STILL AT LARGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 73, 17 June 1927, Page 1

STILL AT LARGE

Slayer of Girl at Burwood Unapprehended Yet By Police NEW FACTS BROUGHT TO LIGHT {.Special to TUB SUN.) CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. IT is learned that the gir, murdered at Burwood stayed at the Hotel Federal from June 9 to June 14 under the name of Miss Armstrong. When recognised by a waitress she made a certain disclosure, and said she intended leaving for the north with a man on Tuesday night. On Monday last the girl’s mother called at the hotel and urged her to return home. The girl refused.

THE victim of the Burwood murder has been identified as Ellen Gwendoline Isabel Scarff, daughter of Mr. Walter Scarff. who is well-known as a member of the Heathcote County Council, and as a participant in other public affairs. She was in her 21st year. Mr. Scarff, who is a carrier, lives at the foot of the Cashmere Hills. The girl was not living at home when she left for Burwood. Until two days ago, she was employed as a cook by a resident of MacMillan Avenue, Cashmere Hills. A few days ago she left her employer's home with the expressed intention of going to. Wellington. A friend of the girl says that she was of an unusual type, and had been very strictly brought up at the primary school, where, at the age of 14, she was very well developed physically. She was noticeably reserved. Search for the murderer or for clues that might lead to his detection was continued all day. Late this afternoon a civilian searcher came upon a blood-stained spanner not far from where the body was lying. The police took possession of this. Most Important Clue The place of the murder Is about 25 yards off the Lake Terrace Road and about 100 yards from the Burwood tea rooms. Actually, It is on an unformed road, which separates land held as the Burwood Domain and land leased from the education authorities. The domain, unformed road and the education reserve are covered with broom seven, eight or nine feet high in places. Cattle graze over the land, the broom being criss-crossed by their tracks. Possibly the most important clue in the possession of the police is the tuft of brown hair about 6in. long picked Up a few inches from where the woman’s hat was placed. Its appearance suggested that it had been torn from the head by a bloody hand. One end was stuck together as though by congealing blood. The other end showed roots clearly. It did not come from the young woman’s head, for her hair was much darker, almost black.

The body was not discovered until 1.30, but the woman’s wristlet watch had stopped at 12.30. Several residents and workmen engaged nearby assert that they heard a woman's screams about 10.30 but the condition of the body suggested that death did not take place until much later than this. The Bottle Lake Road meets the Lake Terrace Road at the Burwood tea rooms, the area between forming a triangle. At the place of the murder, the distance getween the two roads is about 300 yards. The discovery of the torn portion of shirt was made at the side of the Bottle Lake Road, about 100 yards from the intersection. It shows that if the man who ran from the body were the murderer, he did not pursue the north-easterly direction he was then following, but came round in a semi-circle, entering and crossing the Bottle Lake Road, for the position of the piece of shirt shows that he crossed the road. The fact that the murderer tore off a portion of his shirt dovetails into the story of the half-clothed and excited man having been seen at North New Brighton. The tragedy has roused even greater interest in New Brighton and North Beach than it has done in the city, and the knowledge which the citizens of the seaside borough have of happenings this year leads them to much keen speculation. Once more the question is raised: What happened to Irma Timms? A Missing Girl In January of this year, on the day of the New Brighton gala, the little girl Timms disappeared. She has not been found. A sinister aspect is given to her disappearance by the adven. ture of another small girl on the same day. On the day of the gala, this girl was accosted by a man who induced her to sit on the bar of his bicycle. Ha was heading for the sandhills of the domain, when she became frightened, and got away from him. She went home and told her parents, and her father searched for the man without success. Then came news of the disappearance of Irma Timms. In the New Brighton Domain is a big area of broom and undergrowth similar to that at Burwood. dense, an I in places ten fe*t high—a perfect hiding-place. The North Beach entrance to the Domain is about three miles from the scene of yesterday’s "tragedy in the Domain. A man could live for some time if ha could secure food, and nobody would know of his presence. The broom at. Burwood provides also an ideal hidingplace for a lengthy period, so long as food could be obtained. All through the present year burglaries have been occunring at intervals at New Brighton and North Beach. From North Beach to Richmond there is country that Is lonely and deserted- —an area in which only roads are cut through acres of dense scrub. Burwood Women Unnerved Mid-way in this waste la Burwood. Long before the prevent tragedy, the residents have lived in a condition bordering on terror, through various happenings. Certain people have been the prey of petty thieves, and women have been molested. The scrub grows right to the metal on the road, and there are women in the locality who will not venture outside at nights. The nurses at th»* Bottle Lake infectious diseases hospital do not use the road with any feeling of security. Indeed some, when they see the lights of a car approaching retreat behind a clump of scrub until the car has passed. The tragedy of yesterday has unnerved the women of Burwood. Police Inquiries Miss Scarff left the Hotel Federal on Tuesday evening, having previously communicated with a taxi-driver, with whom she was acquainted. She inj formed certain female.members of the < staff that she was going to Wellington. The police have so far not recovered two suitcases which Miss Scarff had with her at the Federal Hotel. The suitcases were removed I from the hotel on Tuesday evening; it is oelieved, with the intention that they would be taken to the ferry boat. Yesterday afternoon the police interviewed the driver of the taxi, which called at the Federal Hotel for Miss Scarff on Tuesday evening, and took a statement from him.