TORERE TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 59, 3 December 1926, Page 12

TORERE TRAGEDY

BOTH MEN DRUNK EARLIER SULLIVAN CHARGED WITH MURDER ®T TELEGBAPH.—PBESS ASSOCIATION. Opotikl, December 2. The tragedy that took place near Tpjere, about eighteen miles from- Opotiki, yesterday, when a. roadman named Jerry Williams was found by the police battered to death, has every appearance of murder. The dead man’s mate, John .Sullivan (aged 50), was arrested and Charged with murder. The two men had been working together for the past four months. Both were ‘in town yesterday morning, and when taken to Torere in the afternoon both were intoxicated. On receipt of the news of the trag- ' edy the police hurried to the scene and found Williams dead in some scrub, Williams’s head was terribly smashed, and part of the skull was missing Blood-stained bottles were strewn around, and half a dozen heavy sticks were also blood-stained. Patches of blood on the road indicated that the murdered man had tried to run away He had been finally, dragged into the i scrub. ‘ , Sullivan had a bottle of whisky in ftis hand when arrested, and was, talking wildly.* He said, to Mr. Drake, the postmaster at Torere, “Pye killed my mate,” but denied committing the crime when arrested. Sullivan was formally charged before two Justices of the Peace with murdering Williams. He was remanded for a ' week.

■POLICE .INQUIRIES. ( Dominion Special. Auckland, December 2. The “Herald’s” correspondent at Opotiki states that the local police, accompanied by Detective McLeod, of Gisborne, have been away to-day instituting inquiries into the tragedy at Torere. The bodv of Williams was taken to the local, hospital, and a post mortem examination made. The inquest will noi be held until to-morrow morning.