Slain on Her Wedding Day

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 449, 3 September 1928, Page 9

Slain on Her Wedding Day

YOUNG SYDNEY BARMAID

Tragedy A Most Mysterious One

MAN TELLS STRANGE TALE

(United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Reed. 10 a.in. SYDNEY, To-day. MYSTERY surrounds the finding of the dead body of a , woman known as Hilda Miller, aged 24,, in a washouse in Underwood Street, Paddington. Near lier lay Aubrey Chapman, aged 33, with his throat cut. The dead woman was an attractive barmaid and had been divorced from a man named Hancock. She was to have been remarried on the day of her death.

The police interviewed the prospective bridegroom, who was employed at the same hotel as the woman. He was unable to assist the police. He was wearing wedding clothes when the police called, and he appeared to be greatly distressed when he was informed of the girl’s death. Chapman, who is a carpenter, although severely wounded, with a . six-inch cut in his throat, missing the main artery by a Quaiter of an inch, told the police that, the girl called at the backdoor of his residence late at night, and invited him outside in his pyjamas. He secured a mattress, and both lay down in the washhouse. She of-

fered lilm a chocolate. He became drowsy, fell asleep, and remembered no more. The police found a damaged razor near the mattress. Chapman’s father states that he saw a strange man near the house on the whole evening before the tragedy. A Sydney cablegram of Saturday read: A sordid tragedy was discovered today in a tumbledown wash-house in Underwood Street, Paddington, a suburb of Sydney. The dead body of Hilda Miller, aged 29, a barmaid, was found with the throat cut. Lying nearby was Aubrey Chapman, aged 33, a carpenter. His throat was also cut, but he was not dead. The man could not give a coherent account of what had happened. The police have been informed that Chapman is a married man.