MAN ARRESTED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18633, 18 February 1935, Page 9

MAN ARRESTED

CHARGED WITH MURDER TAHEKE MYSTERY. WOMAN IDENTIFIED (Per Press Association.) HASTINGS, last night. The Taheke mystery came to an unexpected and swift climax on Saturday afternoon, when, as a sequel to police investigations into the finding of the dead body-of the then unidentified woman, a man named Charles William Edwards was detained, and late on Saturday night was formally arrested and charged with the murder of the woman, who is now known to be Eva Madden, a domestic. Edwards will appear at the Napier Police Court to-morrow morning. Edwards is a farm teamster, 39 years of age. The Victim of the tragedy was 20 years old. It is believed she was formerly of Wellington, and has no relatives in New Zealand. It became apparent from the first examination of the body that the police were confronted with the problem of solving'a fatal assault, and it was known that the detective force engaged in the preliminary investigations were by r.o lfieans hopeful of a speedy solution of the affair. In the first place they were at a loss to know how the woman came to bo in such a remote part of the country, and also they were faced with the fact that no Hawke’s Bay police station had a report of any missing woman. It seemed as though identification alone would be a considerable problem. MATTERS TAKE A SUDDEN TURN Then matters took a sudden turn. From some detailed description -of the yvictipi’s appearance and clothing, a i’ Hastings resident, who had employed her, came to the police with an offer to examine the body to see whether it was the same woman as she felt it was. Then . Mr. J. N. Lowry, at whose farm both the deceased and Edwards had been employed at the same time, came into the investigations, and quickly established the identity of the girl as Miss Madden. The first step in the investigations was the examination of the body in the situation by Detective Farquharson, Plainclothes Constable Dunne, and Dr. R. Cashmere, of Hastings. The body Svas tihen brought into Hastings, where it has been preserved to -facilitate further examination. Within an hour or two DetectiveSergeant Bickcrdike and Dotectivo Coddington, of Napier, joined in the investigation, and, acting on information received from the Hastings resident who had employed the deceased woman, they went- to Tikokino to detain Edwards, who was subsequently taken to the scene of the discovery and later was brought to Hastings. A post-mortem examination by Drs. Cashmere and A. B. A. Whyte showed that the woman had received certain severe injuries. It was revealed also (hat her clothing was much disarranged, apparently before death. The youmr man, Monk, who discover-'* 1 ed the body at a very late hour on Thursday night, was walking along the creek which runs through the Taheke settlement, it being his intention to go on an eeling expedition. He had reached a point almost opposite the junction of two roads when he saw the body. It was in a partly-hidden spot about 100yds. from the road, and might have lain hidden there till the winter rains came and swelled the waters in the creek, and carried the body away.