AFTER 15 MONTHS

Southland Times, Issue 21606, 19 January 1932, Page 4

AFTER 15 MONTHS

MAN’S IDENTITY ESTABLISHED. MISSING NEW ZEALANDER. (Per United Press Association.) Hamilton, January 18. Efforts to establish a case of murder by the police in Western Australia have resulted in a Hamilton dentist being subpoenaed to give evidence in the forthcoming trial. He will leave for Perth on Thursday. About 15 months after a man’s charred remains were discovered on a sheep run at Mount Magnet, 130 miles from Perth, the identity of the deceased person was established. He was Leslie Brown, a married man, well known in Hamilton who left for Australia in January, 1930. Alongside the ashes were a gun, a watch, a denture and various other personal belongings. For months the Western Australian police endeavoured to discover the man’s identity without avail. It was the non-arrival of a letter which set fresh inquiries afoot. When Brown left New Zealand he promised to write to a friend of his now living in Auckland every month. For some months the letters were received regularly then there was a sudden cessation. Several letters were returned. Anxious for Brown’s welfare, the friend communicated with the nolice in Western Australia asking if they knew of his whereabouts. Information in the hands of the police there brought out the fact that a man corresponding to the description of Brown was missing. Also in possession of the police were the articles found among the charred remains many months before. Some of these articles, the watch, rings, and photographs were forwarded to the friend and former associates in Hamilton and Auckland and the police were able definitely to establish the fact that the charred remains were those of Leslie Brown.

The local dentist enters the story through having made a denture for Brown and evidence testifying that the denture found with the incinerated corpse at Mount Magnet is similar to the one he made, will be the final link in the case for the police so far as Brown’s identification is concerned.