SLAIN ON WEDDING DAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 478, 6 October 1928, Page 9

SLAIN ON WEDDING DAY

YOUNG SYDNEY BARMAID MAN SENT FOR TRIAL Reed. 9 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. At the inquest on Hilda Hancock, found dead on her wedding day, a verdict was returned against Aubrey Chapman, who was committed for trial on a charge of murder. Mystery surrounded the finding of the dead body of a woman known as Hilda Miller, aged 24, in a wash-house in Underwood Street, Paddington, on September 1. Near her 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 quarter of an inch, told the police that the girl called at the back door 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 ofEered him a chocolate. He became drowsy, fell asleep, and remembered no more.

The police found a damaged razor near the mattress. Chapman’s father stated that he saw a strange man near the house on the whole evening before the tragedy.