IDENTITY NOT CERTAIN

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20494, 10 May 1938, Page 8

IDENTITY NOT CERTAIN

SON REOOONIBES CLOTHES SEARCH FOR STRANGER (Special to Times.) PICTON, Monday. The' inquest into the victim of the suitcase murder opened this evening after the arrival on the Tamahine from Wellington of William Aitken Armstrong, aged 19, a student. He was met on the wharf by DetectiveSergeants W. McLennan and W. R, Murray and Detective F. Hayhurst and was taken immediately to the Courthouse, where the clothing found on the' body had been packed, and he had no hesitation in identifying the clothing as belonging to his father. A statement was 'taken by Mr McLennan, and was later read out to Mr Armstrong, jun., who was pale but composed, by the coroner. Last Seen on Friday “My father stayed at my home until Friday, May 6,” he said. ‘ “I last saw him on Friday morning at home. I went to work at 8.15 a.m.. leaving my father and mother in the house. I have not seen my father since' I left home on that day. I have been shown a brown suit, and I can identify it as the one my father wore.” Alexander Gillies, able seaman, of ihe Pakeha, in a statement, described the finding of the suitcase. Although comment was made by the coroner that the evidence of identification was not fully complete', a warrant for burial was issued, but this will not take place until after a post mortem examination, which will probably be conducted by Dr. Lynch, Government pathologist, to-morrow. Dr. Lynch, it is understood, has been delayed at Dunedin through a sitting of the Supreme Court, and is not now expected to arrive until to-morrow's air liner. Detective-Sergeant Murray and Detective Hayhurst spent several hours (Continued in next column)

in Blenheim this afternoon making inquiries, which are understood to concern the possibility of an unnamed person either staying in the town recently, or who passed through on the way south.