Grace found in garage grave

Press, 27 September 1983, Page 1

Grace found in garage grave

PA Auckland Detectives have found the decomposing body of a suspected bank robber, Gibson Grace, in a grave in the garage of a hill suburb home in Auckland. He had been shot.

The body was exhumed on Friday afternoon from its metre-deep grave, but the police kept the discovery quiet until Grace had been positively identified and his relatives informed.

Detective Inspector M. C. Charles said yesterday that there was “some difficulty experienced in identifying” Grace, and his identification had just been established. “This break-through in the inquiry does not mean that an arrest is imminent,” said Mr Charles.

A post-mortem examination oh Friday evening established that Grace, an Invercargill man, aged 30, had been shot twice in the head.

Forensic experts were examining the bullets retrieved to determine the calibre of the weapon used. The police believe that the firearm used was a revolver which had since been broken into parts and

discarded in various areas of Titirangi. Grace’s grave was discovered during a search of the house at Taraire Road, Titirangi, where he was last seen alive before Anzac week-end in late April while hiding from the police. Grace had been buried in a grave dug-in a strip of soil separating the concrete base of the garage from its rear wall.

The police have appealed for anyone finding anything that could be part of a

weapon to notify them immediately.

,A. warrant for Grace’s t arrest was issued in the District Court at Invercargill on May 18 in connection with the $106,000 armed robbery of the Lumsden bank in March.

Grace was seen in the Invercargill area a few days after the March 17 robbery, and the police later traced him to Auckland.

He was found to have spent the first two weeks or so of April in hiding in the Taraire Road house, which was rented from an absentee landlord.

After publicity about Grace’s suspected death, the Auckland police established that he had visited a block of flats in Auckland on several occasions.

The police believe that Grace’s death is linked to the aftermath of the armed robbery, an alleged plot involving firearms to free a person from an Invercargill youth institution, and the supply of cannabis oil and plant.

Richard Graham Morgan, aged 25, who faces charges of supplying cannabis and being an accessory after the Lumsden robbery, was one of the remand prisoners involved in the big escape from Mount Eden prison this month.

He was recaptured by the police at a Rotorua lakeside cottage on September 20, and admitted a charge of escaping from custody. He will appear for sentence tomorrow.

Grace’s father, Mr Jerry Grace, said yesterday, “Your arm aches when they’re small, carrying them — and when they grow up your heart aches.” The last six months have been a nightmare for Grace’s parents. But the uncertainty ended when

they were told by the police on Saturday that their son’s body had been found.

Mr Grace said that he was not relieved by the news — “No . . . just sadness.” Asked if he had known his son was dead, he said, “We just heard rumours, that is all. I tried not to take any notice of them.”

Mr Grace said that his wife was taking the news better than he was.

“She had the feeling that he was gone long ago. Mothers get that feeling more than the father.

“She told me many times that he was gone, but I never believed her. She even told the police that he was dead — she had a feeling, a mother’s feeling.

“I just said to her, ‘I hope you’re wrong’ — but she was right all along.” He was reported as saying recently that the drugs world in which his son had

become involved was the “pakeha world of greed.” “That’s it, that’s it — the dollar,” Mr Grace said. "That greed is a fact, a fact of life. This day and age is different from the time we were brought up. Everything is different. “Your best friend could be your worst enemy,” he said.

“That is the case with Gibson. He was too thick with a lot of them, these

criminals ... he got nothing out of it and got shot instead.”

Mr Grace said that his son had been home just after Christmas, but he had not seen him after the robbery.

“I have spoken to him, but what can you do? He would not take any notice of what you told him and called you a square, and all sorts.”