ST. MARTIN’S MYSTERY

Southland Times, Issue 19500, 14 March 1925, Page 6

ST. MARTIN’S MYSTERY

STILL NO SOLUTION DETECTIVES’ SLENDER CLUES IS MRS MOUAT STILL LIVING? (Special to the Times). CHRISTCHURCH, March 13. Is Mrs Ellen Mouat, principal of the St. Martin’s mystery, still alive? To-night’s Star says that the detectives engaged in the search for the missing woman are inclined to the belief that she is. Frederick Mouat, her husband, is certainly being detained at Paparua prison on a charge of murder, but it is known that the detectives have no tangible clue which would prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the woman is dead.

After nearly a fortnight of investigation, the police have found blood stains on sheets and on linoleum in one of the rooms at the house in Beckford Road, all the missing woman’s clothing in the house, and a number of charred bones amongst a heap of ashes at the rear oi the residence.

As far as any practical clue is concerned, that is exactly where the police stand today, three weeks from the time the woman made her mysterious disappearance.

Both the blood-stained sheets and the bones have been submitted for expert examination at Dimedin, but no official report is yet to hand. It will be no surprise to the police, however, if the examination reveals the bones as those of some longdeceased ox or sheep, such as may be found in ash heaps at the rear of hundreds of homes in and around Christchurch.

The fact that all Mrs Mouat’s clothing was found in the house after her disappearance proves nothing at all. It is not at all improbable that the missing woman left home wearing some new dress. It is a significant fact that the detectives have now suspended digging operations at the Mouat home, and are no longer dragging the Heathcote River, although, should the woman be dead, there are a great many places in the vicinity where a body might have been hidden.