Murder in Suburbia by Emily Webb

Author:Emily Webb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-fiction, Australia, True crime, Emily Webb, Ashley Coulston, Nanette Ellis, Patricia Bickett, Christopher Gibson, Nathan Avent, Ronald Eastwood, Michael Challoner, JaneThurgood-Dove, Patricia Cogdon, Keith Allan, Nicole Millar, Ramazan Acar, Mary Boanas, Rose Fisher, Elaine Jones, Matthew De Gruchy, Dorothy Davies, Wendy Bell, Kevin Irwin, Frank Newbery, Beverley Keys, Linda Roberts, Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu, Maurice Benn, Gemma Killeen, Angelika Gavare, Chatelle Rowe, Rowe family massacre, murder
ISBN: 978176006300
Publisher: Five Mile Press
Published: 2013-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Crime of Passion

The Murder of Dorothy Davies

Forbidden passions turned to cold-blooded murder on a winter’s night in Sydney’s Woollahra in 1944.

The eastern suburb of Woollahra is one of the premiere postcodes in Sydney. It is a very affluent area, just five kilometres from the CBD and not far from world-famous Bondi Beach. An historic Woollahra mansion, St Kevins, is the home of former prime minister Paul Keating (purchased by Keating and his then wife Anita for $2.2 million). Next door to the Keating abode is the former childhood home of the late Australian opera great Dame Joan Sutherland.

In the 1940s, Woollahra had an eclectic scene, filled with artists, professionals and boarding houses.

Dorothy Jean Davies, 22, shared a flat in the area with a female friend who worked for the Transport Department. Miss Davies worked as a delivery truck assistant at the Sydney Towel Supply, but had also previously worked for the Transport Department as a tram conductor.

In August 1944, Miss Davies told one of her three sisters Mrs Enid Poche that she was ‘going around’ with Richard William Underwood, 30. Underwood was a married tram conductor who used to work with Miss Davies.

Mrs Poche told Miss Davies to be careful, as Miss Davies was also engaged to a solider called Colin Dennerley, who was due back soon on leave from the Army. Mrs Poche asked her little sister if she thought she was being fair to Colin by going around with another man. Miss Davies replied, ‘No, perhaps not, but what can I do?’ It was the last time Mrs Poche saw her sister. Three days later, on 25 August 1944, Dorothy Jean Davies was dead.

Miss Davies was found dead on Edgecliff Road, Woollahra, not far from her home at around 8.30 p.m. Medical student Kenneth Rice found Miss Davies lying on the footpath groaning and rocking from side to side. She had been shot in the chest at close range and died soon after from her injuries.

At 11.15 p.m. that night, the police arrived at Underwood’s home in Sydney’s Waverley, not far from Woollahra. They told him that Miss Davies had been shot, to which he replied, ‘Is she dead?’ When told that Miss Davis had died, Underwood said, ‘I half expected something like this,’ and proceeded to weave a story of his own making for detectives.

At first Underwood told Paddington Detective Sergeant Aubrey Keating that he had arranged to meet Miss Davies at 8 p.m. but she hadn’t arrived. But then, acting nervous, he quickly changed his story and told police that while he didn’t shoot Miss Davies he was with her.

‘I was there when she was shot. I will explain it to you,’ Underwood said. He said he met Miss Davies at Wynard, near the CBD and was walking her home when a man rushed up and shot her. Underwood said that Miss Davies fell to the footpath as her attacker ran away and that he knelt down on his knees to try and lift the dying young woman.

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