MURDER OR SUICIDE?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 915, 7 March 1930, Page 1

MURDER OR SUICIDE?

Shooting at Palmerston North NO WEAPON FOUND NEAR BODY ■<pc< ial to THE SL X * PALMERSTON NORTH, Today. STRONG evidence of either suicide or murder surroundis the death of Walter Edwin Price, a well-known | > almerston North builder, who was found by his son lying- dead across his bed at 8 o'clock on Wednesday morning. i Although it was at first thought that death vMs due to an internal haemorrhage, a post-mortem has revealed that death was caused by a gunshot wound received at close quarters.

Xo gun was found near the body, and the only weapon in the house was an old rifle which had not recently been used. The police refuse to make a statement, but admit that Price’s death was due either to murder or to suicide. Although Price’s 16-year-old son, who was sleeping in an adjacent bedroom, states that he did not hear a shot and had no knowledge of the tragedy until he entered his father’s bedroom on the following morning, neighbours say that they heard a sharp, staccato report accompanied by a shrill cry, at about 12.50 a.m. Mr. Ross Meikle. who lives next door, hearing a shot and not being able to tell where it came from, opened his door and listened, but finding all ipiiet went back to bed again.

When discovered, Price was in liis pyjamas, lying on his back partly underneath the end of his bed. He was lying on a sheet and a blanket, which were bloodstained, but no traces of blood were found on the bed. A wound, blackened by powder, indicated that the shot had been fired at close quarters. It was on the inside of the chin near the corner of the mouth and the shot had spread upward toward the top cr the skull. Another pan of his face was covered with congealed blood. The police state that death must have been instantaneous. A wad from a gun was found in the room. The late Mr. Price comes of a wellknown family, his brothers being members of the firm of locomotive builders at Thames. He was of a quiet but cheerful disposition.