UNIQUE APPEAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20876, 31 August 1942, Page 2

UNIQUE APPEAL

INFORMATION SOUGHT CHURCH CONGREGATIONS THE WAIROA MYSTERY (S.R.) WAIROA, this day. An appeal, unique in the history-of crime in New Zealand, has been made to the people of Wairoa in an endeavour to secure further information regarding the movements of Brigadier Annie Smyth, aged 62, whose battered body was found in the Salvation Army Hall on August 21, together with the similarly mutilated body of her sister. Miss Rosamond Smyth aged about 70. The police asked ministers to appeal to the congregations yesterday to submit any information they had that would throw any light on the movements of the brigadier on Saturday August 6. Chief-Detective J. B. Young stated to-day that the brigadier was seen near Peach’s Garage between 5.20 and 5.30 p.m. on August 8. She was wheeling her bicycle, but was not going in the direction of the Salvation Army Hall. The police are anxious to know the brigadier’s movements after that. Her bicycle was found in the wash-house at the Salvation Army Hall after the bodies were discovered. The chief detective, said he was grateful for the information that had come to hand to date, and he hoped that the police would be able to secure some of the missing links in the chain of information concerning the brigadier's movements.

Since the finding of the bodies, large numbers of women in Wairoa have become somewhat uneasy that the mystery has not been cleared up. In order to allay any such feeling, an announcement has been made by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. D. J. Cummings, through Inspector Cameron, Napier, that provision has been made for the full protection of any nervous women.