Revolver found in bush

Press, 30 September 1983, Page 5

Revolver found in bush

PA Auckland The police believe that a small revolver found yesterday in bush beside a Titirangi road could be the gun used to kill the suspected bank robber, Gibson Grace.

The weapon was “exactly the appearance and size” sought by the police, said Detective Inspector M. G. Charles, who heads the homicide inquiry, last evening. The gun did not have a chamber, and the police would continue looking for the part, he said.

On Wednesday the police found the extractor rod of a revolver in a creek behind a Taraire Road house, Titirangi, where Grace was last seen alive in late April. The rod is similar to the pin which allows a handgun’s chamber to revolve. A police team, assisted by soldiers with metal detectors, began an intensive search for the murder weapon after detectives received information in the last week. The unit has scoured Titirangi Beach, the bush-clad apprc,jches to the beach,

and bush behind the house in Taraire Road where Grace’s body was found buried a week ago. The revolver was found with the aid of a metal detector.

Mr Charles said that the revolver, with two bullets recovered from Grace’s body, would be sent to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research for analysis. Grace and another man are alleged to have robbed a bank at Lumsden, Southland, of $106,000 op March 17.