THE KAMI TRAGEDY

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1930, Page 11

THE KAMI TRAGEDY

REMAN'D ON MURDER CHARGE

BLOOD-STAINED KNIFE FOUND.

MANLEY HAD BEEN GIRL’S FIANCE

AVAR BRIDE'S ALLEGATION. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wanganui. Last Night. Herbert Frederick Manley was charged at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning with the murder of Gladys Cromarty at her home in Ridgway Street, on Friday afternoon. An unusually large crowd, was at the court to catch a°gliinpfie. of Manley. A remand until May 'l7 wQ-s granted. Manley, who at one . time- was engaged to Alias Cromarty, was living in the. same house. He surrendered himself to the. police three hours after the tragedy. . . ... The police .have found a ,chef’s knife with which it is believed, the. murder was committed. . An examination of the body was made yesterday. Evidence of identification was taken at the inquest. The route to the Aramoho cemetery was lined with people this afternoon when the funeral cortege of Miss Cromarty passed- through the city. At the graveside about 500 people were in attendance. The Rev. W. S. King (Presbyterian) conducted the burial service. The search for. the weapon with which the deed w.as committed ended at 3 a.m, on Saturday, when a black-handled chef’s knife on which were stains believed to be those of human blood was discovered in a cattle stop in. the yard of the* Wanganui Sash and Door Company facing Taupo Quay, . The, kpife blade tapers from one. and a-half inches at its greatest, width to ft sharp .point, and is . particularly keen. The . whole blade is six inches long.. . Manley has a complete set of culinary instruments and the knife is alleged to be one of the set. ■ " .

Air. J. Lowe, head groomsman employed at- Koatanui, Mr. G. M. Currie’s stud farm at Maxwell, where Manley was employed, said that during the two or three months Alanley, in company with Miss Cromarty, was engaged on the farm they were extremely popular. When Manley informed him he os goiri'er to Wellington to work Lowe made every endeavour to persuade him to stay on the farm.

UNHAPPY WAR-TIME MARRIAGE

STORY OF. WOMAN IN ENGLAND.

Rec. 6.40 p.m. London,, May 11. The wife of Frederick Manley, who is reported to have been arrested on a murder charge at Wanganui, is living at Kenley, 'Surrey. She says she first heard of the news from a reporter. She was not surprised, as she had a premonition on Friday that sojnething terrible was' going to happen. She added that hers had been an unhappy war-time marriage. She had obtained a separation in 1925, when she and her two little boys had been dependent upon the poor law guardians for eight months. She last heard from her husband from Rio de Janeiro in 1928, when he wrote suggesting a fresh start together, but added, “It you do not agree I shall go through carriage with a pretty, fair-haired girl. She is only 23, but has been divorced, and is now imploring me to take her away.” Mrs. Manley said she could not reply to such a letter. She would not have done so even if it had not contained a threat. . ■ .

IN DOMINION ELEVEN MONTHS.

ENGAGEMENT BROKEN RECENTLY

The scene of the tragedy was a twostoreyed house. Apparently there were four people on the premises at the time —Mrs. 0. Cromarty, aged about 50; Dora Cromarty, her eldest daughter; Gladys Cromarty, aged 21; and Manley. Earlier in the day sounds of gaiety is* sued from the building. . People were singing and there was a gramophone 'playing. ’ .' Shortly after 3' o’clock a ;'l(sud thud was heard by Miss Dora 1 Cromarty and her mother, who were downstairs. The next they ..[inew was that Gladys, who had gone to her room in. the front of the top storey to rest, was. groping blindly through the kitchen, her head, throat and chest wet with blood. She staggered, tried to grasp something, .and then pitched forward to die from the effects of a deep . wmind in her throat. . Investigation .showed she had received the wound when she was in the bedroom upstairs, and it is remarkable that she was able to leave there, travel across the. wide room and down the stairs, a distance of several yards, before she fell. Miss Cromarty was. a good-looking girl, 21 years of age, and brightly dispositioned. . She was one of a family of six. Eleven months ago the mother, ■a widow? in response to her eldest daughter's, appeals, came to, Zealand with the ’ three other members’of the family, : two’ daughters and ' a son aged 18. ' They went to Wanganui. Gladys at that time was employed as a waitress at Foster’s Hotel. Some time she went to Mr.-G. M. Curries residence as a domestic. Manley was : employed there as a chef. The two 'became engaged. . . Manley left his position at Mr. Currie’s and went to Wellington. Cromarty went there afterwards and was employed in the same house. About a fortnight ago Miss Cromarty broke off the engagement and went to Wanganui. Maniey and Stanley Cromarty went there last Tuesday and it had been their intention to return to the capital on Saturday. . . Manley is stated io be a single man, 38 years of age. a chef by occupation. He is a native of England but has been in the Dominion for 'sonic time. He is slight of build, dark, and abodt five feet five inches in height.