GIRL’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3858, 16 October 1928, Page 2

GIRL’S MYSTERIOUS DEATH.

POLICE BAiFPLBD. Auckland, October 13. Investigations by detectives extending over a week have so far failed to solve the mystery surrounding the death of Miss Elsie Walker, aged 16, whose body was discovered in 'some scrub near a stone quarry in the vicinity of Knox Home', Tamaki, on the evening of October 5. When found, the head of the girl was lying in a small pool of blood, and it is believed she had lain there since the previous Tuesday. Simultaneously with her disappearance from the home of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bayly, Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, it was discovered that Mr. Bayly’s car had vanished. It was recovered at two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon in a side street in Papatoetoe. Seven miles away, the body of the girl was found by a labourer three days later. How the girl came to be in the quarry and the reason for the visit is baffling the police. No one seems to have noticed her or the motorcar which is believed to have conveyed her to the locality. It is generally surmised she walked to ! lie ’spot and then collapsed from sheer exhaustion. If she drove Mr. Bayly’s par from Papamoa it would have been an all-night journey, and the walk from where the car was found to the quarry would have taken at least two hours. By this time it would have been broad daylight. The body Avas found 200 yards off the road. Medical examination failed to re\ r eal the cause of death, but the authorities are aAvaiting the report of an analyst. Inquiries made concerning the girl’s moA'ements in Monday, October 1, have elicted the fact that she Avas last noticed at Mr. Bayly’s home about 7.30 at night Avhen she Avas outside. Early on Tuesday morning the garage Avas found to be open and the car missing. Wheel marks on the road near the Bayly home, Avhich are believed to have been made by the ear, and which the police have examined, pointed in the direction of Rotorua, indicating that the driver of the car had turned that way at an average speed of 25 miles an hour without a stop. The journey to Auckland, via Rotorua, would occupy a little over eight hours of an expert motorist’s time. Over six gallons of petrol were in the car on October 1, and the car Avould do approximately 30 miles to a gallon. That his daughter never drove a ear in her life is stated by her father, Mr. D. Renzy Walker. “She would have been 17 on October 20,” he said. “To my knoAvledge she had never driven a car and she had been in a service car only three times. She had been in Mrs. Bayiy’s car, too, but, I am told she never at any time drove it. The only suggestion that she could drive came from the four or five years old son of Mrs. Bayly, Avho said he had seen Elsie take the car out of the garage one day Avhen the family Avas aAvay, wash it and put it back again. She \\ T as last seen on Monday evening about half-past even. No one in the house heard the car being taken away, and Elsie was not found to be missing until next morning. The same afternoon the ear Avas seen in Papatoetoe. My daughter had never been further north than Rotorua, which she visited sometime this year with her a lint.”

Wthen the ear was in the garage at the Bayly home on Monday afternoon a spare wheel was on the hack, according to Mr. Walker, yet when it was found on Tuesday afternoon, he said, it was seen that one of the wheels had been changed, apparently on the journey, and that the discarded wheel was in the back of the ear.

“The last time I saw Elsie was about three months ago, when she was happy and bright,” said Mr. Wjalker. “On that occasion she said she was quite happy at Mrs. Bayly’s place, and I gave her a cheque for £3. It was arranged between us that I should meet her about week ago yesterday, when I .would have gone to Mrs. Bayly’s house. She was quite a noi-mal bright girl, and had no worries.” When she was last noticed in the yard the girl was wearing a house frock, apron, and pair of sand shoes, but when the body was found at Tarnaki an old overcoat was covering the frock. The coat belonged to one of her cousins.