BURNT HUT MYSTERY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 676, 31 October 1933, Page 7

BURNT HUT MYSTERY

REMAINS OF A MAN'S BODY FOUND IN THE ASHES. Melbourne, Saturday. Police are now workimg on a double anurder theory in their investigation into the burnt huit mystery at Strathj fieldsaye, six miles from Bendigo. | They are searching- for the body of William August Griffenhagen, 26, who ! has not been seen since the remains of his uncle, Janies Pattison, were found among the aishes of the hut, which thy both occupied. The police believe that both men were murdered for their money. They have called upon Bendigo rcsidents to help them, in searching the many square miles of scrub country between Strathfieldsaye and Junerton, for the missing man's body, although they have not lost sight of the possibility of Griffenhagen still heinig; alive. Griffenhagen, a man of outstanding 1 physique, was well known in Bendigo. He was to have been married to a girl j in Mortlake, in four weeks' time, but ! a search there has not gained the | police any information. £200 in Wiallet. Pattison always earried about £200 'in notes with him in a leather wallet. The fire at the hut was so fierce .that Pattison's body was burnt to cinders and was only identified by a portion of signet ring he constantly wore. 'Two strange miiddle-a.gsd men were seen near Pattison's hut on October 1, and although a public appeal has been made for them to come forward, it has met with no response. , This f aet inclines the police to believe that a double murder ha,s been coanmitted; since no trace of Griffenhagen can be found. There is a number of abandoned mininig h'oles in the neighbourhood and it would have been easy for a body to be disposed of. Discharged cartridges were found but there was no sign of a gun amoiig the debris. All the ashes have been sieved, hut no bullets have been found.