ACCIDENT 'STAGED'?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 180, 31 July 1940, Page 11

ACCIDENT 'STAGED'?

DEATH OF GREEK. MURDER IS SUSPECTED. FATAL HEAD WOUNDS. (Special.—By Air Mail.) SYDNEY, July 24. The police believe that a man who appeared to have been the victim of a hit-and-run driver on Friday night was murdered. The new theory was formed when the Government Medical Officer (Dr. Percy) and the Government Pathologist (Dr. Sheldon) examined the body of Victor Moulos, 39, Sydney Road, Manly. They declared that the wounds on the top of Moulos' head were not consistent with injuries received in a motor accident. The wounds had been caused most likely by repeated heavy blows with some instrument, they said. The police also believe that the killer dumped the body by the road, and deliberately made car skid marks close by to give the appearance of a "hit-and-run" accident.

Moulos was found about 8 p.m. on Friday unconscious beside the roadway iu Roseville Road, Brookvale. He died in Manly Hospital five hours later. His head was so badly injured that doctors had not expected him to live so long. Apart from a few scratches on the face, there were no other injuries or his body. His clothing- did not appear to have been under a car wheel. Forty feet on each side of the spot where he was found lying, were skid marks from a motor tyre. Moulos was lying huddled up on a stretch of gravel. His head was 22in from the edge of the macadam. The marks of the tyre were about a foot off the macadam. The nearest house is a quarter of a mile away from the spot where Moulos was found. The road leads from Brookvale through French's Forest to Roseville.

Norman Hogarth, 27, Tristam Road, Beacon Hill, Brookvale, found Moulos. "As soon as I saw the man was injured, I went to the Forest Service Station, about half a mile away, and rang the police," he said. "There was not much traffic. Usually it is fairly heavy at that time on a Friday night." Moulos wa® taken by Manly District ambulance to Manly Hospital. He died at 1 a.m. on Saturday. After the announcement of Dr. Percy and Dr. Sheldon, Inspector Sherringham, Detective-Inspector McCarthy and Detective-Sergeants Walsh, Caiman and MacNeal (Manly) were assigned to the case.

Moulos, a Greek, was a wealthy man. He owned a cafe and other shops at Windsor, where he had lived for many years. He was a single man. His mother and sister live in Greece.