POLICE DOG FAILS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1929, Page 8

POLICE DOG FAILS

HUNT KOR MURDER KR. BRUTAL, CRIME BAFFLES. Despite widespread inquiries and the use of an Alsatian wolfhound, the Manchester police have failed to discover a tangible clue to the murderer of William Francis O’Donnell, the I.]-year-old schoolboy who was found with his head nearly severed on a piece of waste ground at Cliorltonville, Manchester. Adjourning the inquest, the coroner said the jury would not be summoned again unless all hope was abandoned of discovering the person responsible for the terrible tragedy. Tbc circmiistnnoes of the boy’s fate point to a particularly atrocious crime committed with stealth and cunning, and apparently for no motive. While playing golf on the banks of the Mersey, a youth jumped a low wall to recover the lost ball. On tbc otlioi side be found tbc body of a boy with the throat gashed. Later the body was identified as that of William Francis O’Donnell (11), a scholar at St. Bede's Roman Catholic College, Alexandra Park, Manchester, who left his home in Wilbrahnm road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. the day previously. He went out in the ordinary way to play with his friends, and was not seen alive again. In their efforts to find a clue to the tragedy, tire Manchester police accepted the offer of Mr Stanley Porter, of Brinnington, Stockport, to use his Alsatian wolfhound, Keeper of the Door, to try to pick up the scent from the lad’s clothes. Keeper of the Door has won more prizes than any other bitch trained for police work in this country, and has beaten many German-trained police dogs in open competition. Tlie animal was scarred from the spot where the body was found, and, after circling about for a time, repeatedly returned to a narrow entry leading from' the footpath along the river to the field where the body was discovered, it was tried on the grassy slopes leading to the river, hut the trainer stated that nothing could be found there. The manner in which the dog returned to the entry repeatedly indicated the route taken by the boy and the man who is believed to have accompanied him. 'flie dog also grew excited near a pool of water, and it is though that the murderer washed his hands in it before lie made his escape. INQUEST VERDICT. The proceedings at the inquest on O’Donnell were brief, and it was adjourned indefinitely after formal evidence. Identification was established by the boy’s brother, Albert O’Donnell, and Dr Riddell described the findings at a post-mortem examination. He stated that the wound in the throat was six inches in length. The windpipe had been severed from the main arteries on both sides of the neck. There were small grazes on the body, and evidence existed to show that the boy had been dragged over some rough surface. The coroner (Mr C. W. Surridge); Could the wound have been eslf-inflict-ed ?—lmpossible. Was there any blood on the hands?— None whatever. The coroner said every effort was being made to find the person responsible for the tragedy. He expressed his deep sympathy with the parents of the boy. What was at first believed to be an important clue in connection with the murder was disproved as the result of investigations in Liverpool’s dockland. A blood-stained coat, under the pillow of a bed in a lodging house, led to Manchester and Liverpool policemen joining forces to trace the owner. ■ Cocoa rooms, lodging houses and other resorts in dockland were visited, and the man sought was eventually traced. He gave a satisfactory explanation of his possession of the coat. A cyclist wearing a raincoat said to have been seen in the company of a hoy in Chorlton-cum-Hardy on the evening .when the murder seems to have been committed—and a man dragging a reluctant buy by the hand in a street near the piece of waste land in on which the body was found, and two other clues which the police have followed up without results.