NURSE DONE TO DEATH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 441, 24 August 1928, Page 1

NURSE DONE TO DEATH

Double Tragedy In Otago COUPLE FOUND WITH THROATS CUT Terrible Crime With Pocket-Knife f > Press Association. DUNEDIN, To-day. lUST after midnight the body of Peggy Mclnnes, a nurse, J aged 25, was found in the grounds of the Orokanui Mental Some at Waitati, 13 miles north of Dunedin. Her throat had been cut and her head was terribly battered. Nearby was lying the body of Thomas Ellis, a bricklayer, aged about 35. His throat also had been cut.

Details of the tragedy seem to reveal a brutal murder. The dead woman, Peggy Mclnnes, aged 25, was a nurse on the staff of the home, having been recently transferred from Seacliff. Thomas Ellis, who was about 35, was employed as a bricklayer at Seacliff by the Love Construction Company. Just before midnight Constable Pearce was awakened by a man named O’Neill, a member of the hospital staff, who stated that he had heard groans from the drive, and on going out found Ellis staggering about with his throat cut. The constable, on going to the scene, found Ellis dead. He returned home, but later was awakened with the news that the nurse was missing. After a search her body was found in the scrub among some pine trees. She was lying on a travelling rug. Her head had been terribly bashed, and her throat cut. The

deed was apparently done with a stone tied in a handkerchief, and a pocket knife. JEALOUSY THE MOTIVE It transpires that Ellis, with his throat cut, was found roaming around the hospital grounds within 30 yards of the spot where the body of the murdered girl was subsequently discovered. This means that his cries must have been particularly loud to have attracted any notice from the hospital building. The motive appears to have been one arising from jealousy. Miss Mclnness was keeping company with two men, Ellis being one, and it appears that she was hesitating as to whom she would eventually choose. In Ellis’s coat the police found a letter addressed to him, which had been sent by the girl. It was couched in friendly, if not loving, terms and through it an appointment to meet him was made, but not for the night of the tragedy. The Lowe Construction Company states that Ellis was with their firm at Seacliff only until July 21 last, therefore, as far as is known, he had been out of work for some time.