END OF A LONG SEARCH.

Shannon News, 27 September 1927, Page 3

END OF A LONG SEARCH.

GIRL'S DEATH AVENGED. Two years and a-half ago a little girl, Nellie' ,Clarke, aged nearly lii yeans, wasi murdered at Birkenhead, England, in circumstances of frightful brutality. The local police could find no trace of- the miscreant who hiad encompassed the death of the little girl. Affccr three weeks Scotland Yard was called in, but, following a long and patient investigation, the metropolitan officers returned to London without making'an arrest. The News of the World, however, has row been ena'bled to disclose the fact chat the murderer of Nellie Clarke was a-aceti- by the "Yard" men, and was >'xecuted in Germany, where he had committed four similar crimes.

On January 10th, 1925, Nellie Clarke, .vho lived with her mother and stepfather, attended an afternoon concert ,-iven by the Mayor of the borough to iitci'iv.vin orphans of sdldiers and sailsrs. .She was accompanied by her broiler, .John, aged 13, and having spent Li,ppy afternoon, returned home to ell her mother all about it. Little reaming that a malignant fate was ,urging the child's footsteps, her .loruer sent her out on an er.r.and vhidi should have occupied her only a e\v minutes.

From that errand the child never f-.iu-iK'J alive. Her delayed return, at .r\s<t accounted lor by the assumption ,i:at she was playing with some comunions, did not for some time cause .nv alarm but a* the hours were on ;ei- parents became- uneasy and went nit in search of her. No trace of Nellie •ou'.d bo found. Tthe police were in-oniß-d but though the neighbourhood .vas searched as well as it could be on .hat dark January night iliey, too, /ailed to'fmd the child. Hun* for tire Murderer.

lit was 9 o 'clocilt the following mornimg before Nellie was found. Then, on ./he roadside a few hundred yards from aer home, a passerby saw her sitting apparently asleep . leaning against a telegraph pole. . He crossed over to the ■child and found that she'was dead, fhe police were imimediately sent for ind the body was taken to tihe mortu-ju-v. There an examination by medical men revealed the fact that the child had been foully murdered. Death was primarily strangulation. At once the police commenced a hunt for the murderer. Nellie's boots were muddy and they should not have been if she had walked only as far as the shop to which her mother had sent her. This led the police, further afield. A close search of the surrounding district was made, and eventually a button from the child's frock was found •on a pathway in Rock Lane West, ■thoroughfare which leads to a bridge giving access to the docks. 3 Search as they would, the police could find no elue to the murderer. An anonvmous letter, supposed to come t'ronTa courting couple, told the officers :hat a man had been seen near Rock ",ane West carrying a child on- his. moulder's. It wa's obvious that Nellie, had been carried from the place where die was murdered to the spot where her body was found, bult. the police were never able to locate the scene o ; he tragedy. , '.«,,, Sco'.i.aad Yard Aid Called To Help. Wceksi elapsed and still the police .vero baffled. On January 23rd the vatch committee- decided to ask for vhei assistance of Scotland Yard, bui it was not until February 3rd thai Chief Inspector Savage, of the Criminal Investigation Department, took up ;he investigation. A stain of oil on he child's clothing suggested to Mr. lavage that the murderer ,was a man '.vhio 'came into contact with engines md wore clothes soiled -A number of men who might have oil on their clothes were looked up and then movements on the night, of the crime vverd inquired into. But nothing cairn Jf it- -, , . Meanwhile, Mr. Savage had tniwc lis attention to the docks, and a .-on; mtl thorough investigation resulted >ews of ships which had .been in porit the time the crime was conuiutte ,vere examined, and other ships whicl had left for foreign shores were tracoi ,o their destination, close inquiry be ng made about the men who manner c.hem. Mr. Savage came to the conelu uon that the murderer was a seafaring nun of foreign birth, but the hiding him was rendered almost lmlossible because with the lapse of turn he crows of the ships which had leit Jirkenhead after the crime was committed were scattered to the four corners of the world. Solution of the Mystery.

And so the mystery remained un.•oTvcd for many months. But once ■Scotland Yard takes up an inquiry it never en'tirely drops it. Thais it came •ibout that same time ago a man was arretted in Germany and changed with ■he murder of a child who had been done to death in the .samie manner as had Nellie Clark. Scotland Yard, with the Birkenhead mys'tery still unsolved, beca.mo suspicious, and at once made enquiries. They found that the man arretted in Wurtembcrg was a German who had gained his living as a stoker on ti'amjp steamers. His movements were traced back to 1924, and it was eventually found that on the day that. Nellie Clarke was murdered this man was in Birkenhead Docks serving as a stoker on a ship which left frr Bremen a few days later. The Gerhian police proved that the stoker ha'd altogether ewnimitted four similar crimes in Germany. With praiseworthy destpa'toh he was tried, sentence 1 and execute:! —Nollitf ulark'.-; murder being thus avenged.