MURDER CHARGE

Wairarapa Age, 15 April 1935, Page 5

MURDER CHARGE

PRICE TO STAND TRIAL ARGYLL TRAGEDY. EVIDENCE BY A DETECTIVE. NAPIER, April 13. The Lower Court hearing of the charge of murder against Charles William Price was concluded this morning. Price (alias Edwards), a teamster, aged 42, is charged that on or about February 6 at Argyll, he murlered Evelyn Mary Madden. Mr. J. G. L. Hewitt, S.M., was on the bench. »

The principal witness to-day was De-tective-Sergeant James Bickerdike, who produced a statement made by the accused shortly before his arrest. The Detective-Sergeant stated in evidence that he went to Argyll with Detective Farquharson on February 16 and saws the accused near the siene of the crime with two constables. When he was informed of the nature of the police investigations Price said: ‘“I knew Eva Madden. I left her at the Hastings Hotel on February 4.” The accused returned with the police to Hastings. Interviewed by the witness and Detective Coddington, he was told that the police had been informed that there was a woman in the car in which he had travelled to Taheke. The accused said: “There was no woman in that car, and you can’t prove it.” The witness said that he only wanted to be clear on that point, and the accused again declared that no woman was in the car. Clothing belonging to Miss Madden was shown to Price, who identified them as the deceased’s. “There is no doubt in my mind that they are her property,” he said, “as I have seen her wearing them at Lowry's.” Detective-Sergeant Bickerdike then read a statement made by Price at the Hastings Police Station just before his arrest. Price said that he and Miss Madden quarrelled in the Hastings Hotel on February 5, when she accused him of being drunk. On the following morning the accused approached Miss Madden and asked “Why don’t you be friendly?” She replied: “I am finished with you.” Price said that he left Miss Madden at the Hastings railway station. Shortly afterwards he was approached by a man seeking a loan, but the accused said he was “not holding” and asked the other if he knew where he could get a good man who owned a blue sedan car. The man said he did not, and Price asked him how much he would want to drive him to Taheke. 'ttie man replied “A. pound,” and the offer was accepted. The man, continued Price, was a stranger to him and was not a taxi-driver. He thought he would know him if he saw him again. No woman accompanied them on the journey to Taheke, and if anyone said that a woman was in the car he would not be telling the truth. Continuing, the witness said that Price also denied that any woman or girl had been picked up during the journey. Witness asked Price what sort of girl Miss Madden was, and the . accused replied that she was a very respectable girL Witness also asked him if there had been intimacy between him and Miss Madden, and Price said: “No, it never entered my rtiind.” Following the arrest of Price on a charge of murder, witness went to Marshall’s farm at Argyll and took possession of Price’s kitbag, in which he found a bunch of keys. Two of the keys fitted suitcases in the possession of the police. On February 20 witness took possession at Hastings railway station of a £abin trunk bearing the initials E.M., and two days later some of the , contents were identified by Miss Jamieson and Mts Lowry as the property of Miss Madden. Acting Detective Herbert Francis Coddington corroborated much of the evidence given by Detective-Sergeant Bickerdike. Charles Augustus Copland, a dress fabric specialist, stated that he had tested the material of Miss Madden’s frock and pieces of material found in her cabin trunk, and they were identical. The accused was committed for trial.—(P.A.)