Rock crashes boy

Press, 4 January 1980, Page 4

Rock crashes boy

PA Invercargill The body of a boy, aged 12, was found crushed beneath a big rock at the Ferry Wharf, Bluff, yesterday morning. The body was found at 9 a.m. by another boy aged 12, after a search involving the police and civilians. The dead bov was:. DARREN KAIN MILLER, a son of Mr and Mrs M. Miller, of the Bay View Hotel/ Bluff. Sergeant J. E. Dobbs, of Bluff, said the boy had gone fishing for conger eels on Wednesday evening.

It appeared that he had stepped onto an unstable rock on the bank of the wharf and had then fallen three or four metres. The rock then fell and crushed the boy, Sergeant Dobbs said. When the boy was found he was about 60cm above the low tide mark, face down with the rock lying across his back. His broken fishing rod was found with him. A crane was used to remove the rock, which was dumped into the sea, before the body was recovered.

Sergeant Dobbs said that although searchers had covered the area before the body was found, it would have been covered by water while the tide was in. A search for the boy was mounted at 11 p.m. on Wednesday. He had last been seen at 6.30 p.m. The police called in civilians and continued to search until about 2.30 p.m. The search was resumed at daylight: The boy’s parents were on holiday at the time of the accident and he had been staying with friends.