WAIKINO TRAGEDIES

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVIII, Issue 109, 12 June 1940, Page 3

WAIKINO TRAGEDIES

STATEMENT BY D. H. CARTMAN STATEMENT BY ACCUSED. WAIH'I, Last night. The Magistrate’s Court has been occupied during the past two day's with the trial of Douglas Herbert Cartman, single, aged 22, charged with the murder at Waikino on April 2nd of Elizabeth Agnes Hamilton, a married woman, aged 27, whose body was found next morning in scrub on the side of the WaikinoWaitewhetu road, three miles away from where that of Lloyd Moran, aged 15, son of the then proprietor of tire Waikino Hotel, Mr J. J. Moran, was found.

Sergeant Dunn gave evidence concerning the finding of Mrs Hamilton’s body which, he said, was practically without clothing except for a green cardigan, a striped blouse and a pink slip which were rolled round her neck. Detailing the injuries to the body Sergeant Dunn said there were severe injuries to the head and left leg. A tyre lever covered rvith bloodstains was lying about six inches from the head of the body. Detective Hayes said on May Ist he was present when accused pointed nut a certain spot in the Willows road at Waihi and after daybreak witness and other searchers, after clearing the scrub at that spot, unearthed the missing skirt of Mrs Hamilton. Later the same day witness found a black leather shoe at accused’s home identical in every way' with the shoes worn by Lloyd Moran on the night of the tragedy. A statement made by accused before his arrest was produced by Detective Henry Francis Miller. The ] detective’s evidence was that on April 23rd he visited accused’s home with Constable W. C. Harper, whose testimony concerning the examination of the car was corroborated. Two days later accused was interviewed at Waihi and gave an account of his transactions with the car and of his movements on the night of the tragedy. Accused’s staetment was to the'effect that on the evening of April 2nd ho had had tea at home about 4 p.m. and then drove his car to the Sterling Hotel, where he consumed four “handles” of beer. He left before 6 p.m. and drove on his own to Waihi beach. There he parked the ear and strolled about the beach. Returning home about 7.40 p.m., he parked the car outside the gate and went to bed. He was awakened by his mother before midnight, when he went to work. The key of the car, according to custom, he hung on a nail in his room. Inspecting the underpart of the car. witness had formed an opinion that the car had recently passed over a large object of a yielding nature, according to scrape marks running the full length of the left-hand side. The medical evidence showed that

a grave offence had been committed on the woman. ANOTHER, STATEMENT.

Detective-Sergeant John Thompson, Hamilton, stated that on May Ist the accused at an interview said that he had been worrying about what he had done. “If I had not had so much drink it would not have happened,” Cartman had stated. In a written statement the accused had admitted that he had not gone to Waihi beach on the night of the tragedy, as he had previously told the police. The accused said that he had been drinking all day in the hotel at Waihi and by evening was as near drunk as could be. Cartman stated that when he set out in his ear for Paeroa he struck at Waikino a woman and a boy who were walking along the road and whom he failed to see. No one was about at the time, and the accused placed the body of the boy in the back of the ear and the woman’s body in the front seat. Both were dead when picked up. Continuing his statement, the accused, said the police, deposed how he had disposed of the bodies. When formally charged with the murder Cartman made no reply.

The accused was committed for trial at the Supreme Court at Auckland.