BIG MANHUNT ENDS

Chronicle (Levin), 7 February 1949, Page 5

BIG MANHUNT ENDS

Pi;ess Association)

Man Found Dead Beside Armed Weapons

(Per

AUCKLAND, Feb. 6. The Whakatane man.hunt in pregress since Traffie Ofiioer J. Kehoe,. aged 24, was murdered last Monday night and a eontractor, Mr. A. W. Gj Wiggins, was wounded by a man on a motor-cycle, ended on Saturday with the discovery in a lonely orchard some three miles from the scene of the crime, of the body of Richard Angus McGill, aged 20, mill-hand. He had been shot through the head and had been dead for some days. A .38 revolyer Jully-loaded but for one chamber, was in McGill' s right hand. Under the body which was lying prone, was another .38 revolver also fully loaded and in a belt strapped round his -waist was a .45 automatic pistol marked as being the property of the United States Army. The belt also carried an ammunition pouch with a further 24 rounds of .38 ammunition. In a second belt was a generous supply of .22 ammunition and also a sheath containing a knife. There was more ammunition in McGill 's pockets and altogether more than 60 revolver and pistol bullets were found by the police. While the police were continuing their inquiries, Legion of Frontiersmen AA^-ere beating through thiek scrub some miles away and a party of Maons on

horseback was being organised to seareli near the coast. The body was found by a farmer's wife who had gone to gather apples. She is Mrs. T. N. Dahl whose home is half a mile away o-n an adjoining property, Immediately she entered the orchard which is behind an implement shed well away from any house and flanked by a high hedge of lawsoniana, Mrs. Dahl saw McGill. She did not know whether or not he was alive but ran back to her home across flat paddocks Mr. Dahl drove his traetor aeross country to reach, some two miles away, the nearest telephone and half a dozen policb' ears were quickly on thejr way. The orchard is owned by a Whakatane grazier. A Maori is reported to have been there gathering peaches only the night bet'ore but the body, under a large tree and close to the hedge, was partly hidden by grass and was not seen. Because of its remote locality and the extreme difficulty of access by rough tracks and narrow farm bridges, tlie orchard is an isolated spot offering complete cover. It is nearly two miles from the highway. . Senior deteetives and uniformed polieemen from Auckland, Rotorua and Gisborne under Inspector J. Mclntyre, of Gisborne, were immediately withdrawn from Whakatane, Te Teko, Edgecumbe and Thornton and converged on the orchard as fast as they could drive their ears across the two miles of paddocks. The first on the scene was Senior Sergeant W. S. Brown, oi Auckland, who found that McGill was dead, Over the trousers oi a blue pin-striped snit worn when McGill had last been seen, there had been pulled a pair of grey ones. McGill was also wearing a blaek peaked cap. The police paid par'ticnlar attention to the weapons found with McGill but left the body undisturbed until it had been examined by a doctor. Medical opinion was' that death had oceurred some days before. The body was removed to the mortuary at the W7hakatane Hospital where an inquest was opened by the District Coroner, Mr. C. S. Armstrong. Evidenee of identification was given and the inqnest was then dajourned. There is still no explanation of the motive behind the murder of Mr. Kehoe. The police favour the theory that it was caused by the sudden impulse of an irrational person.