BODY IN CREEK

Southland Times, Issue 22508, 16 February 1935, Page 6

BODY IN CREEK

POLICE INVESTIGATIONS.

(Per United Press Association.) Hastings, February 15. The discovery of a very much decomposed female body was made this morning in a creek near the junction of the Onepu and Raukawa roads about 20 miles south of Hastings. The police and a doctor are at present on the spot conducting investigations. At present it is impossible to say whether there are grounds for the suspicion of foul play or whether it is the body of a Maori woman or a pakeha. However, it is believed to be a Maori woman. The police state that none of the stations in this district have any reports that a woman is missing. Body That of White Woman.

A later message states that medical examination has definitely established that the woman is white, not Maori, as was at first believed likely. The body, which had been in the water some two or three weeks, was clothed in a red-coloured dress of light material, brown silk stockings, tw'o linen petticoats, and black shoes with a single cross strap. The dead woman, who was apparently unmarried, was sft 4in in height, and of stocky build. The police appear to be more or less satisfied she was a stranger to the district and most certainly did not belong to the neighbourhood in which her body was found. She was evidently 30 years of age. The district irj which the discovery was made is remote from all main and even secondary traffic roads.