ALLEGED MURDER.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 2, 3 January 1924, Page 5

ALLEGED MURDER.

TRAGEDY AT JAIHAPE.

FARMER IN CUSTODY. SAID TO HAVE CONFESSED. "I KIIXED HIM." (By Telegraph.—rres.s Association.) TAIHAPE, tliis day. At five this morning the Taihape police received a telephone message stating that a man had been murdered at Anthony Moghan.'s farm, which adjoins the borough boundary." On arrival a few minutes afterwards the police found the dead body of Gordon John Gemmell lying under a lilac tree, the head and face of the deceased being in a badly battered condition. Gemmell had been working for Moghan, and it is alleged that the two had quarrelled and Gemmell had been paid oft. The bed in Gemmell's room was saturated with blood. There was also blood on the walls of the room, and a large pool of blood between the front room and the kitchen. Appearances indicate that the body had been dragged from the house, over the verandah, to the place where it was found. The body was shirtless, and medical opinion is that death had occurred eight hours before it was found. Moghan met the police on their arrival and said: "I give myself in charge. I killed him." Moghan was then taken in charge sind removed to the police station. He appeared before the Court tl< : ° «*t.prnoon, and was formally remanded. The encounter between Moghan and Gemmell was witnessed by a man named Robert Riley, and the first information was received by the police from. Mr. Windle, solicitor. The deceased's age was 29. Moghan is 56 years of age.