“MURDER WILL OUT."

Waipukurau Press, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 2

“MURDER WILL OUT."

A mystery that puzzled the French police thirteen years ago has been revived by the discovery of the skeleton of an evidently murdered man near Breteuil, some fifty miles from Paris. While engaged in some excavations some workmen came upon the skeleton in question, buried at a depth of about -three feet. It was in an excellent state of preservation, the teeth being intact, but evidences of foul play were afforded by the fact that the skull was fractured on the left side as if by a blow from a heavy, blunt instrument.

The discovery recalled the fact that thirteen years ago a young schoolmaster named Narcisse Hardiville mysteriously disappeared from Paris on the eve of his wedding, and had been traced as far as Breteuil, where every sign of him vanished. The police are certain that the remains are those of Hardiville. The measurements taken correspond to the height of the missing man, and a doctor who treated him when young for a fracture of the right arm has found a corresponding injury on the arm of the skeleton.

That Hardiville was the victim of a mysterious crime seems beyond a doubt. There is no known reason why he should have vanished of his own accord. He was engaged to be married, the banns had already been published, and he had an excellent situation.

On the afternoon of the day he departed, a man, dressed in the Sunday clothes of a peasant, called to see the school-teacher in his abode in Paris. He did not prove a very welcome visitor, for shortly afterwards the concierge heard the pair engaged in a violent discussion.

The unknown v isitor, with his hat pulled down over his eyes, as if to avoid recognition, took his departure shortly afterwards. That same evening Hardiville received a telegram which threw him into a state of perturbation. Taking his overcoat and umbrella, he rushed out of the house.

The telegram was afterwards found to be a fictitious one. It purported to come from his mother, and asked her son to hasten to her bedside, as she was dangerously ill. Hardiville’s parents lived near Breteuil, and on the evening of his disappearance he was seen alighting at the local railway station. % Unable to find any means of transport, he set out to walk across country to his home. Following the ordinary road he would have to pass within a few hundred yards of the spot where the skeleton was dug up, The telegram was evidently a trap, and its sender presumably counted upon the schoolmaster arriving late at Breteuil, and failing a conveyance, walking across the country.