A MYSTERY OF THE THAMES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1877, 11 April 1889, Page 3

A MYSTERY OF THE THAMES.

About four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, February 24th, the police noticed a corpse floating up the -river with the tide, opposite Wapping, and Inspector Lilley, who superintended the landing of the body, found it to be that of a well-dressed, elderly man. It was conveyed to the mortuary, and, on the clothing being searched a visiting card, a signed cheque, and various papers were discovered in the pockets, tending to show that deceased was Lieut.-Colonel Clare, lately residing in apartments in Duke street, St, James's, Subsequent inquiries confirmed this supposition. Colonel Clare had been for a long period in the Bengal Native Infantry, and was retired in September, 1886. He had been unaccountably miasing since the' beginning of December. A circumstance that had caused his friends I considerable alarm was the fact that | his final departure was simultaneous with the removal of a carbine from the house. On January Bth such a weapon, containing an exploded cartridge, and believed to be identical

I with the missing one, was found in the Thames, near Waterloo Pier, and [retained by the River Police. Some carbine cartridges were found in one of the deceased's pockets. To identify the features would be impossible; they are almost effaced. The immediate circumstances of the death are involved in mystery. The disfigurement of the head renders the tracing of a possible bullet wound extremely difficult, and it has not been established whether the deceased died by shooting or by drowning.