CAMBRIDGE TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 February 1922, Page 8

CAMBRIDGE TRAGEDY.

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE. Auckland. Feb. 12. In respect to the Press Association message stating that the decomposed body of a man had been found in a sandpit near Cambridge, in the Waikato, the following further particulars are to hand: On Friday afternoon a young man, when out shooting along the Karapiro stream, about four miles above its junction with the Waikato river, came across the dead body of a man lying face downwards on a shingle bank in the stream. The police were sent for. and on recovering the body they found a ploughshare tied to the man’s neck by means of an ordinary necktie, while his hands were tied behind him and to his thighs with a piece of rope. The man’s face had been attacked by eels, and the body had the appearance of having been in the water for about a fortnight. The police naturally at first suspected •foul play, but on careful examination of the rope knots they were found to be such as might easily have been tied by the man himself, as they were loose the loop in the final knot being ■ quite open, with the end merely pointj ing through. The police therefore put I down the ease as one of suicide. The man was apparently about 40 . years of age. with dark hair, and of i strong; medium build. He was wearing j a grey suit with a sports jacket, blue serge vest, white shirt with blue one beneath, football boots without spikes, heather woollen socks, and a waist belt with a snake fastener. His only possessions wore a safety pin and a jialf-penny. The spot at which he was found was a very lonely one. The police are now seeking his identity.