STATION TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 199, 20 May 1944, Page 8

STATION TRAGEDY

Woman’s Battered Body Under Bed LEATHER BELT ROUND THROAT (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) GISBORNE, May 19. Battered about the head and with a leather strap about the neck, the body ot Mrs. Lois Rosamond Mill, 39, was found under her bed at Bexhaven Station. 2,< miles from Tokomaru Bay, late yester',i l ‘When found by her husband, Mr. .George Mill, Mrs. Mill was already dead, “and it is thought that life had been extinct for some hours. Two children, a boy aged 11. and a girl aged 6, were playing outside as if nothing had happened. Two other older children were away in Gisborne. Half an hour after he returned to the house, Mr. Mill went into the bedroom to get a towel and discovered his wife s body. Her head was badly battered, apparently by some blunt weapon, and tightly drawn round the throat was a leather belt. Mr. Mill attempted artificial respiration. He telephoned for a doctor and the police. The doctor expressed the opinion that the assault must have occurred between 1 and 3 o’clock in the afternoon and that death occurred some time before the discovery. Inspector D. A. McLean, with Detec-tive-Sergeant R. H. Watersoil, Detective Sneddon, and Constable R A. Julian, arrived at the station at 11.45 p.m. from Gisborne. Search is being made by the police in t_ie surrounding district, and this morning they were expecting early developments.