AN ISLAND TRADGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 452, 9 March 1909, Page 4

AN ISLAND TRADGEDY.

CARVIiN CROSS MVSTICRY

DKATH OF Til RIO', RICH SPQRTSMKN.

A crime, the solution of which would puzzle a Sherlock Holmes, has occurred on Sand Island, in the Caspian Sea. Three wealthy residents of Baku went out shooting on the island, but as they failed to return, a party started in search of them. Their dead bodies were found close to the shore, carefully laid out each with the hands crossed over the breast.

They had not been .robbed of their money or jewellery, but their arms, consisting of double - barrelled fowling pieces, revolvers and hunting knives, were missing. No signs of a struggle could be found, the bodies were not scratched or bruised, and the hunting costumes were not disarranged. A boat on which they had proceeded to the island was found, keel uppermost, on the strand, where apparently it had been placed for safety. Two horses were found grazing close by, but to whom they belong is a mystery. A few yards from where the bodies lay was a newly-turned mound of earth, two leet down in the mound was a strangely cut white, highly polished stone, weighing forty pounds. This stone is of foreign origin and cannot, therefore, have been quarried in the island. A neat Orthodox cross had been chiselled on one of its facets.

It was at first thought that the victims had been poisoned, but a post-mortem examination disclosed no trace of poison or internal injury. The physician who made the autopsy came to the conclusion that the victims had been stifled and that the mouth and nose of each of the men had been slopped by murderers. This thcoiy is scouted by friends and relatives, as all three were in the prime of health and one of them, M. Krassmikoff, was a man of herculean build and strength.