DOUBLE MURDER NEAR MANGAMAHOE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10828, 29 March 1932, Page 3

DOUBLE MURDER NEAR MANGAMAHOE

Husband and Wife Dead. SON ARRESTED. Master ton. March US A lonely farmhouse, near Mangamahoe, was the scene of a double murder early this morning. The victims were: Mr John Corrigan, farmer, aged til years; Mrs Ellen Corrigan, bis wife, aged 57. A son, John Corrigan, aged 23, has been arrested and charged with murder.

The tragedy occurred at about two o'clock, when Mr Corrigan and his wife were asleep in bed. The former was shot above the right eye and death must have been instantaneous. Mrs Corrigan, who was wounded in the right side, evidently sat up before she was hit.

A son, Lewis, rushed to the house of the nearest neighbour. Mr John Hanson Bcrney, about one mile away, where a telephone call was put through to the Eketahuna police. Constable Ede and Dr Simmers proceeded to the scene. Upon their arrival Mr Corrigan and his wife were dead and the bodies were later removed to Masterton. Both barrels of a double-barrelled shotgun, which was taken possession of by the police, had been discharged apparently at close range.

The son John went to bed the previous evening as usual and apparently was on good terms with his parents, of whom he was very fond. He will be brought before justices at Eketahuna to-morrow and remanded to Wellington, while the inquest will be opened in Masterton for identification purposes and adjourned sine die.

The house, which stands some distance back from the road, is three miles up the Mangamahoe Central Road from the main Eketahuna-Mas-ferton, via Mauriceville, highway. It contains six or seven rooms, including four bedrooms. Beside the father and mother and accused, there were two boys and two girls at home. They are Lewis Joseph, aged 20, Patrick Francis, aged 13, Agnes, aged IG, and Berna.dine, aged nine. Mr and Mrs Corrigan had lived in the Eketahuna district off and on for about 40 years and were highly-re-spected residents. They had been on the present farm for the last eight years