WANTED FOX

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1921, Page 1

WANTED FOX

\N EX-NEW ZEALAND RESIDENT.

Sydney, Jan. 10.

There is at present a great hue and rrv after one William Ernest. Colev, an ex-soldier, and until verv recently a resident of New Zealand. He is believed to have murdered a girl, Gertrude .McGrath, in particularly brutal circumstances in a house at Lavender Bay, North Sydney, on Christinas Eve. Gertrude McGrath had been living at the house only a short time. She "'as apparently one of those numerous girls who come to the city from distant country places, and live their lives in their own way. There was some difficulty in ascertaining her identity after she was found murdered. She went to the house ivith a man believed to have boon Colev during the day. When she was found, some hours later, everything in the room had been' smashed, the girl had been tied up and fiendishly butchered. The man had disappeared. Coley is between 2d and 30 years of age, and he (time to the Commonwealth about live years ago, and, prior to the murder, he had spent only about ten days in Sydney. He is a native of Brighton, England, but lie lias been domiciled in New Zealand for a good many years. He was a member of the New Zealand Forces during the war, and lie has a distinct shrapnel scar on the right side of the chin. He left New Zealand as a gunner with the j'Tmrth Reinforcements for the Field Artillery on April 17th, 1915. He served in Egypt and the Balkan States in 1915- and in Western Europe in 1916- He was discharged in New Zealand in March, 1919. From April 9t.li, 1919, to April 12th, 1920, he was employed as a. warder at the Waikerin Prison Farm, in New Zealand. Between that time and the time of his arrival in this country his movements do not appear to ,be known. A reward of £2OO lias been offered for information that, will lead to the arrest of the murderer.