SHOOTING TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 103, 4 May 1925, Page 8

SHOOTING TRAGEDY.

MAN AND GIRL DEAD. ALONGSIDE A MOTOR CAR. MAN'S HEAD BLOWN OFF. I BODIES NOT IDENTIFIED. (Dy Telegraph. —Special to "Star." ROTORUA, this day. News of an extraordinary double shooting tragedy was received here at noon to-day from Kotoma, which is about 1!) milesTrom Rotorua by coach. Mr. M. Tomes, an employee of the Public Works Department, while working near the road adjacent to the lnke shore, heard shots which aroused suspicion of something unusual, and he hastened to investigate the cause He came in sight of a man and a girl, and there was every indication of a | tragedy. The girl, indeed, was in the act of holding a gun presented at her ; breast, and before Mr. Tomes could interpose she had shot herself dead. Alongside of her was the dead body of a man, with his head blown off. The weapon used was a single-barrel shot gun, sawn off abort. The couple had evidently reached the spot where the tragedy was enacted by j motor, for a Dodge car bearing the num- j ber '2111)11-2 was left ownerless. The identity of both man and woman is unknown, and it is not easy to trace them through the number on the motor car, as the district in which it was registered is not shown on the number plate. A man named Relph states that be was speaking to tbe deceased couple ten minutes before the shots were heard, but he can tell nothing to help in their identi-, fication or to assign any cause for the ' affair. LATER. The man shot at Rotorua was middleaged, and both parties to the tragedy were apparently well-to-do people. The shooting took place near the old stables. CAR REGISTERED TN -WELLINGTON.' We learn on inquiry at the City Registration Office that car number 20002 would be registered in Wellington.