TERRIBLE CRIME

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6408, 30 October 1923, Page 1

TERRIBLE CRIME

A WOMAN MURDERED SENSATIONAL AFFAIR AT ARAMOHO At a late hour on Friday evening Aromoho was the Scene of a terrible crime, Mrs Oates,' a resident, being murdered, while her husband, Mr W. R. Oates, a well-known storekeeper there, received severe injuries at the hands of the murderer.

It appears that on Friday evening Mrs Oates visited her husband at the store, Aramoho, near Wanganui, and later left for home. Mr Oates, after closing the store, also started, for home, carrying with him the cash takings for the day. Mr Oates reached the back of his house, where, in the dark, an unknown assailant felled him to the ground with a savage blow from some blunt weapon.' .Several blows followed, and he was beaten into an unconscious state. /

When he came to his senses, he found the money and his assailant had vanished. Mr Oates struggled to a neighbour’s house, and then, with assistance, returned and entered his own home.

AN AWFUL DISCOVERY

In the passage leading through the house, they found Mvs Oates suffering from desperate injuries, the brain protruding through the skull. It was evident that she had been struck down lyith a blunt weapon, and dragged some distance along the floor. Steps were at once taken to convey Mr v s Oates to the District Hospital. She died at 12.50 p.m., ! her case being hopeless from the outset.

NO TRACE OF CRIMINAL

4t was evident that the criminal had lost no time in getting away from the house with his booty. The amount of cash, including cheques, that Mr Oates was carrying, is supposed to amount to over £IOO..