HANGING IN OAK TREE.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 401, 7 April 1937, Page 7

HANGING IN OAK TREE.

DISCOVERY IN FOREST. Hampshire Police Puzzled. For tix days the Hampshire police sought, without success, to solve the mystery of an unidentified, welldressed man found hanging from an oak tree in an isolated part of the New Forest, nea» the historic Rufus Stone. For about a fortnight or three weeks the body of the unknown stranger hung su '.pended by a rope round the neck fiom a branch some 20 feet from the ground. Then a farm labourer named Je-ss'* Wells, who was walking in an unfre quented part of the forest, saw the body swaying sligh'ly in the breez beneath the bare branches of the giant oak. He informed ihe pokce, who cut the body down and r. move 1 it to the mortuary. The dead man’s fea tires were almost unrecognisable, but Dr C. A. Dottridge, of Dyndhuist, who examined the body, described it as that of a well built, welUdev-eloped man, 30 to 35 years of age. His hair was dark, going thin at the Vemplcs, and his nose was aquiline. Th re was a gold filling in an upper tooth, but no ta too or other marks on the body which might assist identification. Well kept Hands. The man’s hands were well kept, a.nd showed no signs of manual labour. D. ath was due to a fracture of the neck, the man having fallen from such a height that his head was nearly jerked off. The man wore a brown sports jacket, grey gabardine iToust-rs, grey pullover with a blue diamond pattern, blue striped shirt, with collar lo match, blue spotted tie, long pan 's and a vest, with brown shoes practically new. Among ar.icl.s in the pockets were a knife and a nail file. On one of the man’s v.gists was a watch of an ordinary type. The county Coroner found that the unknown killed him.'elf and that there was no evidence to show the stale of his mind. The stranger carried his secret to a pauper’s grave, but the police are continuing their inquiries.