MAYFIELD MURDER

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1885, 20 October 1913, Page 8

MAYFIELD MURDER

SHOCKING CRIME, WOMAN DONE TO DEATH ORGANISED SEARCH. CLUE FOUND & SUSPECTED • MAN ARRESTED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Ashburton, Ootober 19. Tho Mayfield district, some 28 miles South-west of Ashburton, was the sceile of a shocking tragedy on Wednesday (evening About 1.30 yestorday morning OVIr. Johii A. Lilloy got into communication with the Ashburton police from ■Mayfield Post Office, and informed Sergeant. .Emerson that lie had been away ji'rom homo (about tv.-o miles aud a'hnlf frorn the village of Mayfield) for some days, and that, when ho returned on Friday evening, he found that his wife ihad been away from home since Wednesday night. She had gone to sco a (neighbour whom she was informed was ill. His suspicions wero aroused, and, Jon making a search, he found Mrs. djilloy's body lying amongst tussocks, about six chains from the house. Ho (lid riot, at the time, notice any marks ( 'on the body. -Ho covered it witli a .cloth, and then communicated with the ■ police. His wife* he said, had been ill some three months previously, and had suffered from pains in her side. . | POLICE ARRIVE. 1 After receiving the message Sergeant (•Emerson dispatched two constables to' ; .Mayfield _at 4 a.m. When'they went 'out to view the body they found evidence which seemed to point unmistakably to lhurdcr.' Examination disclosed a sovere wound in the head, and the clothing was disarranged. Tho body was lying face downwards. The, left l arm was under her/ head, and the right arm bent, with the fingers turned in. Tho boot from the left foot was lying 'five feet away, and the right boot was ;Ihalf unlaced. A small sledge- • hammer was lying three feet way. Tho •injury inflicted was a terrible one. SUPPOSED CLUE. Tho body was lying in a paddock hbout 270 yards from Mr. Lilley's house. The spot is about two miles from Biddie's blacksmith's shop and, two and. a ■ iJialf miles from the Mayfield Post Office "Stores and school. The hammer with .yhich tho wound-was inflicted was soon as belonging to Alfred Biddle. -.It was of the. type usually used for :'ibeating out plough Shares. ' ; The police immediately made inquiries 'nbout Biddle's wlioreabouts, and discov- . wed that his smithy was locked'up, and t 'that ho had not been seen at his. board- : j'inghouse since Wednesday evening at '.'six o'clock, when he rode away on his 1 /..■bicycle." Biddle-has been a resident of j f the neighbourhood for the past four Pyears, and is well known to the local 1 community. ' He is about 29- 1 . Ftyears 'of age. . ', •,. ! ' SEARCH ORGANISED. i Sergeant Emerson joined the two con- ; stables at thcTscene at 10.30, and eare- ' i'ul inquiries indicated that the last that } -had been seen of Biddle was at 4 o clock - tin Thursday afternoon, when ho had ' .'called upon Bernard Kennedy , (a la- ' /'Tjourer) at the latter's hut, about a' mile • and a quarter from Mayfield, and in tho • direction of ! tho hills. : Diddle was then . wet through, and very white, and shaking. He told Kennedy that he was very 4 ill, and was going to the Hospital.. He deft soon after he arrived. At 1 p.m. Superintendent Kiely, of Christchurch, with three detectives,, ar- ; ./ rived , at tho .scene, and a sub-inspector j and a detective also came from Tunahi. , lA vigorous " search wa3 at once instituted; special attention being paid to , ' the course of the Hinds Riv'er, which , ' 'passes "within half a mile of Mayfield , . township. ; .j This search was not without result, , /"for traces( of the missing man we*e . Sound in-the midst of an almost impene- : .•trable tanglo of high-grown gorse in ■ tho riverbed about a mile and a half , tibovo Mayfield. It appeared to the , .police that the man had attempted to j '<lo away with himself. A bottle, which ; siad recently contained "rough on rats" ■ Avas discovered, the neck of the bottle ' (being broken off, and the contents , [apparently swallowed, for the wrotchod ; fanan had vomited considerably. V About an hour later Sergeant Emel- 'j (son and a reporter met a party of local , I'fnrra hands, 'one of whom had seen k i-Biddlo at 6.30 on Thursday evening, \ and spoken to him.. He stated thai . Biddle, who was looking very sick, ap- , peared to be then returning from the , direction of Mayfield. This was the last ; ■seen of him. The soarfrh was then rc- , Burned by a posse of police and residents. , THE ARREST. Biddle was subsequently arrested by , I. {Dotective-Sergeant Fahey, of Timaru, i ; • and Detectivo Gibson, of Christchurch, ( v tho arrest taking place at 8.45 this. . : flnorning. The charge on which he was t "\ apprehended was that, on Wednesday < .ovoning last, he did murder Roso Anna , ' Xiilley. v The man was in a very weak . and made no resistance. The detectives and other police had j t lcept up a vigilant watch throughout j .•the'night, the special forcc (left on the ( ■ • ■ scene on the previous night by Super- j intjendent Kiely) having adopted a gen- j oral assumption, which all the known f facts x supported, viz., that Biddle had ■ . not gone very far. His smithy and ; ... Kennedy's place (where ho was last "V seen on Thursday evening) wero closely ; hvatchcd, and the detectives were not , 'unduly surprised when Biddle emerged from the Hinds river-bed, about twenty 'yards from Kennedy's, at 8.45 a.m. The scene of the arrest is only a tnilo and a quarter from tho Mayfield Post Office, and about half a mile from the smithy, and two miles from tho scene of the tragedy. , As it had beon ; announced on Saturday evening _ that ''the search would not bo resumed till ten • ;a.m. to-day, tho detectives made their (capture unobserved, and had Biddle for nearly.an hour before tho residents 'Knew the position. Biddlo made a ; statement to the'detectives. but nothing I of its nature/ beyond tho statement pthiit it was "significant" was disclosed. BROUCHT TO LOCK-UP. Biddle was brought to his smithy in a gig b.V detectives at ten a.m., and as : he was'in a wretched state and wet through, a change of underclothing was procured, and, after a doctor had made -a cursory examination of him, and had stated that he was all Tight, except for weakness (possibly due/to exposure and hunger), ho was given some stimulants, and allowed a short rest in his bunk, in i n nliare. beside the smithy. At 1 p.m. the two detectives left Mayfield with Biddle in a motor-car, and he was lodged in 'the Ashburton lock-up at 2.5 v).m. Ho n ' !is kept there during the afternoon (probably for medical treatment), and it is understood that ho will appear before the local Bench to-morrow "("formal inquest was opened by Mr. y (i j)ay, S.M., tliis afternoon, and adjourned'till Tuesday morning, at Ashburton. POLICE THEORIES. Mrs. Lilley was twenty-nino years of a"e. Tho police ideas of the motives ; oF whoever committed tho acfc i are contradictory at this stage. One responsible officer holds that monetary transactions are at the : bottom of tho tragedy, but thq detec.

tives are inclined to believe that whoever perpetrated the crime was actuated by motives of another kind. Mrs. Lilley had four children, the eldest being a boy of eight years of ago. This littlo boy was in charge of tho house and his sister and two small brothers till Friday night, when ho got alarmed and went to a neighbour's.