THE' EYRETON MURDERS.

Colonist, Volume XLIV, Issue 10138, 28 June 1901, Page 2

THE' EYRETON MURDERS.

McLean i cknowledges the Crime.

Says he must have been Mad.

(Per United Press Association.)

' GHM&'itiHUiiCHj.Juue 27. Early this morning, Constable Ede, of Ashburton, discovered that the missing man, Alexander McLean, who was wanted in ■ connection with the Eyreton murders, was in the vicinity of Ashburton, and immediately set out in search. At Tinwald, two miles south of Ashburton, he found the accused and arrested him. It appears tint McLean walked into Lagan's Hotel at Tinwald this morning about half-past seven o'clock, and, putting down a sovereign, called for some whisky, which" was given him. He then asked to be allowed to go into a room with a fire, and he was invited into the kitchen, where he was sitting when Mr Lagan, the licensee, came downstairs, and saw McLean. From a private description he had received he suspected that he was the man wanted, and ordered his servant to keep McLean under close surveillance. Lagan then rang up Constable Ede, who proceeded to Tinwald, and McLean, on being taxed, admitted the charge, saying that he must have been mad.

* He was then conveyed to the lock-up in Ashburton.

The horse on which the accused reached Tinwald, together with its saddle and bridle, was found in a paddock adjoining Lagan's Hotel, and about £7 was found on the accused.

He was brought before the Asbburton Court, and remanded to Christchurch.

To get to Ashburton, McLean must have travelled a round-about way. Leaving Eyreton, he had evidently gone straight to Oxford, having dined there last Saturday, and, leaving there the same day with a horse and trap, he had enquired the way to the West Coast, but had, instead, come south to Sheffield, where he stayed on Saturday night. Thence there seems a mystery as to how he reached Tinwald. He had enquired for Greendale and the Rangitata bridge road, but was seen to turn to the left at Waddington, instead of going over the Hororata bridge, as directed. From there he must have gone down somewhere near Methven, and thus to Tinwald.

McLean was born in Victoria,, Australia, in 1878, and has friends residing at Bendigo in that Colony. He has a heavy type of countenance, with low eyebrows, broad nose, and prominent ears, and is of an active athletic build. It is believed that his mind is deranged and he has been depressed for some time, and has threatened to shoot himself. His aimless wandering about the country also points to this conclusion. He has been long known tn tbe police, and his name is recorded in the " Police Gazette" for housebreaking in 1897, and also it is recorded that on May 28th of last year he was sentenced at Christchurch to twelve months imprisonment, with hard labor in Lyttelton gaol for breaking and entering aud theft.