CAMP MYSTERY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20076, 24 October 1939, Page 6

CAMP MYSTERY

MURDER CHARGE patience on trial WIFE’S DISAPPEARANCE CROWN CASE OPENS PROSECUTOR’S ADDRESS (Per Press .Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Charged with the murder of his wife. Harriet Jane Patience, at Clavcrley on October 4. Arthur John Patience, aged 48, a labourer, appeared in the Supreme Court this morning before Mr. Justice Novthcroft. Pleading not guilty. Patience appeared in the dock wearing a blue double breasted suit. He appeared

! quite calm. Only 82 people were in the gallery 1 when the case opened, 11) of them | being women. i Mr, A. T. Donnelly conducted the case for the Crown, Mr. Alan Brown, ; being with him. Mr. R. A. Young, one ! of the youngest counsel ever to appear i for an accused in a murder trial, i with him Mr. T. A. Gresson, appeared | for Patience. With about 40 witnesses to be heard I the case is expected to occupy eight ' days. Over 50 exhibits were set out on the table in the court. I Patience and his wife lived at C'lavj eriey public works camp until OctoI bar' of last year. Mrs.. Patience j disappeared. An intensive police ; search was without result, but on July i 20 a body was found on the beach at . I Taraluhi! This, the relatives claimed, j was that of the missing women. I Patience was subsequently arrested. :! For some time before October 4. 1 ! 1028, Patience had been working on ! j the railway at C!a\eriey, said Mr. ■ | Donnelly, addressing the jury. Mrs. • I Patience was seen about the camp on j the evening of October 4. 1088. but . i then vanished. All the resources of -1 the police force failed to disclose her . | whereabouts. Violent Chest Injuries

3 j On July 20. a body was found on ! the beach and recently preserved. It

would be described as one which was like Mrs. Patience. The doctors said She body had suffered violent injuries to the chest :n hfe. It would be said that the body was not that of a suicide. The motive oi opportunity, the unrounding facts and the conduct of the accused before and after his wile’s disappearance precluded any but Patience being responsible. The Crown held that he had clone away with his wife. Mrs. Patience had little money, had not spoken of leaving and had not been seen leaving the camp or on any transport service No woman of her age had disappeared in New Zealand and remained unaccounted,for. ••The Crown will claim that the body was that of Mis. Patience, that the accused had knelt on her chest I crushing her ribs after stopping, her windpipe." declared Mr. Donnelly. On October 7, Patience went, to see

his sop and told him that he was going to inquire about his wife at Mrs. George’s, but apparently he went to town and saw Mrs. Chapman, continued the Crown prosecutor. On October 15, Patience saw his son and said he was going to put the matter in the hands of a lawyer.

Possessions Burned Before his departure for Rosy Morn Camp on October 17, Patience held a find of clearing sale of his and liis wife’s possessions, burning some of what were claimed to be Mrs. Patience’s dollies. He had not taken an hour off work to look for It is wife, lie changed his status to that of a single man. Patience had said nothing of his wife's disappearance to the police, one of the other witnesses informing them. Patience’s statement was read bv Mr. Donnelly, rle told of returning home to find bis wife out and going to bed alone. He did not know where she was, out the next evening lie found that some of her dollies were gone. He told Fletcher that his wife was gone on the morning of October 5. He found a note from his wile saying that she was tired of him and camp life and wanted nothing from him. Later, he took his wife’s remaining clothes to the house of Mrs. George, m Riccarton. The following night, October 8, he slept at a friend’s house, but did not inquire for his wife. At tiie end of October, continued Mr. Donnelly. Mrs. Patience had van-

| idled. Tile scare,i was fruitless. Her j clothes had been sent to relatives. Her i corsets had been burned at the camp and Patience bad done nothing but i live as a single man until lie was disi tut bed by the police. Circumstantial Evidence

While tiie evid< nee was circumstantial, Hie cumulative effect of the evidence of many witnesses would be sufficient to make it convincing, said Mr. Donnelly. The evidence all pointed one way—that the disappearance of Mrs. Patience was due to the accused.'

Edgar Manuel Jones, a public works engineer, was the first witness. He gave details of the Clnverley camp and district. He said that in July the set of the winds and tides caused erosion, one spoil tip being eaten away 16ft. at the top and 30ft. at the base. Shingle was also being scoured from the beach. Such erosion had not happened during the work before.