MURDER CHARGE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 162, 5 April 1921, Page 4

MURDER CHARGE

A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE YOUNG MAORI ARRESTED By Telegraph.-—Pres« Association. Rotorua, April 4. Hakaraia Te Kahu, who was the panion of Patrick Richard Elliott when the latter went on a shooting expedition from which he did. not return, was arrested to-day and brought to Rotorua this afternoon, when he was charged before Mr. Kenriek, -S.M., with murdering Elliott on or about March 27. No evidence was offered, and. accused was remanded for eight days, on the application of the police. -|A Press Association telegram sent from Auckland on April 1 contained the following statements The mysterious disappearance of Patrick Richard Elliott, about 35 years of age, a platelayer, employed on the Taupo Totara Timber Company’s railway, from Ongarito last Sunday, is being investigated by the police. Foul play is feared. Elliott lived in a whare near the station. A young Maori, Hakaraia T*e Kahu, a returned soldier and platelayer, employed by the same company, occupied an adjoining whare. On Sunday both men went shooting along the banks of the Waikato River. They called at a farm and borrowed a sporting dog, Elliott, it is stated, promising to return for tea. During the afternoon several shots were heard in the (vicinity of the river. Elliott did not call in for tea as promised, and as he was not seen by Tuesday morning the neighbours became anxious, and a search was instituted. No trace of the missing man wns found until a dog with one of tho party discovered a dead wild duck on the bank of the river a short distance above some rapids.’ Closer investigation revealed bloodstains on stones near the water, also on tea-tree for over twenty yards back from the river. The Maori stated to the police that he and Elliott returned home after being o\’t shooting. Next morning he saw Elliott in Elliott’s whare. The Maori then went to Mokai and returned to Ongarito on Tuesday morning. He’'was asked where Elliott was, and stated that he saw him last in the whare before leaving for Mokai the previous .lay. Elliott is reported to have had a large sum of money in his possession. He suffered from neuritis, and there is a possibility of his having committed suicide or of ’having accidentally shot himself or fallen into the river, but the police view is that there has been foul play-] .