MANGAWEKA CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 4, 6 January 1944, Page 4

MANGAWEKA CASE

POLICE INVESTIGATIONS BEING CONTINUED

Police investigations are being continued in an effort to obtain information concerning the mystery of a child's body found by the railway line north of Mangaweka on the afternoon of Monday, December 20. The body was that of a male infant between two and three weeks old and all circumstances indicate that the child was thrown from a passing train.

An expert autopsy disclosed that the child had been without food for 12 hours or more, and as no indication was found of it having been drugged, it is considered likely that the child showed signs of distress during the journey. Passengers who travelled on Main Trunk expresses between Wellington and Auckland on December 18 or 19 are asked to communicate with the nearest police station should they have noticed anything unusual in the conduct of a passenger, man or woman, who joined the train with a young baby which cried frequently during the journey. The child had dark brown hair and sharp features. The fact that .the body was naked supports the theory that the child was deliberately thrown from a train. There is insufficient evidence to show whether the victim was killed on the train, or whether death resulted from its being thrown on the line. Had the child been east a few feet further it would have dropped in scrub below the level of the line and might have remained undiscovered for a considerable time.