MELBOURNE TRAGEDY.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 August 1924, Page 3

MELBOURNE TRAGEDY.

CHILD STRANGLED AND OUTRAGED. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. OA"LE ASSOCIATION. (Received this day at 8 a.in.) MELBOURNE, Aug. 1. The body of a girl, Irene Twkerman, eleven voars of age, was found ill a street at Caulfield early this morning in a hessian hag. She was apparently strangled and believed to have been outraged. ’I he girl lelt her home at Caulfield 011 Saturday morning and was not. afterward- seen alive. A motor car was heard in the vicinity of where the body was found early tbi- morning. 'file police have a clue, hut details are meagre. In connection with the Caulfield tragedy. Irene Tuekerman was sent at eleven on Saturday morning by her brother to obtain three shillings* from hor mother who is a widow and works in a grin cry .-hop four hundred yards from home in Crimea Road. The girl obtained the money and immediately left the premises. It is believed she was seen in Balaklava Road 8(11) yards from home a little alter eleven and

apparently was not semi again alive. Her disappearance was reported to the police when the mother returned home from work on Saturday night. Shortly before eight on Sunday morning, a medical student. I(. Stewart and li is brother wore proceeding to church when they saw a bundle on the toad side. On investigation it was lonml to he an old bran hag tied al the end. Stewart, untied the hag ami found a similar bag inside. This also was untied and tin 1 body of the child was discovered. Alter satisfying himself there was no life ill the body, Stewart notified tho police. A dairyman saw the bundle lying on the roadside at A. 30 in the morning. In the dim. light he ilmlight it rubbish and passed on. During the past year Irequent complain! s have been made by school children that they were accosted by men. Many parent.- made the practice of meeting their children on the way from the school. The road in which Hie girl’s body was found is a short thoroughfare, unmade at. one end and hunches of shrubs grow by the wnyM.lc The hodv was only two hundred yards from home. This fact is thought t,, be significant. It is believed the hotly was placed there in the early hours, as a. young man passed the spot at half past twelve and saw nothing 1,1 exoito suspicion. It iA believed that the man who committed the crime carried his victim on foot from some place mcarby.

Till'. MURDERED GIRL

MELBOURNK. Aug. 1

>f| u . girl, Tuekerman. was a twin child, one of a family of seven, of whom the mother is a widow ol a returned soldier. Bruises about the neck 1,11,1 chest indicate a desperate struggle iim l that a cord was used to strangle. Thealten.pt was apparently . unsimccssful. and made the committal ol a criminal nllenoe.