UNIDENTIFIED BODY

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3955, 13 June 1929, Page 2

UNIDENTIFIED BODY

POUND ON BANKS OF MANAWATU. A verdict that deceased-had been found drowned near the banks of the Manawatu River on May 19, haring apparently been drowned about May 12, and that his identity had not been established, was returned by the Coroner (Mr. A. J. Graham) When an inquiry was held yesterday at Palmerston North into the circumstances surrounding the death of a man whose body was found at Tia'kitahuna. Sergeant Joyce stated that as the result of a telephone message on May 19 from Msr. Morley, a farmer, at Tiakitahuna, he and Constable Beadle found the body of a man buried to the waist in silt and driftwood, about half a mile from the banks of the Manawatu River. 1 he spot where the body was foundbad been covered with water to the depth of about live feet by the floods about a week previously. There were no marks of violence on the body, and there was nothing on the body to show the deceased’s name or address. Exhaustive inquiries had been made by the police and the fact of the finding of the body had been advertised throughout- the country and broadcast by wireless, but there was no one reported missing answering the description of deceased. Bertram Louis Morley described the finding of the body which, he said, was lying face downwards in the scrub on the fiat near the riverbed. Constable Beadle gave cori obora'tave evidence. “It seems an extraordinary thing that there have .been no 'inquiries for this man,” said the Coroner, in returning the verdict. “He was a well-dressed uiian in apparently good circumstances. He was not a derelict, and surely someone must have missed .him.” Senior-'Sergeant Whitehouse: There are many instances of this nature up and down New Zealand, whetL'e bodies have been found and never claimed or identified. If deceased had been wearing his coat we might 'have found papers leading to his identification.