PALMERSTON MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2116, 17 April 1920, Page 3

PALMERSTON MURDER.

DEELEY FOrXI) DBA 1)

SUTCIDE IM THE CE!.!

Harry Deeley, who had been taken to Wellington on 12ih insl. on remand on the charge id having murdered Mrs Alary Ft helm W abbey. at Palmerston on the night of 17th March, was found hanging dead in his cell at the Terrace Can! vestenla v morning.

Airs Wehhey was found with her throat .cut' on a hank in a side street in Palmerston North, and suspicion at once turned to the deceased Leeley. A warrant was issued lor Ins arrest on the followin'*' day, and on 27th March (lie ({ovcrnmcnl ottered a reward of .t’2oo ior mlonnalion lending |,, (he ari'esi and conviction of the man. No trace was seen u! him till I Hit iiisi., when lie was discovered hiding in n hayloft in i lyper* Lane, ahonl four miles from Palmerston North. He was to have been taken hack to Palmerston to appear before the Court next luesda v.

The usual course si I t lie gaol is that the prisoners' cells sire opened •it (i. 50 a.ni., when the inmates are served with breakfast. Alter the meal they are given an hour in which to put their cells in order and to make up their beds, and Hie doors are again unlocked at <.50 a.m.

There was nothin,!*' untoward in Deeley's manner when-his cell was first opened yesteiday morning, and he took his breakfast as usual, hut when the warder again unlocked the door he found Deek*y hanging dead from, one of the window louvres. The prisoner had torn up one of his sheets into strips, and, after breaking a pane of glass in his ceil window, tied one end of the sheeting to a bar outside the window, arranged u noose round his neck, and jumped off his bed. Ho was found with his feet a few inches olf the floor, and was quite dead. The body was removed Jo the morgue, and an inquest will be held later.

As Deeloy was merely on remand fie was treated as an ordinary prisoner, as it is only in the case of a prisoner condemned to death that a warder is specially detailed to watch the cell night and day. As lav a.- is at present known Deeloy made no confession or otherwise of his guilt.