MURDER AT OXFORD.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15870, 9 April 1917, Page 6

MURDER AT OXFORD.

YOUNG WOMAN THE

VICTIM.

STATION HAND CONFESSES

TO CRIME

At about 10 o'clock yesterday morning a young woman named Henrietta Foster, aged 18 years, was murdered by .a man namod Charles Butler at View Hill station, an estate about 10 miles from Oxford, owned by Mrs Gorton.

The facts of tho case, as revealed by tho investigation carried out by tho police, are clear. Yesterday morning Mr Foster, who is caretaker at View Hill, with his wife and two small daughters set out for Oxford to attend mass at tho Roman Catholic Church. Their daughter Henrietta was left behind at the house, and on the place at tho same time wero ono or two men. workmen on the station, and the man Charles Butler, who for tho past two years or so has been working as rouseabout. Some time after Sir and Sirs Foster had left for Oxford a young man called at tho station to borrow some cartridges, as ho was going out shooting. He was given a box, and as he was going away he saw Butler and told him that he had got the cartridges. THE CRIME. It must have been very soon after tho sportsman left tho place that the crime was committed. According to tho police story Butler went to his hut, procured a razor, then walked across to tho homestead and entered the kitchen where Miss Foster was sitting on the sofa darning a stocking, and killed her by cutting her throat from ear to ear. There were no signs whatever of any struggle in tho room, and the murderer must have caught the girl practically unawares. j "When tho body was found, it was lying face downwards in .a pool of blood, and it was obvious that Miss Foster had only risen to her feet, made one step forward and then fallen and hardly moved again. One of her hands was still epcased in the stocking she was mending, and in the other the needle and wool were still gripped. BUTLER ATTEMPTS SUICIDE. After committing the deed Butler searched round for a piece of paper and, tearing off a piece of wrapping that had been round a packet of tea, he wrote upon it, "My body will he found in the well," and left it on the table in the kitchen. It was evident from j Butler's state when arrested that he had tried to drown himself, at anv rate his clothes wero all wet, but apparently there was not enough water in the well for him to accomplish his avowed purpose, for he then Bet off towards a small post office and telephone bureau, situated about a mile or a mile and a half from View Hill, and when he arrived there he terrified the young woman in charge by stating that he had killed someone. CONFESSION OF THE CRIME. She immediately ran out and told Mr Joseph Clark and Mr. Robert Mounsey what Butler had said to her, and the two men walked over to the Fosters' house, fully expecting to find the dead body of Mt Foster. • Whe a they arrived there they walked into the house, and found the dead body of Miss Foster lying as described. Messrs Clark and Mounsey immediately communicated with' Constable Leahy at Oxford, and tho oonstable went out at onoe to the View Hill Post Office, where he found Butler sitting in the bed of a watercourse—the Eyre River —which runs near by. Ho arrested the man, and charged him with the crime, which Butler, who was in ® state of nervousness, admitted, and submitted to arrest without any resistance. Constable Leahy handed Butler over to the custody of two returned soldiers to take charge of, while he went on to the house to make investigations. MURDERER BROUGHT TO CHRJSTCHURCH. Shortly after 2 p.m. Superintendent; Dwyer received word of tho trageJy, and be. with Detective-Sergeant McIlveney, immediately motored io Oxford. They received « report from Dr. Bagley, of Oxford, who had examined the body, and it would appear tnat there was no sign whatever of any improper interference with the girl, *bo case being one of plain murder. Tho Superintendent and Detective-Sergeant -Mcllveney, with Butler in custody, arrived in Christchurch at 9.20 last night.

Butler is a short, thick-set man, of forty years of age, with dark hair and a rather heavy moustache. He appeared to be in a highly nervous condition, and during the journey down he hardly spoke a word. When he was epoken to he would reply coherently enough, but would start or "jump" when a remark was addressed to him. He has been about the Oxford district for some years, and apparently is a thrifty man, as le has a large sum to his credit in the Po6t Office Savings Bank. He was taken into the Police Station and charged, and then Jpckod up in the oells for the night; he will ccroe before tho Magistrate this morning. Mr T. A. B. Bailej', S.M., will go to Oxford to-day to hold an inquest on the body of Miss Foster at the house at View Hill.