Three Stabbed To Death

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30273, 12 April 1965, Page 1

Three Stabbed To Death

(Neiv Zealand Press Association) DARGAVILLE, April 11. Three members of a Jugoslav family, an 80« year-old man, his 34-year-old daughter and 12-months-old granddaughter, were found dead in a cottage.on a farm at Tokatoka, 11 miles south of Dargaville, today. All had been stabbed.

They were: Tony Pechar, aged 80, married.

Mrs Marina Grbich, the only child of Mr and Mrs Pechar, and

Leninka Grbich, her daughter.

The police went to the house three miles inland ;from the State highway at [Tokatoka after finding a [ truck down a 30ft bank at ‘the Tokatoka-Waitotira junction road at 9.15 a.m. Mrs Grbich's husband, Tony Grbich, aged 35. a wine grower and orchardist, was taken unconscious from the cabin of the truck and admitted to Dargaville Hospital where he was treated for chest injuries, but they were not serious. Tonight he was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife. The truck was seen going over the bank by a party sitting on top of the 700 ft Tokatoka peak.

Susan Rivers, aged 14, and Gary Rivers, aged 12, were sitting at the trig point with Gay Hamlin, aged 14. and John Houchen, aged 29, a Ruawai Dairy Company employee, who lives at Tokatoka.

“We were looking down toward the road,” said Susan, tonight, “when we saw a truck coming down toward the Tokatoka Hotel.”

It was going fairly slowly, she said, when it went over the bank.

"John and my brother ran (down the hill to the truck. I John left Gary to look after Mr Grbich while he went off [to call police and ambulance. “The police and ambulance ' came in about half an hour and while they were there, there was an urgent call for Constable J. Corbett, of Ruawai, to go to Mr Grbich’s house.” Constable Corbett drove the two miles of winding dirt road to the Tokatoka vineyards where Mr Grbich lived in a cottage with his wife, child and father-in-law. - He found the three bodies iff the kitchen.

- Mrs Grbich was lying on

the floor beside the table. The baby was still in its cot alongside the wall. Mr Pechar was lying in the doorway between his bedroom and the kitchen.

Police took possession of several knives, including a 12-inch carving knife bearing bloodstains. The house is set back from the roadway in the middle of

several acres of grapevines and orchard.

Chief Inspector K. Vincent, of Whangarei, was called to the house, with Detective-Ser-geant L. O’Shea, of Whangarei, who took over the inquiry, assisted by Dargaville and Ruawai police. Dr. M. B. Bottrill, the police pathologist, was called from Whangarei, and a fingerprint expert, Detective-Ser-geant F. Jensen, was called from Auckland. Mr Grbich married his wife two years ago. He had arrived in New Zealand from Jugoslavia two years earlier.