CITY COMBED FOR CLUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 137, 31 August 1927, Page 9

CITY COMBED FOR CLUE

BLOOD-STAINED SPANNER ANALYST’S EVIDENCE Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. rjiHE story of how a detective combed Christchurch, to trace the owner of the bloodstained spanner which was found near the scene of the murder, was told when the court resumed this morning. The first witness called was Felix John Theodore Grigs, the Government analyst, who said that on June IS he received from Detective Mayne a box containing nine bottles. He made a careful examination of the contents of all of these, but found no trace of any poison, or any substance which could be used to procure abortion. David Davidson gave evidence of the finding of the spanner near the scene of the murder, and handing it to the police. Detective Eade said that on June 16 while clearing scrub at the scene of the murder, a man found a spanner in the gorse. Witness took the spanner to the detective office. There were bloodstains on the spanner, partly dry. The instrument was sent to the finger-print department in Wellington and examined, but no fingerprints were found. Mr. Thomas: To what extent was there blood on the spanner? “The whole of the spanner was j covered with it, except the lower jaw.” “And you say there was some that was not dry?” “Yes.” INTERVIEWED 1,510 PEOPLE Detective Laugeson told the court that he saw the spanner on June 16. There were traces of oil in the jaws as though it had been used recently. Witness made inquiries at all the engineering works, motor garages, and foundries in Christchurch and showed the spanner to a total of 1,510 people, including taxi-drivers and engineers. None of them was able to identify the spanner, or say he had seen it before. He was unable to find a spanner exactly like it. On July 2, with Detective Thomas, he searched the effects of Miss Scarff at her home, and in a locked cash box in a ducliesse drawer, found a small piece of paper on which was written the name of “M. C. Boakes.”

Mr. Thomas objected to this. “We do not know who wrote it, or what it is,” he said. The Magistrate: For the present I will let it go in, and note the objection. It is not of the slightest evidential value. Detective Laugeson went on to say that on July 27 Detective Gerald and he searched accused’s home at Windsor Terrace. In a wooden box in the hall among other effects of the accused they found 13 small brass military buttons, and ten large ones. In a tiny box in a room upstairs they found four small similar buttons, and three large ones. The buttons were produced. Referring to the spanner, witness said that it appeared as if the jaw had been slightly enlarged. The motor-car used by accused in his work was fitted with “A.C.” spark plugs, and the large end of the spanner produced exactly fitted these plugs. Mr. Thomas: I want to be quite clear about this. 1 want to understand what your evidence has been about. Is this the spanner that was found at the scene of the murder? “Yes.” "This is the one you say was enlarged?”' "It gives the appearance of having been enlarged.” George Hunter McCann, a staff ser-geant-major of the Defence Department, said he had- acted as quarter-master-sergeant, and had handled much military equipment. On July 29 he examined two military overcoats produced at the detective office in Christchurch. They were ordinary infantry issue overcoats. Mr. Donnelly: “One is older-look-ing than the other, isn’t it?” “Yes.” “What’s the date of it, roughly?” “November 25, 1915, is the maker’s date.” "These military buttons, they’re just the ordinary issue buttons?” “Yes.” “How many buttons has an infantryman’s overcoat?” “Five large ones in front and seven small ones, and three on the back.” SPANNER FROM “F.N.” CAR

Alfred Edwin Smith, managing director of Smith’s Motors, Ltd., said that he had had 25 years’ experience with cars. The spanner produced resembled that supplied in the toolkit of the “E.N.” make of car which came from Belgium. “How do you base that opinion?” “From its design, and, secondly, because it is of the metric type of spanner.” (Proceeding.)