What Elsie Walker's Father Thinks of the Tragedy

NZ Truth, Issue 1209, 31 January 1929, Page 5

What Elsie Walker's Father Thinks of the Tragedy

ITAKE exception (said Chas. Walker) to the manner m which the police treated the disappearance of 'my daughter, especially the way m which they looked at things when I flrst saw them m Auckland on October 10, ,the Wednesday after the dead body of my girl Avas found. | Detective-sergeant Kelly, whom I flrst saw, told, me he Avas not satisfied with the . external aspects of the case. After a talk he referred me to Chiefdetective Hammond. When I asked Mr. Hammond Avhat he thought of the circumstances of the case he replied that my girl had undoubtedly taken the car and the money, and cleared out to Auckland. Showed Clothing He insisted that Elsie had always had a great ambition to come to the city and had taken this opportunity. I- told him I .could not understand it. He gave the opinion that she had driven the car till, it ran out of benzine, and continued her journey on foot. Then _. she had become tired, climbed over the Avail into the scoria paddock at Panmure, craAvled under the scrub, and later died of exhaustion. What he based this opinion on I was not able to gather. Three times he said she was peculiar, and this contention, he seemed to think, supported his argument. When I asked him what evidence he had to bear this out, he brought m her coat, pinafore, and a pair of sandshoes. .

WHY HE CAME TO "TRUTH"

Police Attitude and Theories of His Daughter's Disappearance And Death Puzzled and Annoyed Hiffi

REPORT THAT GIRL HAD DROWNED HERSELF

I said, "These are not evidence to me. The girl never drove the car." ■• ■■ ' With that he threw the shoes on the table and said, "Look at these." I failed to see anything to back up what he said. He picked up the left shoe and said, "look at this," pointing to a small mark on the instep, about an inch long. ' t I could not see it plainly, and he took me nearer to the window and again showed me. My eyesight is good, but I could see nothing that indicated anything whatever. I was interested . to notice that the shoes, were not produced at the inquest and this mark which Mr. Hammond tried to show me, ' pointed.. out to the court. The shoes were there, but they were not given the coroner with any such theory, and this theory was never brought up by any detective. I again .said, "I can't understand.it, Mr. Hammond. On what I know of my girl and her nature, she had absolutely no reason to run away, and she knew that I would see her as I had promised on Thursday, October 4. "Surely to God," I said," "somebody would have seen a girl of her appearance walking along m a boy's coat and a pinafore, and sandshoes, at such a time of the morning." Mr. Hammond said: ' "Oh, they wouldn't take any notice. They'd think she Avas some little girl going for the cows-" Then I spoke about the spare Avheel and the changed .tyre being found m the back seat. I said she could not do that. Mr. Hammond remarked; "Oh, she could quite easily do that.". Afterwards he said, "Mr. Walker, you know your girl was peculiar, and when girls like that get to that age, and a certain change takes place m

After . Coroner Hunt had announced his finding-, Elsie's father, Charles De Renzy Walker, called at "N.Z. Truth" office and expressed his views on certain phases of the tragedy. H« declared his deep dissatisfaction with the manner m which the police handled the case, and gave it as his opinion that if this paper had not taken it up, the unjust slur cast upon his unfortunate daughter's character would never have been removed. ) The statement Walker made to '-Truth" as printed below, being that of a parent stricken m grief, and not even having the satisfaction of knowing how his girl met her death, constitutes a poignant human document.

their lives, you can't tell Avhat they'll do." He quoted the case of a girl who. had gone to a chemist's shop, bought some rat poison, and taken it. I -left the police station convinced ! that the police were trying to persuade 'me against reason that my child had driven the' car and stolen the -money. Their attitude was. a complete puzzle to me. Later I made some enquiries m the Panmure . district from the undertaker's man, Mr. Carter, and others, and they were all of the opinion that it was foul play. That was also ray own opinion. I was at a dead end when a "Truth" reporter came to see me. I told him my ideas, and he agreed with me that there were suspicious circumstances around the matter. After that I left the whole matter m "Truth's" hands, because I had very little hope of anything from the police. When" I was N discussing the circumstances of the mystery with; ; the "Truth" man, "we never at any time discussed any individual m particular. ; ■■'■,'. •■. ■'■■■■■'•■'.. "v.y "

I should like to say something about the manner m which the body was treated at the morgue. I could say*a good .deal about this — about things which were done, and, not done — but it is too painful to me to go into details/ What I cannot understand is why the police Avere so lax m not. advertising- the fact that; Elsie was missing, and not, so far as I knoAV, taking any finger prints m the car, or on any of the parts. The least they could haA r e done was to have circulated the fact that she Avas missing, and her description, and they could hav.e published her photo m the daily press, as they had the' only one available. ■ Descriptions of missing people have been circulated through, the press before, Avhen people haA ; e been missing for a far shorter period than' my girl was, and under far less mysterious conditions. Why this, Avas . not done I- shall never be able to understand. Two policemen m plain clothes went to the house of Mr. Barter, on the Wednesday after Elsie disappeared ". from Papamoa, and said, "We want Elsie Walker."

Mr. Barter asked then, "What do you want her for?" They suggested that, she had taken the car and a sum of money from her uncle's, and they believed that there was a man m it. They wanted to catch the man and save the girl. Mr. Barter told the policemen: "This, is a most unlikely place to look for her if she has done this deed. You will probably find her m. Queen Street if she has done it, not here." On October 3 1 got a wire from Frank Bayly to say that the car and the girl Avere missing. I rang Mrs. Bayly, but she could give me no information. I couldn't realize it. I decided to await further developments before leaving on the long journey I Avould have to'take. I never, said I was. too busy to leave home. , Night and morning- I enquired at the Post Office locally, for news. . Meanwhile, I received no message from the police of any centre asking if I had heard of my girl. . The only message I received was from my sister at Opotiki, to say that a rumor had got around that Elsie had stolen a car and a sum of money. On Saturday a neighbor, Mr. Allison, came to me and said that he. had;, been told to inform me that Elsie had been found drowned m the Tamaki River. I asked how she had died, and . with great- reluctance he told me that she had committed suicide. Later that day I rang up the police at Opotiki, and they said they knew nothing, but there was an information against Elsie alleging that she had taken a motor, car and a sum of money. It is untrue to say, as has been said, that' l" was too busy to come to Auckland: I Avas quite m the dark about the affair. I could not make head. or

ail of it. Where. l live is very isolate! •On Saturday night I rang Mrs, Mc Llium, at Glenalvon, Auckland, to tel ler I would-be at Elsie's funeral o rlonday. • I set off on my journey at 12.40 a.n Sunday night, rode 45 miles, and thei iy travelling all the' tlme^— 3oo miles o o— l arrived at Auckland on Sunda light about 9.50 p.m. Before the 'funeral left Mr. Barter' sent a Avire to say that Elsie wa lear m every .way from guilt. Had not "Truth" taken up the attitude it did about the case, I am now fully convinced that this beMef I honestly held would never have been substantiated. -■''" As things .- Impossible Acts have turned out, my girl's char-, acter has been cleared from the cloud of suspicion which for a time hung over it. . In his summing-up, I am naturall: leased that Mr. Hunt, the coronei nakes it quite clear that he does no or one moment believe that my guide or drove the car, and did no teal the money. I am positive tha uch acts on her part were impossible 'That such a quiet, -honest, well be Laved, and thoroughly domesticate! iri as Elsie should suddenly chang ier character, and behave as the poi _c alleged m the first instance tha he did, I cannot believe, or be convin __„ nnfl t irnow that there are hun