Two charged with taxi-driver’s murder after rifles found

Press, 16 August 1976, Page 1

Two charged with taxi-driver’s murder after rifles found

Two young men were yesterday arrested and charged with the murder of the Christchurch taxi-driver, Walter John Chisnail, who was found shot dead in his cab at Bromley early on Thursday morning.

The two men were arrested after a house in Aranui was raided by a large party of police at 11.30 p.m. on Saturday. Six young men and a young woman were taken to the Central Police • Station, and the 30strong murder squad worked throughout the night.

The two men, aged 18 and 19, were arrested and charged at 6.30 a.m. yesterday with Mr Chisnail’s murder. They will appear in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. Two hours and a half before the men were arrested, three rifles, including a 22

Browning semi-automatic, were recovered from a large vacant lot in Aranui, just down the road from the house the police raided. Mr Chisnall was found by a security guard about 4 a.m. on Thursday, slumped on the front seat of his car in Wickham Street, near Dyers Road, Bromley. He had been shot twice through the head at close range with a .22 rifle or pistol, and robbed of an unknown amount. He was aged 41, married, and lived at 216 Condell Avenue, Papanui. The police took possession of a number of articles, including clothing and burnt material, from the house and garden in Aranui. The Browning .22 rifle and ammunition for it are

believed to have been in a Jaguar car which was unlawfully taken from the Sumner area last Monday night. The other two rifles were stolen from a house in Meon Street, Aranui, when the building was burgled on Wednesday night. The burglary had not been reported to the police. The arrest of the two men concluded a wideranging investigation by a large squad of detectives and other experts. Extra detectives were needed to cope with the flood of calls from the public after the police asked for assistance. The officer in charge of the investigation (Detective Inspector N. J. Stokes) said yesterday that the police were "very grateful for the terrific amount of information from the public.”