Post #5721 by Kailuageoff on Tue, Aug 13, 2002 7:14 AM

From today's Associated Press...

Murder Is Island's First In 150 Years
Pacific Island's Australian Residents Asked To Undergo Fingerprinting

NORFOLK ISLAND, Australia -- After 150 years, a murder has broken the crime-free tranquility of a tiny Australian island.

What's gone is the innocence of an island paradise where crime is virtually unheard of, and there hadn't been a murder in more than 150 years.

On Tuesday, police will begin asking Norfolk Island's 1,800 residents to lend a hand, literally, to solve the murder of Janelle Patton by submitting to fingerprinting.

So will about 680 Australian and New Zealand tourists who were visiting at the time.

Police say they have several suspects in the slaying of the 29-year-old restaurant manager, and they hope to match finger and hand prints found on and around her body.

Discovered in 1774, the island was once a brutal prison and later became home to descendants of mutineers from the British warship HMS Bounty who arrived from Pitcairn Island.

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2002-08-13 07:56 ]