A WELLINGTON MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1920, Page 8

A WELLINGTON MYSTERY.

THE INQUEST CONCLUDED. By Telegraph.—l'rcss Association. Wellington, April 14. The inquest on the body of Mrs. Hebbend concluded this morning. Mr. Riddell, S.M., said the evidence showed what caused death, but not the circumstances in which it occurred. .It appeared that, during the evening of March 2;j, deceased was about the boat harbor, and from the fact that a man's hat was found with her bag it might be assumed that the same man was in her company, as the wounds could not have been self-inflicted. The kmclusion was that deceased was attacked by a person or persons unknown. He gave the verdict accordingly.

DEATH OF A WOMAN UNSOLVED. (Own Correspondent). Wellington April 12. The mystery surrounding the death of Mrs. Eliza Hebbend, whose body was found floating in the harbor on March 28, was not cleared away liy the evidence called at the adjourned inquest today. Dr. Kingston Fyffe' described the wounds to the head and neck as having been inflicted by some "sharp instrument. The wounds, he said, had caused death. The woman had not been drowned, but she had entered the water before death, though she might have been unconscious at the time. The doctor dismissed as ridiculous a suggestion that the wounds were the bites of a shark, and he stated that contact with the reivolving propellor of a launch could not I have caused all the wounds. The remaining evidence showed merely that the woman had been addicted to drink and had been under the influence of drink when last seen on the evening of the 25th. Some evidence regarding the finding of the woman's handbag has still to be called, but it bears merely on the suggestion of robbery- The police admit that they are perplexed. There seems to be no reasonable doubt that the woman was murdered, and the lack of any trace of the occurrence on the foreshore may bp due to the assault having been committed below high-water mark. The police have in custody the man who is charged with attempted murder in connection with a violent and brutal assault on a woman at Te Aro some days a<ro.