SUPPOSED MURDER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2304, 19 July 1921, Page 3

SUPPOSED MURDER.

AN AUCKLAND TRAGEDY

YOUTH FOUND DEAD ON A VACANT SECTIONS

Auckland, July 17,

A case, the circumstances of which point to murder, is being investigated by the police. The body of a youth, almost 20 years of age, Francis Edward Jew, was found about 11 o’clock this morning on a vacant section at Grey Lynn, Arch Hill, with the head badly battered. The section is covered with blackberry and bramble. The body was found on a track used as a short cut. Deceased’s father is John Henry Jew, a carpenter, residing at Grey Lynn, Arch Hill.

A blood-stained paling was found near the body. There are two large wounds on the back of the head, one just above the forehead, one just under the nose, and one just below the right ear, all indicating that he had been struck by the paling. The fact that an overcoat was found aeross the knees suggests that theije had been no struggle, and there are no other indications of such having occurred. Jew left home at midday on Saturday, and attended a football match, returning to Grey Lvnn, but not to his home, with five others at 5.30 o’clock. He was last seen alive at 8 o’clock last night, near the scene of the tragedy.

A mystifying fact is that, although heavy rain fell during the night, the clothes on the body weije quite dry, and no footprints were visible. Deceased was a grocer’s assistant, working at a shop 200 yards away from the scene.

NO CLUE DISCOVERED

ROBBERY NOT THE MOTIVE,

Auckland, Yesterday

Within a few minutes, Superintendent Wright, Inspector Males, and Detective-Sergeants Cummings and Ward, with practically till the remaining members of the detective force and a considerable number of plain-clothes policemen, arrived on the scene. A thorough search of the .section was soon in progress on the >,pol where the body was discovered and on a slope overlooking Arch Hill. Tiie gully is covered with blackberry bushes. Many of these were cleared away, but no clue was discovered.

Detective-Sergeant Cummings slated last evening that there was no doubt it was a case of murder, but there was no suggestion that robbery was the motive, as the clothes were not disarranged in Hie pockets of the trousers. J. 11. Jew, the deceased's father, staled that he had not attached any importance to the fact that bis son did no arrive home for tea on Saturday evening, for lie frequently was in the habit of visiting the homo of a friend. It was thought he had gone there. This friend, however, informed the police that the deceased did not got to his house on Saturday evening, arid that lie had not seen him since shortly after the football match.

The matter, meantime, is shrouded in mystery. Those who know the deceased can offer no suggestion or any reason why lie shorn! have been brutally battered to death. Later.

There is no development in the murder ease. A doctor s opinion is that death was instantaneous, resulting from the first two blows. A post-mortem examination revealed internal bleeding, also that the upper jaw wtis smashed, and the right arm broken at the elbow.