YOUNG MAN CHARGED WITH CRANSTON MURDER

Grey River Argus, 1 October 1948, Page 4

YOUNG MAN CHARGED WITH CRANSTON MURDER

Blacksmith’s Striker Arrested on Monday P.A. WELLINGTON, Sept. 30. *A man aged 20 years, who is by occupation a blacksmith’s striker, will be formally charged in the Magistrate’s Court tomorrow with the murder of Katherine Glady’s Cranston, the 47-year-old widow, whose battered body was ‘found on Mount Victoria on Sunday.

The murder of Mrs Cranston occurred, it- is believed, a few minutes after mid-day on Sunday. Thirty-five hours later, or about 11 o’clock on Monday night Constables Baker and Naylor, constables attached to the Detective Branch at the Central Police Station, arrested a young man in the vicinity of the Railway Station.

Next morning this man appeared in the Magistrate’s Court, on a charge of being found idle and disorderly. in that he had insufficient lawful means of support. He was remanded in custody until October 5. Yesterday, the police notified the man that an additional charge, that of murder, would be preferred against him, and that he would be charged accordingly to-morrow morning.# Since the man’s arrest on Monday night, the police have been busily engaged on various lines of inquiry. A number of persons have been ‘interviewed, and have had statements taken Dunedin Search DUNEDIN, Sept. 30. Although it is only conjecture whether the man responsible for the murder of Mrs Cranston at Wellington is the stowaway who made a prompt departure from the Holmglen after the vessel arrived at Dunedin on Tuesday night, th e police are making every endeavour to locate him. They have interviewed many persons, including visitors to hotels, but no arrest has so fax' been made.

Funeral of Victim

WELLINGTON, Sept. 30,

Several hundred people attended or waited in the vicinity when the funeral services were held this morning for Mrs Katherine Cranston, victim of the Mount Victoria murder on Sunday. The many floral tributes in the mortuary -chapel, testified, to the widespread public , feeling. There wag a brief simple ceremony. The Union Jack was draped over the casket as recognition of Mrs Cranston’s military service with British forces in Malaya during the war. poppies of Flanders were worn by the pall-bearers, who were members of the R.S.A., and officials of the Labour and Employment Department, in which Mrs Cranston worked as a clerk during her brief residence in Wellington. Many of the women in the vicinity of the chapel wept as the small cortege passed.