The “‘false clue’ woodbox

elled on through the side of the house
to blast the shingles apart on the
outside. How was this? One empty
shell, one loaded shell, yet evidence
of two shots having been fired.

The search continued. On some
shelves in Donald Lawrence’s bed-
room there were several boxes of
shells, and lying on top of one of
these boxes was a second empty shell.
These empty shells from their mark-
ings, had contained large shot, size
3B.

On the night Roediger was found
injured in the woodshed, he had
claimed first that Lawrence had shot
him twice, and then, that he had
attempted to get the gun away from
the youth. Too badly injured to
be questioned further that night, he
was later interviewed to amplify his
statements. Now recovering from
his injuries, Roediger told a story of
sitting writing in the kitchen of the
farm, when young Lawrence had te-
turned from the tram station in a
fury. Striking him in the eye, Law-
rence had rushed into his bedroom,
seized a shotgun, then pointed it at
Roediger’s back. The latter thrust
out his hand and deflected the barrel
downwards so that a shot passed
through the woodbox. Attempting to
escape, Lawrence caught up with Roe-
diger outside the :verandah, where,
during the struggle, the gun had
discharged a second time, wounding
Lawrence accidentally. Such was
the gist of Roediger’s story. He was
insistent that a charge should be laid
against Donald Lawrence, and in
fact, he actually laid information be-
fore the magistrate later. The facts
recited by Roediger did not fit in
with the picture. If the shotgun had
been discharged by Lawrence into
the woodbox, and later a second shot
nad been accidentally fired into Law-
rence’s back, how was it that only
one empty cartridge was found in the
woodshed? It was difficult to see
how the other empty shell had found

Page Six

Farm home of victim and his mother

its way into the bedroom, carefully
left on a pile of cartridge boxes. No,
there was something very wrong with
Roediger’s story. But it was a case
of word against word. There were
no eye-witnesses, and only the cir-
cumstantial evidence found about the
place, could corroborate either of
these two men.

MUTE TESTIMONY

But Lawrence’s wounds were to
give mute testimony far more truth-
fully than Roediger had believed
possible. At the hospital, a series
of X-Ray pictures were taken of the
injured man’s back and elbow. The
tell-tale pellets could be clearly seen,
scattered over an area of several
square inches. Some of the pellets
had broken up and minute particles
of lead were distributed among the
tissues. The X-Rays of the elbow
showed that a portion of the bone
had been struck, which accounted for
the broken fragments of lead which
had continued past the elbow into
the victim’s back. Dr. G. T. Wilson
who operated on Lawrence, removed
the shot and fragments carefully, to-
gether with a small amount of wad-
ding and fibres from the young
man’s coat which had been driven
into the multiple wounds. Feeling
that pieces of material removed from
the victim would probably be of
value later on, he instructed a nurse
to preserve them until required.

When Roediger had sufficiently re-
covered, he was removed from the
hospital by the Surrey Municipal Po-
lice and charged with unlawfully
wounding Donald Lawrence with in-
tent to murder him. On May 8,
1946, a Preliminary Heearing was
held at Cloverdale before Police Mag-
istrate Henry Bose. Evidence was
given by Lawrence regarding the at-
tempt on his life, while Dr. Wilson
explained the nature of Lawrence’s
injuries, as well as those sustained by
Roediger. Constable Craig and Beard

also: gave their testimony and intro-
duced the exhibits which had been
found at the scene of the crime. Mr.
Robinson the storekeeper also told
about Lawrence’s visit, and the
‘phone call later received. The mag-
istrate considered this evidence ample
to commit Roediger for trial.

The trial was to take place at the
New Westminster Spring Assize, and
Mr. T. R. Selkirk, Crown Counsel,
began preparing the case for pre-
sentment. From information  re-
ceived, he felt that Roediger had a
background of none too savory a
character, and that the case to be
tried was not an isolated act. Fur-
ther, the evidence at the moment, was
none too strong, and he requested
that additional work be done on the
ballistics angle of the case.

BALLISTICS TESTS

The case now being in the hands
of the Provincial Government for
prosecution, Detective Sergeant (now
Sub-Inspector) J. A. Young, fire-
arms expert of the Criminal Investi-
gation Branch of the B.C. Police,
was sent over to confer with Mr.
Selkirk and lend whatever assistance
he could in the case. On June 6,
Mr. Selkirk, Sergt. Woods-Johnson
of the B.C. Police at New Westmins-
ter, and Young, went to the Law-
rence home. Methodically going
about his work, Young first of all
examined the woodbox in the kit-
chen. Photographed, measured and
analysed, the woodbox told its own
story. From the position of the
shot hole, its direction, and the rela-
tive heights of Roediger and Law-
rence, it was highly improbable, if
not impossible, to believe Roediger’s
explanation of this hole. Next pho-
tographs were taken of the scene
where the shooting took place, in-
cluding the fence post in which a
pellet had been found by Constable
Craig. Continuing with his thor-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 100

THE SHOULDER STRAP