TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1932, Page 5

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

TWO WOMEN SHOT ACT OF MADMAN*. (Australian Press Association.) SYD|&;- July 21. The police inquiry!th© Cooma murders 'have. elicted.j>-tfie\'. fact that Mrs .Hain was shot in,.th§ head from behind while she making cakes. The murderer J apparently crept into the house with a, sljotgun.' The girl Tucker,. r whdV was...employed as maid, was shot, while she was > in the act of telephoning .for .assistance. Mrs Bain’s 'husband, is a stock and station agent, was miles away when the crime was committed. ;

Tfhe bodies of the women wer « dragged to a isbed, and ther e concealed under bags,’the door'vvasA then barred: The . telephone wires were cut. Th e murderer escaped- in a stolen car \ which was found abandoned sixteen miles away. The police think the 'culprit escaped .to the anowhills.

The Wole neighbourhood is in a state of consternation, as th e crime is likened to the 'act of n madman. : murderer roUNb hanging.

. MELBOURNE, July. 21 . ;In connection with the muraeraj of the two women at , Goomai 1 '"civilian ~- searchere,' who were aiding th e police, (found the body of a man named Robert .Audley,' aged 25 years, , whom ..the police had suspected of th e crime, hanging .from a tree .one milc.r.from the spot where a stolen car was' found abandoned with, a, gun nearby. N Tie 'woman, Mrs Hain, leaves eight children. * ' ' ; .. ’ ; THE POLICE VIEW. ,v c y (Received' this day at f.8.2b a,ml " , ; SYDNEY, July 22. 1 TJ’.e a police . are. ; ..satisfied : that the Cooma murders ’ were committed by. Audley, who is a young English'farmhand, employed on Hain’s farm, and is married with children.. He wae paid off last ijSaturday. ■, : ; 1