BUSH SEARCHED FOR CLUES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 1

BUSH SEARCHED FOR CLUES

Mystery of Hillside Murder TALK OF WOMAN IN THE CASE (Special to THE SUE) GPOTIKI, Today. WHO killed the surfaceman, Samuel McAleese, on the Papamoa Hill, and why, is still a mystery despite most searching investigations by the police. There are rumours of a woman being concerned in the affair.

The police are satisfied that it is a case of murder, and that the circumstances of the death preclude any possibility of suicide. At first it was thought that the bullet had not penetrated McAleese’s shirt, and that the garment had been put on after the shooting, but closer examination reveals that this was not the case, and that the shirt had been penetrated. WAS A WOMAN INVOLVED? It is rumoured in one quarter that further investigation may disclose the fact that a woman was involved in the circumstances surrounding the death. Although there is no water near where the body was found there was a wet patch on the road, showing that water had been carried near to where the body was lying. Whether this was used to remove traces of blood is not yet certain. It is not considered that the pearifle was used to hit McAleese. It was not broken, but was taken apart by removing a small nut from a bolt. SHOT FIRED AT CLOSE RANGE The course of the bullet was slightly upward, showing it must have been fired at fairly close range. Tests carried out prove that the shot was fired at a greater distance than a foot, as there were no signs of singeing. Shots fired from the rifle show that at a range of a foot from the body, singeing of the garment would occur. From this distance it would have been impossible for McAleese to pull the trigger. The funeral of McAleese took place in the Opotiki cemetery on Saturday afternoon.

The rifle found in the sack near the body belonged to McAleese, hut as he was shot through the heart, and death was apparently instantaneous, he could not have shot himself and then broken the weapon and put it in the sack. CONSTABLE SEARCHES CLIFF SIDE The scene of the shooting is at the top of a cliff which falls about 700 feet down, and with a hope of finding some clue that would help in the elucidation of the mystery, Constable Breed was lowered on a rope 300 feet down the cliff, but lie found nothing. The slope is covered with dense

growth, and had the body been thrown over the cliff it would never have been seen from the road, and probably would never have been found. Today Detectives McLeod and Knight went down the cliff for some distance, but without finding anything to help them. McAleese’s rifle has been sent to Auckland for examination for fingerprints. No strangers were noticed in the locality on the day McAleese was shot, but so isolated is it that it would not be difficult for anyone to pass along the highway without being seen, and anyone with food could hide in the bush for months.