SWIFT CLIMAX

Wairarapa Daily Times, 18 February 1935, Page 4

SWIFT CLIMAX

TO TAHEKE MYSTERY. MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER. HASTINGS, Sunday. The Talieke mystery came to an unexpected and swift climax on Saturday afternoon when as" a sequel to police investigations into the finding of the dead body of the then unidentified woman, a man named Charles William Edwards was detained and late on Saturday night formally arrested and charged with the murder of the woman, who is now known to be Eva Madden, a domestic. Edwards will appear at the Napier S.M. Court to-morrow morning. He is a farm teamster, thirty-nine years of age. The victim of the tragedy was 20 years of age. It is believed she was formerly of Wellington and had no relatives in New Zealand.

It became apparent from the first examination of the body that the police were confronted with a problem in solving a fatal assault and it is known that the detectives engaged in preliminary investigations were by no means hopeful of a speedy solution of the affair. In the first place they were at a loss to know how the woman came to be in such a remote part of the country and also they were faced with the fact that no Hawke’s Bay police station had reports of any missing woman. It seemed as though identification alone would be a considerable problem.

Then matters took a sudden turn. Erom some detailed description of the victim’s appearance and clothing a Hastings resident who employed her came to the police with an offer to examine the body to see whether it was the same woman as she felt it was. Then Mr .T. N. Lowry, at whoso farm both the deceased and Edwards had been employed at the same time, came into the investigations and quickly established the identity of the girl as Madden.

The first step in the investigations was an examination of the body in situation by Detective Farquharson, Plain Clothes Constable Dunne and Dr. R. Cashmore, Hastings. The body was then brought into Hastings where it has now been preserved to facilitate further examination. Within an hour or two Detective Sergt. Bickerdike and Detective Coddington (Napier) joined in the investigation and acting on information received from the Hastings resident who had employed the deceased woman they went to Tikokino to detain Edwards, who was subsequently taken to the scene of the discovery and later brought to Hastings. A post-mortem examination by Dr. Cashmore and Dr. A. B. S. Whyte showed that the woman received certain severe injuries. It was revealed also that her clothing was much disarranged apparently before death. The ydung man named Monk, who discovered the body at a very late hour on Thursday night, was walking along the creek, which runs through the Taheke settlement, it being his intention to go on an eeling expedition."' He had reached a point almost opposite the junction of the two roads when he saw the body. It was in a partly hidden spot, about a hundred yards from the road and might have lain hidden there till the winter rains came and swelled the waters in the creek and carried the body away.—(P.A.)

ACCUSED REMANDED. NAPIER, This Day. Charles William Price, otherwise known as Charles William Edwards, aged 40, appeared in the Napier S.M. Court to-day, charged with the murder of Evelyn Mary Madden. Price was remanded to Tuesday of next week. —(P.A.)