WAITOTARA CRIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1941, Page 6

WAITOTARA CRIME

THE MURDER OF ARTHUR PARKINSON EVIDENCE OF ROBBERY. LARGE SUM OF MONEY MISSING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WANGANUI, This Day. Robbery was apparently the motive for the murder yesterday of Arthur Harding Parkinson, the 78-year-old Waitotara storekeeper. A safe irq, the office was found open by the police and the keys are missing. A large sum of money was also stolen. A bloodstained axe was found near the body, which leads to the theory that Mr Parkinson was still alive after having been dragged. into the passage at the back of the shop where his body was found, and that the axe was used to kill him. Lights were seen in the shop up toabout 10.30 on Monday night. Mr Parkinson had often opened the front door at night to callers, and when working in the shop could easily be seen through two large windows facing the Station Road. There seems little doubt that he responded to a knock on the front door and. having gone to answer it, was struck on the forehead with some heavy instrument and fell near the door. Some, bottles of motor-car oil which were exhibited outside the shop, near a petrol pump, in daytime, were brought into the shop and stood near the front door at night: Some of these were knocked over, probably through Mr Parkinson falling on them, or in a scuffle. A post-mortem examination was made in the store yesterday by Dr. P. P. Lynch, the Wellington pathologist. The body was later brought to Wanganui. An inquest today was adjourned sine die after evidence of identification had been taken.