REMOVAL OF THE BODY

NZ Truth, Issue 1207, 17 January 1929, Page 6

REMOVAL OF THE BODY

rWSTABLE COLLINS, of Panmure, the first police officer to J see the body of Elsie Walker m the scrub, gave evidence that he twice telephoned to the Central Detective Office, but that no detective came out to look at the body or the scene, and that he was instructed to take the body into the morgue, where it was stripped. Coroner Hunt: It strikes me as grossly wrong that a body should be removed as it was m this case. Here is a dead girl found lying m the scrub, and m the dark, by the aid of electric torches, the body is removed that night. Sensible people would have left it there all night until daylight, and examined it then.

"What did your father ask you about the key?" "The police said they had a car key of mine, and asked me Avas it mine, and I said no. We talked about various things — land and farming; nothing about Elsie's disappearance which Avas not further discussed." The message to come m to - the Auckland Police Station, said Bayly, reached him between four and five o'clock that Sunday. "The local policemen told .me* to report to Sergeant Kelly next morning at 10 a.m., and I Averit into Glenalvon that night." "What did you say. to Do.bbs? Something important had occurred and you had to go into- town?" "I gave him no reason.'' • "Did you say to Dobbs. that you Avere m serious trouble Avith the man Avho had come. out to see you?" "I said no such thing." "Had you ever seen Elsie drive the car?" Bayly replied that ■ he had not. Neither had he eyer heard that she could drive the car. He had never offered to teach her or ihown her lioav to drive. It Avas gen- (~, erally accepted m the family that she could not drive. She had once accompanied himself and a friend, and his mother, to Fairy Springs, Rotorua. He never knew, of her going a long journey from home except on a service, "ar to her home, and so far as he kneAV she had not gone north beyond i'iiuranga. He had never been out. with her by himself, and he kneAV of no admirers or boys at their farm. \. La Avyer. Northcroft asked. Bayly Avhe- , ther ..- he AA'as first questioned by the V.

The detective looked into this to see if anyone was there, and, having satisfied himself, he asked Bayly if he had been friendly with Elsie, to which he had replied that there was no particular friendship. The detective then told him, he said, that he was there for the purpose of investigation, and anything that Bayly might say would be m confidence — the detective promised that it would go to the grave with him. , Bickerdike asked Bayly if he had ever been intimate with Elsie. Bayly replied no. The detective said that the dead girl was over sixteen, and that if Baylv would say that he had been intimate with her it would lift suspicion off everyone else down that way, and that the witness could not possibly incriminate himself. Bayly said he replied that he was not going to lift suspicion from anyone by saying that he had done something he had not done. "All this had relation to suggested intimacy and not to the girl's disappearance?" asked Lawyer Northcroft.

"Yes," replied Bayly, and he went on to say that Bickerdike said that he did not suspect the witness of anything: to do with Elsie's death; if he did he would be man enough to tell him. He wanted to clear the dead girl's name. He asked Bayly if lie had seen a lawyer, and' Bayly told him that .he had, after the police had tried to get at his belongings. ". Asked by the lawyer to give his reason for seeing a awyer. the witness •aid: "I. was m town 'or a few days, and left .my goodg m boxes at Hender-