WAITOTARA TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1941, Page 4

WAITOTARA TRAGEDY

DEATH OF STOREKEEPER HEAD AND THROAT WOUNDS. FURTHER DETAILS OF CRIME. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI, This Day. Further details in connection with the death of Mr Arthur Harding Parkinson, aged 78, who was found dead in his grocery store at Waitotara with his head battered and a wound in his throat, show that Mr Parkinson, who was a widower, had kept the store for many years. He lived with Mr and Mrs J. J. Armstrong, whose home is about 150 yards from the store. He was in the habit of returning to his shop at night to attend to his books, but was generally back by 9 p.m. or 10 p.m., though he sometimes stayed to listen to the 11 o’clock news from a radio set he had at the shop.

When he did not return home by about 10 p.m. yesterday the family did not worry, concluding that he must have stayed to listen to the news, but when he failed to put in an appearance for breakfast alarm was felt, and Mr Armstrong, accompanied by a neighbour', Mr M. Grove, went to the shop. There, shortly before 8 a.m., they found Mr Parkinson lying dead in a passage at the back of the shop. The passage leads to the back door. The front door was open. When the shop was entered the radio was still playing, indicating that possibly the crime was committed last night while he was listening to the news. It is understood that Mr Parkinson was last seen alive about 8 o'clock last night, when some goods were delivered to him at the store. He had opened up cases of goods, some of which were placed on the counter, so the police are not yet able to say whether’ any stock was taken. The store is a single-story building located between a boardinghouse and a butcher’s shop. It is about 30 yards from the main road and in the centre of the business portion of Waitotara. The store is not isolated, only about 10 feet separating it on either side from the other buildings. Mr Parkinson is survived by a family of three.