POLICE ARE NOT WITHOUT CLUES

Chronicle (Levin), 9 November 1949, Page 5

POLICE ARE NOT WITHOUT CLUES

(Special to "Chronicle")

FOXTON, Nov. 9. Though not entirely without certain very important clues, the nature of which it is considered unwise to divulge at this juncture, the big squad of detectives and uniformed police .... investigating the murder of Mrs. Emily Christina Hall, 69-year-old widow, at Foxton, are eonfronte^ with the problem of establishing the approximate- time when the crime was committed. Yesterday a shop-to-shop cpvass was made in the hope of uncovering some definite and reliable evidence of the time when she was last seen alive.

There is now reason to believe that Mrs Hall may have been mfirdered ou the night of Thursday, November 3, instead of as was previously though t, some time during the following day. The report of the pathologist, Dr. P. P. Lynch, set the time of death as at least 48 hours prior to the time of examination made late on Suriday afternoon, and he considered that the murder could have been committed ou the Thursday night. At first the police were guided in their probe by the statement of a neighbour of Mrs Hall 's that she had been seen setting out for the town on a shopping expedition between 11 a.m. and midday on Friday, and their search was mainly eoncentrated for people who had visite'd Mrs Hatl's house on the day. Subsequent inqniries threw some doubt on the statement that Mrs Hall had been seen on Friday morning, and tfie police search has been widened to include people who might have visited the house on Thursday. The police are anxious to establish as quickly as possible the time when Mrs Hall was last seen alive, and are making an appeal to any person who may have seen her on Thursday or Friday to make their informatiou known to the police. A Maori who was reported to have left Foxton rather liurriedly on Saturday morning was loeated by the police but he' was able to satisfy them of his movements. To eope with the extra burden of work eaused by the need for cauvassing the town, the investigating force was yesterday strengthened by the addition of four detectives from Wellingtou and Constable F. O. Stefferson, of Palmerston North. The theory that Mrs Hall was murdered on Thursday night would account for the fact that no strange person was I seen about the house on the Friday, and tfor the strange fact that all the blinds | in the house were fully drawn on the Friday when it was an established cus-

tom of Mrs Hall's never to draw her blinds, despite the advice of neighbours. In the darkness of Thursday night the murderer would have been able to ; lock the doors and draw the blinds of the house with less chanee of being : observed by neighbours or passers-by than would have been the case had lre done it in the broad daylight of Friday. His escape unnoticed from the house and the vicinity would have been very much simplified. Not Without Clues. The police are not without certain very .important clues in the 'case, but it is considered unwise at the present time to divulge their nature. Yesterday dozens more persons were interviewed and fingerprinted. • . • ^ Although the investigations are bj> no means limited to Foxton and the surrounding district, it is there that they are chiefly eoncentrated which might indicate that the police believe the murder to have been committed by a person from that area. Superintendent H. J. Joyee, ofiScer in charge of the police district, who has been direeting investigations "from Palmerston North, yesterday went to Foxton to take command of investigations on the spot. He will remain in . Foxton until some definite development occurs. Further evidence has been obtained from local residents that Mrs. Hall was in the habit of earrying large sums of money abont with her, some saying that whenever she went into the township to shop she had a bundle of notes amounting to about £500 in her old blaek bag. It was her practice, it is said, to hide this bag under a heap of old boots in her house. •- Victim's Funeral. The funeral of the murder victim was held yesterday, only a sinai] number of Mrs. Hall's immediate relatives and friends attending. The services in the All Saints' Anglican Church and at the graveside in the Foxton Cemetery were conducted by the Rev. M- J. Wheeler.