DEATH OF JOAN SMITH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19995, 12 January 1927, Page 7

DEATH OF JOAN SMITH

EVIDENCE AT INQUEST. WHY HUGHES WAS DISCHARGED. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, January 11. At the inquest on Joan Smith, the father gave evidence that he had had frequently to find fault with Hughes, who was at present in custody, and had finally been' compelled to discharge him. He did not tell the police why he discharged Hughes, but told them that he suspected the lad of murder. Dorothy Schmidt, employed at another station where Hughes was working, gave evidence that she told accused of the finding of the girl’s body, and Hughes replied that she had been buried too long to see any marks of violence. Witness had not referred to any marks, the suggestion coming first from Hughes.

HUGHES TO BE TRIED FOR MURDER, MEDICAL EVIDENCE INDEFINITE. SYDNEY, January 11. (Received Jan. 11, at 10.30 p.m.) The inquest on Joan Smith resulted In the coroner committing James Hughes for trial on a. charge of feloniously and maliciously murdering her. Owing to the decomposed condition of the remains and one neck bone being missing, the medical witnesses were unable to state the cause of death, beyond saying that no bones were broken, that there were no signs of violence, and that it was possible that the neck was dislocated by a fall from a horse.

On August 24 the six-year-old daughter of Mr Moss Smith, of Poolamacca Station, near Broken Hill, disappeared. A search by the police, bands of residents, and black trackers in the wild country for many miles around was made, and an aeroplane scouted far and wide. Clairvoyants and spiritualists were consulted, and predicted that the child was still alive. The parents offered £IOOO reward for her recovery. On December 29 an empoyee of the station, who was gathering sticks a short distance from the homestead, saw a child’s foot protruding from a shallow grave, and unearthed the body of the missing girl. It bore no signs of violence. Later James Hughes, who left Mr Smith’s employment shortly after the disappearance of the child, was arrested and remanded on a charge of murdering her.