WOMAN’S DEATH AT NELSON

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24909, 24 June 1946, Page 6

WOMAN’S DEATH AT NELSON

Doctor’s Finding Of Drowning SCREAMS HEARD BY RESIDENTS (P A.) NELSON, June 23. That death was caused by drowning and that there was evidence of a struggle having taken place was revealed in a report by Dr. P P. Lynch, of Wellington, who carried out a postmortem examination on the body of the young Maori woman Rangi Tai Ctimi, aged 21. which was found in the Queen's Gardens duckpond by the caretaker (Mr E. J. Burns) on Friday morning. This statement was made by the Nelson police on Saturday evening. The nature of any injury suffered by the victim was not disclosed by the police, who are conducting an intensive and widespread investigation throughout the city and district. No arrest had been made up to 5 o'clock to-day, when official sources had nothing further to report. On Thursday night Miss Otimi went to a local theatre in company with a visitor to the city. The proprietor of a Hardy street fish shop (Mr Peter Setka) stated that at 11.30 on Thursday evening Miss Otimi bought 2s worth of fish and chips in his shop and took it away in a brown paper bag.

A number of people, who live in Hardy and Bridge streets, near the southern and northern ends of the gardens respectively in interviews with reporters, have told of hearing screams in the gardens about 12.20 on Friday morning and also a woman’s voice calling loudly: “What’s going on there?”

One Bridge street resident stated that he heard a scream at 12.20 a.m., the time being fixed in his mind because he was then putting out his milk bottles. His neighbour said she heard about five screams and also a woman’s voice asking what was going on. She had no idea of the time. The proprietress of the Airedale boarding-house, in Hardy street, said she left her kitchen about half an hour before midnight to go to bed. Later she heard what she described as “terrifying screams” coming from the gardens. She then heard a woman’s voice call loudly “What’s going on there?” She did not investigate the matter, thinking that whoever had called out would see what had happened. Just after that she heard a splash in the water, noise by the ducks, and then someone running over the wooden footbridge which spans the pond about 30 yards away from the Hardy street entrance to the gardens.

The occupant of the nearest hous< which adjoins the south-western coi ner of the gardens and is only abou 40 yards from the scene of the tra gedy. said she heard screams and splash, but did not call out.

Most people questioned said it was not unusual to hear noises and calls in the gardens at night time, and they were therefore not as alarmed by Thursday night’s disturbance as they might otherwise have been. In any case, no one reported the matter to the police, whose first notification that anything untoward had happened was the caretaker's report on finding the body.

While the body remained on the side of the pond, where it was placed by the caretaker, it was identified by Miss Huria Stephens, who had known Miss Otimi when she whs living in Motueka some months ago. Miss Otimi, who formerly lived at Tokaanu, came to the Nelson district under the direction of the manpower authorities and undertook work in tobacco plantations on Mr F. A. Hamilton's property at Riwaka. Early in May she left that farm to work for Mr Roy Hunter in the same d ? strict. During her time in Motueka she lived at the Motueka dehydration plant hostel. About a month ago she left Motueka to join the laundry staff at Nelson College.