that jealousy and hatred nn the part of a rejected admirer of Miss Dean’s might have had a hearing on the crime were investigated diligently by the detectives, but their investigations have fonvineed them that this theory is not tenable MANAIC AT LARGE The district police, during the. past few weeks, have had many complaints of young women being molested late at night by men, and this fact, coupled with the nature of the injuries inflicted on Miss Dean, lead the detectives to believe that a sexual maniac is at large in Melbourne. The possibility of Miss Dean’s murderer being identical with the man who lured little Mena Griffiths away from a. park at Fitzroy a fortnight before and callously outraged and murdered her, is not being lost sight of by the investigators. Both these atrocious crimes, happening as they did within ;a fortnight, have stirred the Melbourne public, and this is acting as an extra spur on the police force, which is sparing no pains to track down the murderers. Miss Dean, who had Bohemian leanings. is reported to have been unhappy in her home life and for many vears sb» bad not lived with her mother and father. It was only a few weeks ago that she became reconciled with them.