TRAGEDY IN MALLEE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 61, 6 December 1920, Page 5

TRAGEDY IN MALLEE

WIFE OF SETTLER SHOT.

It was reported t&-*he polico in. MelBourne last week that Mrs. Isabella Morrison, the wife of a .settler at Dubbo Wells, near Cowangie, in,. the, Mallee, had been shot dead by a, man, and thatWilliam Eva, a brother-in-law of the dead woman, had been arrested. . . • Messages received from Quyen about r>o miles from the scene, of the tragedy state that the woman's husband, while working with a farm hand in a she,d obout 100 yards from the house heard a gunshot. Running out,, he saw a man, whom he recognised, fleeing towards the scrub with a gun in his hand. Ho then noticed his wife badly wounded in tho head lying on the ground near the house. She was dead. The police at Murrayville. 12 miles away, were informed, and Constable Delanoy and Dr. Hawthorne, immediately went out by motor-car to tho sceno of the shooting, where a search for the suspected murderer .proved unsuccessful. Joined by Constable Davey, the party coutinuod ,tho search, but with no result. Next morning nows reached them that the.man for whom they wore looking had had bieakfast at the houso of a farmer named Wilson, six miles .away. He told Mr. Wilson, who was unaware of, the tragedy, that he had lost his way while on a shooting expedition, aud asked Wilson to buy his gun. About dinner ilime he called at tho homestead of another farmer named Starr, and again tried to sell the gun. He left going in the direction; of Pinaroo. Ho was seen about seven miles from tho Murrayville township, apparently making for the South Aus-' tralian border. Following in this direction, !l party from Murrayville,. in mo-tor-Mrs, found the suspected* mau hiding, armed, in a crop of barley, not far away from where ho had been last seen. When tho party closed on him he threw nway his gun and submitted to capture, asking why lie was being arrested. He appeared to bo mentally unbalanced. Dusty and very ragged, ho was takon to tho Murrayville lock-up, whore he was detained ponding' a charge of having l wilfully .murdered Mrs. Morrison, being preferred against him. '

Mrs. Morrison, a comparatively young woman, was a keen worker in all Rett Cross and patriotic movements duritig dho war, and was popular in tho> district.

William Eva, who has been arrested, is a returned, soldier with a good record of war sorvice. On Wednesday afternoon he w ( as engaged 'by a fanner about three miloa from tho Morrison farm. It. i» alleged that tho was angered about tho allotment under the will of a relative who recently died. Eva is about 28 vears of ago.