THE BURWOOD MURDER

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3671, 28 July 1927, Page 3

THE BURWOOD MURDER

TAXI-DRIVER ARRESTED AND CHARGED.

Christchurch, Last Night. Charles William Boakes was arrested this morning and charged with the murder of Ellen Gwendoline Isobel Scarff on June 15th.

Boakes is aged 37. He is married and has two children. By occupation he is a taxi-driver. It is understood that he had worked some time ago for Walter Scarff, father of the murdered girl. •He was questioned at length by detectives a day or two after the murder.

Gwendoline Scarff’s body was found in the lupins a few yards from the road at Bunvood soon after midday, on June 15. The head was frightfully battered. There were 23 wounds but the two worst wounds, either sufficient to cause death, were on the forehead. A bloodstained engineer’s or motorist’s spanner was found in the scrub, and a few days later a bloodstained military Overcoat was also found in the scrub, but nearly a mile from where the body was found. These were the most definite clue’s lint the police also had.a fairly clear footmark. . .■

The girl had told a friend she Was going away with a man who had got her. into trouble, the suggestion .being, that they were going north. 1 Boakes appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this afternoon charged: (1) That he did on or about June 15, 1927, murder Gwendoline Isobel Scarff. (2) That on or about May 16, 1927, he did: unlawfully supply a noxious thing, to wit, ergot, to Ellen Gwendoline Isobel Scarff, knowing that the same was intended to he unlawfully used with intent to procure miscarriage.

Boakes was remanded till August 4th on the application of the Crown Prosecutor. 1 -

The murder of Ellen Gwendoline Scarff created a, sensation in Christchurch last month, and attracted wide attention throughout New Zealand. About 1.30 on the afternoon of'Wednesday, June 15, a boy found the body of the young woman in the lupins in a paddock at Bunvood, a suburb of Christchurch. An absence of any tangible clue gave the police little to base their enquiries upon, and many persons were examined in the hope of eliciting some information that would eventually lead to the discovery of the murderer. It was established that the unfortunate gh% under an assumed name, had stayed at the Federal Hotel in Christchurch, but on the evening of Tuesday, June 13, had communicated with a taxi driver, with whom she was acquainted, and had left the hotel telling' a friend that, she intended going to Wellington. From the time of her departure from the hotel to the discovery of her body next day, her movements could not be traced.

On the Sunday afternoon prior to the murder Miss Scarff had visited a friend in Sydenham to whom she told the story of her infatuation for a married man whom she called “Charlie” and with whom she stated she intended to go the following week to the North Island, where they could both get employment.