BODY OF MISSING MAN FOUND

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27669, 27 May 1955, Page 12

BODY OF MISSING MAN FOUND

Police Search Ends In Eglinton Valley CHARGE OF MURDER TO BE LAID TODAY (New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 26. The body, of Mr J. J. Hughes, the 34-year-old Makarewa slaughterman who had been missing since March 14, was found today by the police. It was buried beside the Eglinton Valley scenic road. A man will be charged in Dunedin tomorrow with murder. It is likely that he will be remanded to appear in Invercargill. Mr Hughes’s bojly was in a grave down a 15ft bank about four miles from the Cascade Camp creek and 44 miles from Te Anau township. It was lying on its back, partly clad, between two logs that formed a natural bridge over a shallow depression. Gravel and debris had been tossed over the body. The place could not be seen from the road.

Detectives in one car left Invercargill at 8.20 a.m. today and joined two cars with detectives from Dunedin at Lumsden. The three cars sped to Te Anau and up the Eglinton Valley, and the cars made their headquarters near Mistake creek.

From this point the cars cruised slowly up and down the road looking for landmarks that would pinpoint the search. The beech forest sweeps down from the mountains right to the side of the road. Within feet of the road are a profusion of . tall trees and a tangle of undergrowth. The police closed about a mile of the road while they removed the body and put it on a hearse, which brought it to Dunedin.

The police took with them a man who it is believed has been able to assist them in the investigations. Also with the party was Professor E. F. D’Ath, pathologist at the Otago Medical School. *•

The body was found a week after New Zealand’s leading criminal investigators, headed by DetectiveInspector F. N. Aplin, of Auckland, had been called to Dunedin, and 13 days after the Invercargill and Dunedin police first made public announcements that Mr Hughes vzas missing. The police party, weary after covering 550 miles by road during the day,

arrived in Dunedin at 10 o’clock tonight.

When questioned by a reporter at the Central Police Station tonight, Detective-Inspector Aplin said that the body had obviously been buried for some time, and the police party had difficulty in bringing it to the surface. Detective-Inspector Aplin paid a tribute to both the police who worked with him on the case and to the public for their co-operation. The public, he said, had done much to help. This applied especially to Makarewa freezing works employees, who had come forward with much vital information. Sergeant W. A. T. McGuire, police ballistics expert, arrived in Dunedin tonight from Wellington. Mr Hughes was last seen alive in Dunedin at 10.30 a.m. on March 14, when he and a companion set out for Invercargill in a Rover car owned by Mr Hughes. At that time Mr Hughes was negotiating to sell his car for £1035 to a man who worked at Makarewa. The car was seen at" the freezing works at noon on March 16, when it was loaded with suitcases and other property, but Mr Hughes was not driving it. Early in April the car was sold for £7OO to a dealer in Christchurch, but the seller was not Mr Hughes. Early in the search the police recovered the car from a man who had bought it in Christchurch.