Rugby – Kapiti Independent

Crusaders in the Ascendancy

An excellent spectacle By Roger Childs The Crusaders – Highlanders clash in Christchurch last evening was great advertisement for New […]

1 week | National Stories

Common Sense on Red Cards

14 v 15 spoils the game By Roger Childs Rugby fans and especially Welsh ones, will recall the semi final […]

2 weeks | Rugby

Ruthless All Blacks

The French: game and unlucky but well beaten By Roger Childs It was a very even game for 50 minutes […]

1 month | National Stories

Undercover Highlanders Smarter

Hurricanes not up to it, again By Roger Childs With the loss to the Crusaders behind them, the Wellington franchise […]

1 month | National Stories

Battle of the Rugby Titans

Top teams clash in Christchurch By Roger Childs It’s the Super Rugby match fans have been eagerly awaiting. At AMI […]

2 months | New Zealand

Clear Cut Rugby Superiority

New Zealand 40 Australia 0 By Roger Childs This is not a headline you’ll see in The Sydney Morning Herald […]

2 months | National Stories

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

The mystery of Marie West -- the curious and baffling mystery surrounding the death of Marie Emily West, who disappeared from her home at 13 McIntyre Avenue, Wellington, on 7 July 1947.

Her body was found on the scrub-covered slopes of Mt. Victoria (see photo) three months later.

She was a young woman in her teens, and the question was then, as it is today, how did she die, and how was her body conveyed to where it was found and concealed?

The complexities of the affair may be measured from the fact that officially it has never been conclusively determined whether it was a matter of murder or suicide, but all the indications point to suicide.

The police investigations were so exhaustive that the file of the case in the Headquarters Office in Wellington stands about 30 in. high.

Abundant evidence was disclosed to support the theory of suicide, while on the other hand the official opinion was that there was not “one jot or tittle” of testimony to suggest murder.

The suicide conclusion was based on the considered opinions of two noted pathologists. But if suicide it was, how did the body get to Mt. Victoria? That was one of the perplexing problems.

A Mr X came very much into the calculations of both police and public, but the police were finally satisfied that there was not an iota of evidence to connect him with the disappearance of the girl.